Black History

Robert Lee Elder First Black Golfer at The Masters Eventually Honoured 86 year old Lee Elder joined golf legends Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus and served as an Honorary Starter for the 2021 Masters Tournament. Robert Lee Elder is a retired American professional golfer. In 1975, he became the first African American to play in the Masters Tournament, where he missed the cut. Elder was invited to the tournament after […]

For Black History Month, Dance Informa reflects on black dancers who have significantly impacted the art form. In this article, we look at dancers who have already passed away, but left a living   Since the country’s bicentennial in 1976, Black History Month has been an official designation to honour and remember the significant and immeasurable impact African Americans have had on the nation. President Gerald Ford said the annual […]

Janet Kay was the first black female artist to have a reggae Number 1 in the UK   Janet Kay best known for her lovers rock songs of the late 1970s - "Silly Games" and a cover of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You". She has also had roles as a theatre and television actress.   Janet Kay, was born Janet Kay Bogle (the first of 6 children) in London to Jamaican […]

  Aldwyn “Kitchener” Roberts (Lord Kitchener) The Windrush experience began with Caribbeans being invited to Britain to help rebuild the country after World War 2. Receiving an invitation from the British Government on behalf of the King, many responded positively and journeyed over 4,000 miles to England’s ‘green and pleasant land’, where the streets were reputedly paved with gold.   Among the very first Caribbeans to arrive in Britain aboard […]

  Benin City, currently located in Southern Nigeria and 25 Miles (40km) north of the Benin River, was once the capital city of Igodomigodo, a kingdom ruled by the Ogiso dynasty.   Currently inhabited by the Edo people, a native ethnic group to Nigeria, Benin City was an unofficial wonder of the Ancient world for its exceptional craftsmanship with Ivory, Bronze and mud, its architectural wonders and man made . […]

  Lilian Bader Marrying in 1913, Marcus Bailey was a Barbadian born migrant who found himself in England, coupled with an English born, Irish raised woman* on the outbreak of war. The possibility of a happy family was postponed as war broke out in 1914 and Marcus would find himself serving in the Royal Navy as a Merchant Seaman until the war finished.   However, upon the wars end, the […]

Diane Abbott stands to give her maiden speech and make history as the first black woman ever elected into the House of Commons. It’s 1987. There are Tory men shouting and jeering. There are Labour MPs who regret her very presence in the House. This won’t be the last time in Diane’s career that she will make history whilst staring the forces of reaction in the face. As well as […]

Joe Clough was born in Jamaica in 1887 and orphaned at an early age. He became the first Black bus driver of a London motorbus. As a boy, he was employed by a Scottish doctor, Dr R C White, to look after his polo ponies. In 1905 while they were returning from a dance at the governor’s house in Kingston, they had a conversation that was to change Clough’s life. […]

The Taíno were an Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico. In the Greater Antilles, the northern Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas, they were known as the Lucayans and spoke the Taíno language, a derivative of the the Arawakan languages. The ancestors of the Taíno entered the Caribbean from South America. At the […]