Post-War, 1948 - 1969

1948 British Nationality Act passed giving British subjects right to enter and settle in the United Kingdom.

June 1948 Britain's first group of post-war Caribbean immigrants arrived in London on the SS Empire Windrush.

1949 Black men's hostel in Deptford attacked by mob of white men.

1950 Reginald Sorenson, MP, put forward Private Member's Bill to outlaw race discrimination in public places. The bill did not pass.

1952 US Congress placed heavy restrictions on Caribbean immigration in the McCarren-Walter Act.

1956 Fenner Brockway,MP, put forward Private Member's Bill to outlaw race discrimination in public places. The bill did not pass. Immigration from the Caribbean peaked in 1956 at 30,000.

1958 Riots orchestrated by white extremists hit Notting Hill and Nottingham. Notting Hill Carnival launched by Trinidadian New Yorker Claudia Jones and others.

1959 Antiguan immigrant Kelso Cochrane killed by six white youths.

1962 Immigration from the New Commonwealth restricted by the Commonwealth Immigrants Act. Right of entry limited to those born in UK or Republic of Ireland and to those holding a British passport issued by the British government. Holders of British passports issued by the government of a British colony were required to hold an employment voucher before entry could be granted. Wives and children of immigrants were allowed entry, but husbands of female immigrants were not.

1964 Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths won campaigned and won seat in Smethwick on on anti-immigration platform. American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Britain. Campaign against Racial Discrimination established.

1965 The UK's first Race Relations Act passed.

July 1965 Recommendation from the Department of Education that schools keep percentage of immigrant children in the student body below 30%.

February 1968 The Commonwealth Immigrants Act rushed through Parliament. The Act extended the voucher system to include Commonwealth citizens who have a British passport issued by the British government, excepting only in cases where an individual had a parent or grandparent born in Britain. Voucher holders could bring children to the UK only if they had 'sole responsibility' for them.

April 1968 In a speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Enoch Powell proclaimed: 'I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood".'

October 1968 The UK's second Race Relations Act passed.

1969 The Immigration Appeals Act required all migrants to obtain an entry certificate before departure from country of origin. Sir Nicholas Learie Constantine accepted seat in the House of Lords to become first person of African descent to gain life peerage.