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This unique walking tour explores a forgotten yet integral part of Liverpool’s Black History. On the night of 6th June 1919 unprecedented racial violence erupted in the modern-day Chinatown area that would continue for days as gangs of white people, reportedly in the hundreds or thousands, hunted out “any black man they could find … severely beating and stabbing” them. Black homes and businesses were looted and wrecked as over 700 members of the black community were removed from their homes into the main Bridewell, for their own protection.

The post WW1 economic and social slump encouraged xenophobic feeling amongst the local population, perpetuated by the media. During 1919 there was an increase in racial violence in other port towns across mainland Britain including Glasgow, Cardiff and others that signified a global antipathy towards ethnic minorities.
 

Using official reports from the time we will trace the events of June 1919 visiting, the residences of those involved, as well as trailing the tragic last movements of Charles Wootton, a 24 year old Bermudan sailor and victim of the 1919 riots, who was chased by a mob into the Queens Dock where he was pelted with stones until he drowned. Not a single person was charged in connection with his death and the coroner’s verdict was ‘Found Drowned. On the tour we will visit the memorial plaque laid for Charles Wotten by historian David Olusoga as part of his Black & British BBC series.

We will then continue to trace the events of the week following Wootton’s death when large scale racial violence continued and spread into L8. The walking tour is just under 3 miles and accessible to all.

This Walk has been inspired by the hugely successful ‘Great War to Race Riots Archive’ project and devised by members  of the ‘Black Lives and Legacies 1919’ project, in association with Liverpool University.