The Murder of Kelso Cochrane

The racism in London in May 1959 led to the wilful and unprovoked murder of Kelso Cochrane. 

Before his death one could describe what was going on as racial attacks against innocent people but the death of Kelso Cochrane resulted in a full-blown riot.  Fearing for their lives, black people were not prepared to wait to be killed, now they would defend themselves at all costs.  The unrest the Police had feared now became a reality.  The state of affairs that existed at that time could have developed into outright racial conflict, if it had not been for the delicate way it was handled by the Police.  For the first time whether one likes it or not black people had to thank the Police for the way in which they handled the situation, they prevented a bloodbath.

The Funeral of Kelso Cochrane brought out the solidarity of black people, it brought home to them their vulnerability that they could be killed by hate mobs at any given time. 

On the day of the Funeral, hundreds of people gathered in the streets of Ladbroke Grove, the area in which the Notting Hill Carnival is held today.  On this occasion it was not a Carnival atmosphere, it was an atmosphere of gloom and despondency.  

As I marched in silence behind the hearse to Kensal Rise cemetery, I thought of the late Marcus Garvey and Mary Seacole whose graves also lay there, and wondered how many more black people would follow them, their lives having been cut short because of the fear and hatred that existed at that time. 

This feeling of despondency was not only applicable to Ladbroke Grove, I can assure you in every town and city of England there were groups of black people who stood in silence and fear wondering who would be next.

Whilst black people were living in fear in Britain, many white people were living in the Caribbean, these white people were not at the bottom of the barrel as we were in Britain, to the contrary, they were the creme de la creme of the British administration.  The dangers for these people were great, especially in Jamaica, as threats were made against their lives, if Jamaicans were attacked in England, there would be repercussions in Jamaica for those whites who were living there. 

Even Norman Manley the Prime Minister of Jamaica was worried about the consequences when he came over to London for a meeting in the 1950’s, with the then Colonial Secretary, he expressed concern for the whites living in Jamaica if black people in England were attacked and killed by mobs.  This led to drastic action by the Government and the police so the attacks ceased, but only for a while.

As the years passed, the strength and the solidarity of various African countries was expressed in their demands for independence from colonial rule, whether it was from the French in North Africa, the Portuguese in Mozambique, the Belgians in the Belgian Congo the Boers in South Africa or the British in much of the rest of Africa.