Racism and racial justice: 40 years on from the Broadwater Farm riots

Join us to explore the legal, political and community-based racial justice work that emerged 40 years ago from the Broadwater Farm riots, examining methods of resistance that continue to address present-day questions of race, racism and social inequality.

On 6 October 1985, The Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham became the site of one of the most significant moments of civil disobedience in British history. Three men, known as the Tottenham 3, were wrongly convicted and later acquitted for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock after a long campaign for justice.

Four decades after the Broadwater Farm uprising, the events of October 1985 continue to resonate in the ongoing struggle against systemic racism. Marking the riots as a significant moment in Black British history, the event explores the Broadwater Farm Riots in the context of politics, community activism, law and criminology, the media and Black injustice.

Meet our speakers and chair

Sharon Grant has had a long career in service user advocacy in health and social care, and has chaired national & London bodies and local charities. The founding trustee of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, she is also secretary of the Bernie Grant Trust which holds his archive. At the time of the 1985 disturbances, she was a university lecturer and Haringey councillor, and later ran her husband’s Parliamentary office until his death in 2000. She was awarded an OBE in 2014 for service to the Arts and the Community, and an honorary doctorate by Middlesex University in 2023.

Clive Chijioke Nwonka (@CJNwonka) is Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society in the School of European Languages, Culture and Society within UCL’s Faculty of the Arts and Humanities, and a faculty associate of the UCL Sarah Parker Redmond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. He is a senior visiting fellow at the LSE III and Professor in Practice at the British Film Institute (BFI).

Roxana Willis is Assistant Professor in Law at LSE. Her research investigates the legal system through the prism of structural inequality, with a focus on class and race. In addition to conducting long-term ethnographic research, Roxana teaches criminal law and two optional courses on decolonization, abolitionism, and law.

Coretta Phillips is Professor of Criminology and Social Policy. She joined the Department of Social Policy in 2001, and her research interests lie in the field of race, ethnicity, crime, criminal justice and social policy. Since 2022, her major research efforts have focused on a multi-disciplinary ESRC project providing the first systematic, comprehensive and historically grounded account of the crime and criminal justice experiences of Gypsies and Travellers in England since the 1960s.

More about this event

This event celebrates Black History Month and is hosted in partnership with the London School of Economics Students' Union (@lsesu).

The event is supported by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (@AFSEE_LSE) and the International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities).

Join us on campus or register to watch the event online at LSE Live. LSE Live is the home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

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