Creating black places in imperial London: The League of Coloured Peoples and Aggrey House, 1931-1943

London Journal

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 225-246

  Whittall, Daniel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Aggrey House; Black British history; Harold moody; Imperial London; League of Coloured Peoples; West African students union

Indexed keywords

EID: 80055069657     PISSN: 03058034     EISSN: 17496322     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/174963211X13127325480316     Document Type: Note

References (280)

1. S. Pennybacker, From Scottsboro to Munich: Race and Political Culture in 1930s Britain (Woodstock, 2009).
2. M. Keith and M. Cross, Racism and the Postmodern City', in M. Cross and M. Keith (eds), Racism, the City and the State (1994), 1-30, on 3.
3. See also D. Sibley, 'The Racialisation of Space in British Cities', Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, 10 (1998), 119-27.
4. For an alternative engagement with the notion of contesting the racialization of space in Britain
5. see H. Ansari, '"Burying the Dead": Making Muslim Space in Britain', Historical Research, 80:210 (2007), 545-66.
6. For works that examine the black presence in British urban areas other than London
7. see, for example: N. Evans, Regulating the Reserve Army: Arabs, Blacks and the Local State in Cardiff, 191945, in K. Lunn (ed.), Race and Labour in Twentieth Century Britain (1985), 68-115
8. R. Lawless, From Ta'izz to Tyneside: An Arab Community in the North East of England during the First Half of the Twentieth Century (Exeter, 1995)
9. Liverpool, M. Sherwood, Pastor Daniels Ekarte and the African Churches Mission (1994).
10. For a study of Paris that focuses on the relationship between urban space, race and gender
11. see J. Boittin, Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-Imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris (2010).
12. 'Hotel Colour Bar?', Daily Mirror (23 Oct 1929), 2.
13. 'Law Report: A West African student and a London hotel', West Africa (3 Mar 1932), 209
14. 'The Latest London Colour Case', West Africa (5 Mar 1932).
15. G. Padmore, 'A Negro Looks at British Imperialism', Crisis (Dec 1938), 397.
16. This phrase has been deployed by Felix Driver and David Gilbert to consider how 'the form, use and representation of modern European cities have been shaped by the global histories of imperialism'.
17. See F. Driver and D. Gilbert (2003), 'Imperial Cities: Overlapping Territories, Intertwined Histories', in F. Driver and D. Gilbert, Imperial Cities (Manchester, 2003), 1-21, on 3.
18. J. Schneer, London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis (1999), 12.
19. Some of these were summarized in the Royal Empire Society's 1949 publication Commonwealth Handbook: A Guide to Departments, Organisations & Societies in the United Kingdom Concerned with the British Empire (1949).
20. Woollacott, To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity (Oxford, 2001), 105.
21. E. Riedi, 'Women, Gender and the Promotion of Empire: the Victoria League 1901-1914', Historical Journal, 45:3 (2002), 569-99
22. E. Riedi, Imperialist Women in Edwardian Britain: The Victoria League, 1899-1914 (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, 1997), esp. 112-32.
23. J. M. Lee, 'Commonwealth Students in the United Kingdom, 1940-1960: Student Welfare and World Status', Minerva, 44 (2006), 1-24.
24. By 1938, the Victoria League had established an 'African and West Indian Committee' to examine the possibility of offering assistance to students in Britain from these areas. On this matter, there was much discussion between the Victoria League and officials in the Colonial Office; see the correspondence in The National Archives (TNA), CO 323/1531/4.
25. By 1931, there were 1800 Indian students in Britain, making them the largest proportion of overseas students in the country.
26. See R. Visram, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes: The Story of Indians in Britain, 1700-1947 (1986), 178.
27. Visram, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes, 178.
28. W. H. Seed, 'The Need for Inter-racial Unity', African Times and Orient Review (Nov 1912)
29. cited in P. Rich, Prospero's Return? Historical Essays on Race, Culture and British Society (1994), 134.
30. African Times and Orient Review (21 Apr 1914),
31. cited in Rich, Prospero's Return?, 136.
32. For more on both of these projects, see Rich, Prospero's Return?, 134-40.
33. Rich, Prospero's Return?, 135-36
34. see also P. Rich, 'The Black Diaspora in Britain: Afro-Caribbean Students and the Struggle for a Political Identity, 1900-1950', Immigrants and Minorities, 6:2 (1987), 151-73.
35. R. Visram, 'Kamal A. Chunchie of the Coloured Men's Institute: The Man and the Legend', Immigrants and Minorities, 18:1 (1999), 29-48.
36. Chunchie was closely associated with the LCP. Throughout 1935-1936, he was listed as one of the LCP's vicepresidents, and in early 1937 he was listed as the organization's treasurer.
37. See the lists of officers printed at the front of the LCP's periodical The Keys in these years.
38. Doreen Massey has described this way of conceptualizing places as a 'politics of place beyond place'.
39. See D. Massey, World City (Cambridge, 2007), 188-209
40. see also D. Massey, For Space (2005), 130-62.
41. The framework is extended in D. Featherstone, Resistance, Space and Political Identities: The Making of Counter-Global Networks. (Chichester, 2008).
42. For an empirical exploration of the multiracial activist networks operating in 1930s Britain
43. see: N. Owen, The British Left and India: Metropolitan Anti-Imperialism, 1885-1947 (Oxford, 2007), esp. 197-270
44. H. Adi, West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism (1998), esp. 5288
45. Pennybacker, From Scottsboro to Munich.
46. 'League of Coloured Peoples', The Times (16 Mar 1931), 15. On Moody,
47. see D. Vaughan, Negro Victory: The Life Story of Dr Harold Moody (1950). On the LCP,
48. see D. Killingray, "To Do Something for the Race": Harold Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples', in B. Schwarz (ed.), West Indian Intellectuals in Britain (Manchester, 2003), 51-70.
49. W. James, 'A Race Outcast from an Outcast Class: Claude Mckay's Experience and Analysis of Britain', in B. Schwarz (ed.), West Indian Intellectuals in Britain (Manchester, 2003), 71-92.
50. C. McKay, A Long Way From Home (New York, 1969 [1937]), 76.
51. James, "A Race Outcast from an Outcast Class', 75.
52. S. Bourne, Mother Country: Britain's Black Community on the Home Front, 1939-45 (Stroud, 2010), 31
53. see also E. Marke, Old Man Trouble (1975).
54. P. Abrahams, The Coyaba Chronicles: Reflections on the Black Experience in the Twentieth Century (Kingston, Jamaica, 2000), 31-32.
55. Ibid., 36.
56. On both of these establishments
57. see T. Martin, Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist, Feminist and Mrs Marcus Garvey No. 1. Or, A Tale of Two Amies (Dover, 2007), 138-41.
58. See the pieces about the club in Melody Maker, which give interesting details about the opening of the Florence Mills Club
59. Which focus more on Sam Manning and Rudolph Dunbar, prominent black musicians involved with the venture, than on Amy Ashwood Garvey. 'Dunbar Acts as Host', Melody Maker (20 Jun 1936), 9
60. "Dunbar and Manning Start New London Club', Melody Maker (4 Jul 1936), 10.
61. See also J. Cowley, "Cultural "Fusions": Aspects of British West Indian music in the USA and Britain 1918-51', Popular Music, 5 (1985), 81-96, esp. 84-85.
62. R. Makonnen, Pan-Africanism From Within, ed. K. King (1973), 130.
63. J. Tyner, The Geography of Malcolm X: Black Radicalism and the Remaking of American Space (2009), 83.
64. For more detail on this argument
65. see Tyner, The Geography of Malcolm X, 61-84.
66. Editorial, The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 2.
67. On Marson, see D. Jarrett-Macauley, The Life of Una Marson, 1906-1965 (Manchester, 1998).
68. U. Marson, "Nigger', The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 9.
69. C. Bressey, 'It's Only Political Correctness: Race and Racism in British Kistory', in C. Dwyer and C. Bressey (eds), New Geographies of Race and Racism (2008), 31.
70. Editorial, The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 1.
71. For the theorization of the imperial social formation
72. see: M. Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century (Manchester, 1995), esp. 2-10
73. M. Sinha, Spectres of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire (Durham, 2006), esp. 16-26.
74. For other inquiries into the role of race and racism in the context of British imperialism
75. see: M. Lake and H. Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (Cambridge, 2008)
76. D. Killingray, '"A Good West Indian, a Good African, and, in Short, a Good Britisher": Black and British in a Colour-Conscious Empire, 1760-1950', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 36:3 (2008), 363-81
77. J. Flint, 'Scandal at the Bristol Hotel: Some Thoughts on Racial Discrimination in Britain and West Africa and its Relationship to the Planning of Decolonisation, 1939-47', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 12:1 (1983), 74-93.
78. S. Rush, 'Imperial Identity in Colonial Minds: Harold Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples, 1931-50', TwentiethCentury British History, 13:4 (2002), 356-83.
79. N. Sharpe, 'Cardiff's Coloured Population', The Keys, 1:3 (1934), 44-45, 61
80. P. C. Lewis and G. W. Brown, 'We Too Were in Cardiff', The Keys, 3:1 (1935), 4
81. 'Cardiff Report', The Keys, 3:2 (1935), 16-24
82. For the wider context of the ardiff unrest, see N. Evans (1985), 'Regulating the Reserve Army: Arabs, Blacks and the Local State in Cardiff, 1919-45', Immigrants and Minorities, 4:2 (1985), 68-115.
83. For examples of the LCP's work along these lines, see: 'The Second Mile-Stone', The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 15-17
84. "The Colour Bar in England', The Keys, 2:1 (1934), 17.
85. Current Comment, The Keys, 3:3 (1936), 30.
86. See, for example, G. Padmore, 'West Africans Watch Your Land', International African Opinion, 1:3 (1938), 11-16.
87. H. Moody, Youth and Race (1934), 5, 17.
88. H. Moody, Christianity and Race Relations (1943), 17.
89. On the importance of Christianity to Moody and the LCP
90. see Killingray, "To Do Something for the Race', 51-70, esp. 55-58.
91. H. Moody, The Colour Bar (1944), 5.
92. Rush, "Imperial Identity', 371.
93. D. Tucker, "Bermuda', The Keys, 1:3 (1934), 55.
94. See: "Colour Bar Memorandum', and 'Sierra Leone Memorandum', LCP News Notes, no. 3 (1939),
95. unnumbered pages; 'The Colour Bar: Reactions', LCP News Letter no. 7 (1940), 14
96. Moody to Malcolm MacDonald, Secretary of State for the Colonies (11 Nov 1939), TNA CO 323/1692/4.
97. H. Moody, 'West Indians Desire for Active Service', LCP News Letter, no. 10 (1940), 58.
98. Moody, The Colour Bar, 4.
99. Rush, "Imperial Identity', 361, 367-68.
100. In Cardiff, the LCP had actively worked with the resident community of sailors suffering racial discrimination in order to lobby on their behalf.
101. See, for example, Lewis and Brown, 'We Too Were in Cardiff', 4. In London, as well as attempting to find work placements for black nurses who had been refused jobs, the LCP also hosted an annual party for black children from all over the city.
102. See: 'The Second Mile-Stone', The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 15-17
103. The Colour Bar in England', The Keys, 2:1 (1934), 17.
104. Conference Report, The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 3-8.
105. For example, in 1940 an LCP member stated that the problem of the colour bar 'comes down to one of education' for all races, and proceeded to set out possible solutions based on this.
106. See "A Short Lecture on the Colour Bar, Delivered at Our Ninth Annual General Meeting by Dr H. J. A. Dingwall', LCP News Letter, no. 8 (1940), 24-30.
107. Moody, Youth and Race, 18-19.
108. Ibid., 20.
109. Ibid., 19
110. Moody, The Colour Bar, 8.
111. 'Education for Better Understanding', The Keys, 2:3 (1935), 57-64.
112. 'Standards for Blacks', LCP News Notes, no. 3 (1939), 3.
113. 'African Prince Awarded PhD (Oxon)', LCP News Letter, no. 8 (1940)
114. 'Dr W. Arthur Lewis', LCP News Letter, no. 13 (1940), 3-4
115. Moody, Youth and Race, 7-12.
116. For an examination of the issue of education for colonial subjects in Britain that touches on the period under discussion here
117. see A. J. Stockwell, 'Leaders, Dissidents and the Disappointed: Colonial Students in Britain as Empire Ended', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 36:3 (2008), 487-507.
118. The complexities of racial uplift ideology in the African-American context are analysed in detail in K. Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1996).
119. Clear evidence on the links between working-class black Londoners and the LCP is difficult to trace. Certainly, the majority of the LCP's leading figures were intellectuals in one way or another.
120. Adi, West Africans in Britain, 57.
121. P. Rich, Race and Empire in British Politics (Cambridge, 1990), 155.
122. Killingray, "To Do Something for the Race', 52.
123. Moody to Sir Herbert Samuel, Secretary of State for the Home Department (20 Feb 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
124. Moody saw to it that this correspondence was publicized. See his letter entitled 'League of Coloured Peoples' in West Africa (26 Mar 1932), 274-277.
125. Moody to Sir Herbert Samuel, Secretary of State for the Home Department (20 Feb 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
126. E. N. Cooper to Moody (29 Feb 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
127. All quotes from Moody to Cunliffe-Lister (31 Mar 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
128. Memo by J. A. Smith of the Colonial Office (4 Apr 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
129. For similar responses, see also memo by Mr Bigg of the Colonial Office (13 Mar 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
130. See: memo by J. A. Smith of the Colonial Office (4 Apr 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6
131. memo by Sir C. Bottomley of the Colonial Office (21 Apr 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
132. Vischer was never a permanent Colonial Office official, but served on a number of advisory committees for them. For more on Vischer, including his relationship with the WASU
133. see S. Parkinson, 'Sir Hanns Vischer, Champion of African Cultures: A Portrait of an Advisor on Colonial Education', in C. Whitehead (ed.), Colonial Educators: The British Indian and Colonial Education Service, 1858-1983 (2003), 106-48.
134. Memo by Vischer (19 Apr 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
135. On African students and the circulation of people and ideas around the Atlantic world
136. see P. Zachernuk, Colonial Subjects: An African Intelligentsia and Atlantic Ideas (Charlottesville, V.A., 2000), esp. 80-124 on the interwar period.
137. Memo by Vernon (26 Apr 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
138. See 'Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister on Africa. Secretary of State's Justifications of British Rule. Speech at African Society Dinner', East Africa (9 Jun 1932), 998.
139. The meeting was reported in a memo by Vischer (7 May 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
140. At Moody's request, Cunliffe-Lister also wrote to Moody, outlining the matters that they had discussed; see Cunliffe-Lister to Moody (13 May 1932), TNA, CO 323/1199/6.
141. Memo by Mr Bigg (22 Feb 1933); African Club in London, poster. Both in TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
142. Memo by Mr Bigg (22 Feb 1933), TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
143. Moody makes the claim that he announced this plan at a public meeting in November 1931 in a letter to the Colonial Office.
144. See Moody to Mr M. Lee (15 Nov 1933), TNA, CO 323/1244/13
145. It was also reported at the LCP 1st annual meeting: see "The League of Coloured Peoples: First Annual Meeting - Good Progress', West Africa (19 Mar 1932), 270.
146. The need for unity was picked up in the very first editorial of The Keys, and was returned to regularly.
147. See Editorial, The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 2.
148. 'Address by Dr H. Moody: At the Opening of an Indian Students' Hostel by Baptists', Daily Gleaner (13 Sep 1923), 10.
149. The above figures and broader discussion are primarily drawn from a memo by Bigg (n.d.), entitled Note: TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
150. Useful information on Aggrey House's early financial difficulties is also contained in memos by Mr Creasy, Mr Bigg, and Mr Acheron, all of the Colonial Office (24 Feb 1933)
151. a memo by J. E. W. Flood (24 Feb 1933)
152. a memo by Mr Bigg (1 Mar 1933)
153. all in TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
154. Moody to E. Denham, Governor of British Guiana (23 Dec 1932), TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
155. On Moody's correspondence with Governor Sir Ransford Slater of Jamaica, see letters by Slater to Beckett (16 Jan 1933) and Beckett to Slater (18 Feb 1933), both in TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
156. Vischer to Nunn (12 Apr 1933), TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
157. See Adi, West Africans in Britain, 55-58.
158. For an early statement by the WASU on its hostel plans
159. see Solanke, 'An Appeal - Need for a Central Home in London for African Students', Wasu: The Journal of the West African Students' Union of Great Britain (Aug 1928), 32-33.
160. Ras Makonnen claims that it was Marcus Garvey who bought Aggrey House for the WASU, and that this 'put a number of the more conservative members [of WASU] in a difficult position; they were not sure whether this rabble-rouser Garvey was an even more dangerous person to associate with than the Colonial Office'.
161. See Makonnen, Pan-Africanism From Within, 127-28.
162. 'WASU Hostel', Wasu: The Journal of the West African Students' Union of Great Britain (Jan 1933), 4-6, on 5.
163. The LCP advertised the opening of the hostel in its journal.
164. See "The Keys Disclose', The Keys, 1:1 (1933), 10.
165. Makonnen, Pan-Africanism From Within, 127.
166. N. Azikiwe, My Odyssey: An Autobiography (1970), 197.
167. Memo by Vischer (1 Dec 1933), TNA, CO 323/1243/6.
168. Moody to Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister (13 Oct 1933), TNA, CO 323/1244/13.
169. Moody to Mr Lee (2 Nov 1933), TNA CO 323/1244/13.
170. Memos by Bigg (7 Nov 1933; 17 Nov 1933), TNA, CO 323/1244/13.
171. Memo by Vischer (8 Nov 1933), TNA, CO 323/1244/13.
172. Moody to Lee (15 Nov 1933), TNA, CO 323/1244/13.
173. A recent study of Moody has suggested that he lost interest in Aggrey House once it became apparent that the LCP would not be allowed to control it. However, my own research shows this to be untrue.
174. See N. Brown, More Than 'Mere Pin Pricks': Dr Harold A. Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples' Revolutionary Challenge to the British Colour Bar, 1931-48 (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Mississippi, 2008).
175. See A Memorandum on "Aggrey House" submitted by Sir Percy Nunn's Committee (Apr 1933), TNA, CO 323/1243/5.
176. Anonymous memo, no date, about Aggrey House; and memo by Vischer (25 Jan 1935), both in TNA, CO 323/1342/11.
177. Editorial, The Keys, 1:3 (1934), 41.
178. "The League of Coloured Peoples', West Africa (29 Apr 1933), 414.
179. However, this was never mentioned in the LCP's own published material.
180. A broad overview of this debate can be gleaned from the following articles in West Africa: "Aggrey House' (20 Jan 1934), 48-49
181. 'The New Hostel: Mysteries Lurking behind Aggrey House - O! Africans, "Beware of the Greeks Even When They Offer Gifts"' (3 Feb 1934), 109-10
182. "Mysteries Lurking Behind Aggrey House' (17 Feb 1934), 168
183. "Aggrey House: Words and Deeds' (31 Mar 1934), 338-39.
184. Kingsley Martin, the Earl of Listowel, and the Countess of Warwick are listed as vice-presidents on the AHDC's headed note paper.
185. See Odunsi to Cunliffe-Lister (2 May 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
186. Bridgeman appears as a signatory on a document issued by the AHDC, which was subsequently passed to the Colonial Office by an informant.
187. See documents enclosed with the letter by A. E. Aro to Vischer (1 May 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
188. For more on the League Against Imperialism
189. see S. Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics: The Left and the End of Empire, 1918-1964 (Oxford, 1993), 71-77.
190. Odunsi to Cunliffe-Lister (2 May 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
191. A meeting of the AHDC on 21 March was reported in "African Students', Free Speech and Assembly Bulletin, no. 4 (1934), 5-6.
192. For an account of an April meeting of the AHDC
193. see Extract from The New Statesman and Nation dated 28th April, 1934, TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
194. C. L. R. James, Notes on the Life of George Padmore, microfilm copy of draft manuscript, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, Sc Micro R-3549 (1972), 33-34.
195. That James proposed this boycott is confirmed in the press reports of the time.
196. See West Africa (5 May 1934), 473.
197. See the letter from Mr Don, chaplain at Lambeth Palace, to Vischer (16 Mar 1934)
198. in which Don notes that Solanke has written to the archbishop repeatedly, appealing for his blessing for their hostel and denouncing Aggrey House; and Vischer's reply to Don (19 Mar 1934), in which he explains his support for Aggrey House and suggests that Solanke is acting under 'the influence of some people in this country who wish to make discontent and misunderstanding serve their own purposes' - presumably meaning the League Against Imperialism. Both in TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
199. "Uncle Tom" Moody', Negro Worker (Aug-Sep 1933), 17. Padmore was in close contact with the WASU at this point
200. see Adi, West Africans in Britain, 77.
201. For a discussion of the Comintern and black activism that illustrates the context out of which the Negro Worker emerged, and its subsequent significance
202. see H. Adi, 'The Negro Question: The Communist International and Black Liberation in the Inter-war Years', in M. West, W. Martin, and F. C. Wilkins (eds), From Toussaint to Tupac: The Black International Since the Age of Revolution (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2009), 155-75.
203. WASU, The Truth About Aggrey House: An Exposure of the Government Plan for the Control of African Students in Great Britain (1934), 1.
204. Ibid., 2.
205. Ibid., 5.
206. Ibid., 6-7.
207. On this and the WASU's other internal difficulties, see Adi, West Africans in Britain, 58-62.
208. Memo by Vischer (6 Mar 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
209. Memo by Vischer (14 Mar 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
210. Memo by Bigg (12 Feb 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
211. Memo by Bigg (4 May 1934), TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
212. 'Third Annual General Meeting', The Keys, 1:4 (1934), 70.
213. All quotes from Moody, 'Statement Re. Aggrey House', The Keys, 1:4 (1934).
214. It should be noted that the division between the two organizations did not solely come down to Aggrey House. During discussion about furthering the links between the two organizations, several differences emerged, including the fact that the WASU did not want the LCP to open branches in West Africa, but would not allow the LCP to make the same restriction on WASU branches in the West Indies. However, the WASU did insist that the LCP adopt its position of boycotting Aggrey House, and the LCP's unwillingness to do so appears to have been the major difference between the two bodies.
215. See The LCP and WASU', The Keys, 2:1 (1934), 16.
216. Notes on Two Meetings Held at the WASU Hostel, London, between Representatives of the West African Students Union and the Aggrey House Organising Committee to Discuss Differences of Opinion Respecting Aggrey House and its Promotion, TNA, CO 323/1281/2.
217. Memo by Vischer (4 Feb 1935), TNA, CO 323/1342/11.
218. The WASU officially confirmed the end of its opposition to Aggrey House in writing in January 1935
219. see Solanke to Vischer (30 Jan 1935), TNA, CO 323/1342/11.
220. It also reinforced this position at a public meeting in January 1936
221. see Vischer to Harris (15 Jan 1936), TNA, CO 847/5/11.
222. The figures here are taken from 'Analysis of Membership of Aggrey House', enclosed in a letter from Cummings to the Colonial Office (31 Aug 1937), TNA, CO 323/1509/17.
223. On Cummings, see Bourne, Mother Country, 25-27.
224. These details come from Draft Report for Annual General Meeting - Aggrey House Club (12 Nov 1936), TNA, CO 323/1398/8.
225. The annual accounts for Aggrey House carried a section in expenses entitled 'stationery, papers and periodicals', indicating that not all materials held in the library were donated.
226. See, for example, African Club - Aggrey House: Report and Accounts for the Period 1st December 1930 to 31st December 1934TNA, CO 323/1342/11.
227. On the important place of Opportunity in the Harlem Renaissance and broader African-American culture
228. see T. Prendergast, Creating the Modern Man: American Magazines and Consumer Culture, 1900-1950 (2000), 187-205.
229. See Draft Report for Annual General Meeting - Aggrey House Club, (12 Nov 1936), TNA, CO 323/1398/8.
230. Speakers listed here as having spoken at Aggrey House include Lady Simon, Mrs Adelaide Casely-Hayford, the Barbadian Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke, and several others. Moody is listed as having given a 'luncheon address' to the club in June 1936.
231. A musical performance is also listed as having been given by John Payne, the AfricanAmerican musician resident in London at this point.
232. Cummings, 'Notes on Aggrey House', The Keys, 3:4 (1936), 58.
233. Padmore was due to speak on 22 October 1937.
234. See: 'Forthcoming Events', The Keys, 5:1 (1937), 22
235. 'Forthcoming Events', The Keys, 5:2 (1937), 36.
236. Doubt over whether the talk took place arises because it was never mentioned further in The Keys, unlike most other events, and also because C. L. R. James claimed that Padmore never set foot inside Aggrey House.
237. See James, Notes on the Life of George Padmore, 34.
238. 'The President's Message', The Keys, 2:2 (1935), 22.
239. Memo by Vischer (9 Dec 1935), TNA, CO 323/1342/12.
240. Memo by Vischer entitled Control of Africans (15 Dec 1935), TNA, CO 323/1342/12.
241. Cummings to Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (24 Jul 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
242. To the Management Committee and Members of Aggrey House Club: Treasurer's Report (11 Nov 1936), TNA, CO 323/1398/8.
243. "Moral Issue Closes Club", Evening Standard (4 May 1940).
244. L. Keith, Note of an Interview with Mr Fletcher (27 Apr 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
245. Originally, the word 'woman' had been used, only to be scored out and replaced by 'prostitute'. This uncertainty over the nature of the woman's relationship with Wilkins perhaps reflects contemporary beliefs about women who spent the night with black men. On interracial sex as a boundary of 'respectability' in twentieth-century Britain
246. see L. Bland, "White Women and Men of Colour: Miscegenation Fears in Britain after the Great War', Gender and History, 17:1 (2005), 29-61.
247. Colonial Office to Mr Hodson, Ministry of Information (14 May 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
248. L. Keith, Note on Aggrey House (26 Jun 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
249. On Buckle, see H. Adi, 'Forgotten Comrade? Desmond Buckle: An African Communist in Britain', Science and Society, 70:1 (2006), 22-45.
250. On Blackman, see D. Killingray, 'Peter Blackman', in D. Dabydeen, J. Gilmore and C. Jones (eds), The Oxford Companion to Black British History (Oxford, 2007), 58.
251. Colonial Office to Mr Hodson, Ministry of Information (14 May 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
252. Colonial Office to Colonial Governors (23 May 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
253. J. L. Keith, Minute of an Interview with Dr Moody (30 Apr 1940), TNA, UK TNA CO 859/21/1.
254. H. A. Moody, Aggrey House: Memorandum by Harold A. Moody for Consideration at Trustees' Meeting (3 May 1940), 1, TNA, CO 859/21/1.
255. Ibid., 3.
256. As these quotations show, Moody clearly situated his Christian faith as central to his proposals for resolving the Aggrey House dispute. For Moody's wider reflections on Christianity and race
257. see, for example: H. Moody, "Adventure', Christian Endeavour Times (27 Jun 1935), 43
258. Moody, Christianity and Race Relations.
259. Moody, Aggrey House, 2.
260. The Negro Welfare Association was associated with the League Against Imperialism.
261. See H. Adi, 'Negro Welfare Association', in Dabydeen, Gilmore and Jones, The Oxford Companion to Black British History, 340-41.
262. For a study of the broader communist engagement with black Britain of which the Negro Welfare Association was a part
263. see H. Adi, 'The Comintern and Black Workers in Britain and France, 1919-37', in C. Bressey and H. Adi (eds), Belonging in Europe: The African Diaspora at Work (Abingdon, 2011), 120-41.
264. Moody, Aggrey House, 2-3.
265. Cummings to Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (24 Jul 1940)
266. memo by Keith (16 Oct 1940). Both in TNA, CO 859/21/1.
267. J. L. Keith, Record of an Interview with Maj. Vischer on 21/5/40 (21 May 1940), TNA, CO 859/21/1.
268. Memo by Keith (25 Jan 1943), TNA, CO 876/20/.
269. There is much correspondence on this matter. See the voluminous memoranda and letters in TNA, CO 876/20, and TNA, CO 876/62.
270. 'Tenth "Colonial Centre" opened by the Duchess of Gloucester', LCP News Letter, no. 43 (1943), 7.
271. On the workings of this committee, Moody's role within it, and some of the many hostels that it opened for colonial peoples in Britain, see the minutes of committee meetings and correspondence held in TNA, CO 876/17.
272. See also Cole to Moody (25 Sep 1942)
273. Moody to Cole (29 Sep 1942)
274. School of Oriental and African Studies Archives, Robert Wellesley Cole Papers, PP MS 35, Box 20, File 151.
275. For an account of some of these hostels
276. see M. Sherwood, Many Struggles: West Indian Workers and Service Personnel in Britain (1939-45) (1985), 63-66.
277. For example: Adi, West Africans in Britain, 57
278. Rich, Race and Empire in British Politics, 155.
279. This approach has recently been marshalled at greater length than possible here by Jennifer Boittin in her work on Paris.
280. See Boittin, Colonial Metropolis.