During October the majority of our content on the Secret Library blog will focus on Black History Month, including links to relevant resources held at the Central Library and signposting to external organisations, most specifically relating to Leeds, its history and heritage. Each week will have a different theme – Research, Events, Social Justice, Windrush and the People of Leeds. We start this week with the first of those themes: Research. 

Much of the content will take the form of an archive of tweets on the same theme delivered during our Local and Family History department’s weekly Thursday thread on Twitter. Please follow the Leeds Libraries Twitter account to see those tweets in real-time and for more Black History Month content. By archiving the tweets, we hope to begin building a directory of useful resources for anyone beginning or continuing research into Black History in Leeds.

We know that our collections and our content output do not fully reflect the diversity of experience in our city; this is our starting point, but we know we have much further to go before we can begin to say that our local historical output is truly decolonised. We are always open to feedback, suggestions or contributions. Contact us on 0113 37 86982 or via localandfamilyhistory@leeds.gov.uk with any comments. 

Resources for further research

Leeds’ Black History
Permanent page bringing all our articles and other resources together in one place

Tweets from October 1

The image on this page is (c) Leeds Libraries, http://www.leodis.net and shows: 

December 1989. View of staff behind the counter of Dr. B’s Caribbean Restaurant, set up by Doctor Barnado’s, the young people’s charity. The restaurant was run with funding from Task Force, the Home Office and Leeds City Council. The 36 seater venue provided young people with City and Guilds, Caterbase Hotel and Catering Training Board qualifications over two years, and they were paid YTS training allowances. The restaurant proved very popular for its traditional dishes of Caribbean chicken, steamed fish with cornmeal, stuffed cheese aubergine, served with gunga peas and rice, leaks, plantain and roast potatoes. The successful scheme continues today with approximately 70% of the young people trained finding work in the catering industry. The large, red brick restaurant opens for lunch from Tuesday to Friday.

Find it on our Leodis archive here.