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A White Racist Gang Killing, Followed By Police Incompetence 1958

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On The Night of May 16 1958, 36 Year Old Antiguan Carpenter, Kelsco Cochrane Took Himself From Home To A Local Notting Hill Area Hospital Following A Thumb Injury Which Rendered Him Unable To Sleep. On His Way Home, After Being Treated, He Was Tragically, Savegley, Stabbed To Death By A Gang of White Racists. Two of The Suspected Killers Were Widely Known In The Local Community. Yet Were Arrested And Released After Being Placed In Police Cells Next To Each Other And Given The Opportunity To Iron Out Their Stories.

Nobody Was Ever Charged. The Police Also Later Allowed Forensic Evidence To Be Destroyed.

This Is Significant Because It Was Forensic Analysis That Later Convicted Two of The Murderers of Stephen Lawrence Years Later.

A Report Into Race Relations In Britain Was Commissioned After The Cochrane Murder. It Was Led By Amy Garvey (Ex Wife of Marcus Garvey, Then Living In Britan At The Time). However That Did Not Prevent The Infamous 1958 Race Riots That Followed Just Three Months Later.

Diabolically The Police Denied Kelso’s Killing And The August Riots Were Race Related.

On August 29 1958 Swedish Woman Majbritt Morrison And Her Jamaican Husband Were Arguing In Public At Latimar Road Tube Sation. Fights Between Black And White Groups Broke Out. The Following Day, August Majbritt Was Alone And Attacked In The Street. That Same Night, August 30th 1958, Homes of Local West Indians Were Attacked. The Unrest Continued For A Week. It Was Finally Quelled A Week Later By September 6th 1958.

The Case Was A Turning Point. Over A Thousand People Attended Kelso’s Funeral And The Neighbourhood Demanded An End To The Racist Violence.

Much of This White Violence Against The Windrush Generation Was Stirred Up By Racist Politician Oswald Mosely, His Gang of Street Thugs And His Supporters, And Some (Not All) British Elvis And Rock n Roll Fans Known As Teddy Boys.

The Claudia Jones Initiative * Months Earlier Seems To Have Had An Impact.

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@kaynekawasaki warinnababylon marshallstreetsmethwick @blackhistoryandme

A.C.E [The African Caribbean Exchange] Supported By Boxer Anthony Joshua

In 2009 A Blue Plaque Was Erected By The Nubian Jak Community Trust To Commemorate The 50 Year Anniversary of The Kelso Killing.

Notably It Was Majority White Attackers That Were Imprisoned. Judge Justice Salmon Wanted To Send A Detterant – Despite Police Efforts Even Back Then To Try And Protect Them By Denying A Racial Element – Which Is What They Officially Reported To Home Secretary Raab Butler At The Time (As Revealed In Officially Released Archive Papers In 2002).

Claudia Jones, Originally From Trinidad, Then Emigrated To New York, Now Living In Britain Having Been Deported For Her Political Views, Was A Newspaper Woman, Who Knew The Importance And Power of Media And PR, So She Started The ŴIG, A Brixton Barber Shop In May 1958.

The Notting Hill Riots In The Royal Borough of Kensington And Chelsea, As Well As The Associate Nottingham Riots In Robin Hood Chase, Began Just Four Months Later In August 1958.

In New Orleans Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) Is Celebrated From The 12th Night of Christmas (Ephithany On January 6th) To Shrove Tuesday (The Day Before Lent) So As A Former American She Conceived The Idea of Having A Mardi Gras Style Celebration “To Wash The Taste of Notting Hill And Nottingham” Out of Our Mouths.

She Arranged A of Celebration Caribbean Culture To Encourage Community Connections And Engagement In Response To The Unrest. As It Was British Winter Time It Was Held Indoors At St. Pancras Town Hall. Cleo Laine Was A Headline Guest And Eric Holder, One of The Organisers Responsible For The Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra Plaing At The 1951 Festival of Britain, Was Director. The Boscoe Holder Dance Troupe Also Performed, As Did Jazz Guitarist Fitzroy Coleman. The BBC Televised It Nationally.

Five More Such Annual Events Followed, Including At Porchester Hall And The Lyceum Ballroom. 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 And 1964. Jones Died Christmas Eve 1964.

A Blue Plaque By The English Heritage Scheme Was Erected At Her Lambeth Home In Vauxhall In January 2023. 59 Years After Her First Caribbean Mardi Gras Style Festival.

Russell Henderson’s Steel Band Had Played At The Indoor Claudia Jones Events And Went On To Play At The First Outdoor Carnival In 1966. The Carnival Has Been Outdoors Ever Since.

As Part of Last Year’s Carnival Celebrations A Billboard Was Erected In The Area To Highlight The History of The Case As Initiated By Kayne Kawasaki And Jahmene Founders of Black History And Me. Notting Hill Carnival Executive Hudson Also Launch An Associate Respect Campaign Outlining The Carnivals Core Values.

Notting Hill Carnival Is Now Europe’s Largest Street Carnival, Generates Billions For The British Economy Every Year, And Has Triumphed Against Racial Hatred For Six Decades And Then Some.

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A White Racist Gang Killing, Followed By Police Incompetence 1993

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stephenlawrenceday.org @blackhistoryandme

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