Manchester Negro Association

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): 0839

Title: Manchester Negro Association

Date(s): 1944 - 1953

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 2 files

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Negro Association, Manchester

Administrative/Biographical history: The 'Negro Association', Manchester was founded in 1943 by Dr Peter Milliard (1882 - c.1953), a Manchester-based GP originally from British Guiana (Guyana) who settled in Manchester in the early 1930s. The Association served both political and social functions for Manchester's Black communities, whose members included African students, Black servicemen stationed in Britain who served with the British armed forces and merchant marine during the Second World War and members of Manchester's long-established Black community who were descendants of the West African seamen that had been settling in the city since the turn of the 20th century.
The Association held monthly meetings at which issues related to the end of colonial rule in Africa and the Caribbean were discussed. Many of the members were involved in Pan-Africanist politics and helped to establish the UK Pan-African Federation (PAF) in Manchester in 1944. The Federation was a 'Pan-African united front movement' which helped organise and host the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945.

Archival history: Donated to the Labour History Archive in 1995 after a National Museum of Labour History exhibition commemorating the 5th Pan African Congress, entitled 'Africa in Manchester: the Pan African Congress in Manchester, 1945'.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: This collection comprises one membership ledger and 11 items of correspondence pertaining to the 'Negro Association, Manchester'. The membership ledger contains 77 entries for members of the Association between 1944 and 1953. The first entry in the initial membership list is for Dr Peter McD. Milliard (President of the 'Negro Association'), dated 1st April 1944. In general entries are listed by first initial and surname without titles. Where titles are displayed these denote doctors and female members of the Association. Out of 77 entries, 7 are female, including an entry for the president and founder of the 'Liberia Charity Society Inc.', listed as a 'visitor'.
Representatives from other associations/societies, such as the 'West India Committee, Norfolk St. London' and the 'P.A.I., Oxford Road, Manchester' are also listed and several entries list the numbers of members who were serving in the armed forces at that time. There is an entry for Jomo Kenyatta (1891-1978) - president of the Kenya African National Union (1960), Prime Minister at Kenyan independence in 1963 and president of the newly formed republic in 1964 - who is listed as a member of the Association and a Manchester resident during 1945.

The addresses of members of the association tend to be concentrated in the following districts/wards of Manchester: Whalley Range, Moss Side, Greenheys, West Didsbury and Chorlton-on-Medlock.
In addition to members' names and addresses there are 29 pages listing subscription details, meeting attendance information, quarterly finance statements and comments on the number of active members on roll (which tended to average at 30 active members throughout the 1940s).

The file entitled 'Manchester Negro Association - Letters and Minutes 1951' contains 11 documents (dated 1.10.1950 - 25.1.1952) comprising 5 letters, 3 sheets of statistics, 2 manuscripts listing members' names and addresses, 1 set of minutes and 1 hand-written policy document detailing the constitution of the 'Negro Association' Manchester.
Most of the letters deal with membership subscription issues, written by members of the Association to the treasurer. One of the letters, from the Secretary of the African Students' Association (c/o University Union, Manchester 15) to the secretary of the Negro Association, is dated 12th July 1951 and contains details of a request to arrange a joint meeting of members of the respective associations. The only typed document in the file is a set of minutes recording the joint meeting of the African Students' Association, Africa League and the Negro Association held in Manchester on 9th September 1951. The meeting discusses strategies for counteracting the stereotyped portrayal of all members of the Black community in Manchester as users of 'dope' by the local press.
The last item is a 4-page document entitled 'Suggested Revised Constitution of the Negro Association, Manchester', containing sections on: (1) The Name of the Association; (3) Activities; (4) Membership; (5) Meetings; (6) Subscriptions; (7) Officers. Under 'aims' the document states that the Association '...represents the progressive opinion among African people and people of African descent and fosters the realisation of their fundamental unity'.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement:

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Access by appointment. Opening hours for the Labour History Archive: Monday - Friday, 10.00am-5.00pm. Address: 103 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6DD. Telephone: 0161 228 7212. E-mail: LHASC@fs1.li.man.ac.uk.

Conditions governing reproduction: Property of the 'Negro Association, Manchester'

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics: Bound ledger, manuscripts and printed documents.

Finding aids: None

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 26 March 2001

Interest: Black

Specific group: African Caribbean peoples; West African peoples

Subjects

Pan-Africanism

Caribbean diaspora

African diaspora

Politics

Liberation movements

Interethnic relations

Ethnic groups

Decolonization

Colonial countries

Personal/Corporate names

Pan African Congress

Pan African Federation

Negro Association, Manchester

Manchester Negro Association

Milliard, Peter, 1882-c.1953

Kenyatta, Jomo, 1891-1978

Places

Manchester, United Kingdom