In Praise of Libraries #2

Posted by Barbara on July 21, 2025 in Black lives matter, Blog, Living today, society | 2 comments

Some time ago, I wrote about how wonderful it is to have an amazing resource, free at the point of delivery, which does not let me down, if requiring at times patience on my part.  No, on this occasion I am not referring to the NHS, but am returning to a theme I have already touched on: the joy of my local library in SW London.

Libraries continue to be under threat due to cost cutting, but now face additional challenges in some parts of the world where freedom of information and expression is severely curtailed.  I remain a regular borrower, and last week was returning a book and collecting another which I had reserved, when I glanced up and saw a series of photos of people of Afro-Caribbean origin above the top shelf of books. 

I asked one of the friendly librarians who work there and they explained this was part of an exhibition about people who had moved to the UK in the 1950s and 60s and had ended up in this part of London. I was directed upstairs where a number of posters had been produced featuring a number of individuals and their stories.  I’d like to share some of them with you.

Olga Carnegie, now 68, arrived in the UK from Jamaica in 1965: ‘When I arrived, I remember it being cold and dreary. I experienced a lot of discrimination at school. My first job was at a voluntary organisation in Balham.’

Adassa Smith, now 91, arrived from Jamaica in 1960: ‘I arrived in the UK a year after my husband. We lived in Stockwell and Brixton, before moving to Wandsworth in 1967. My first job was in a clothing factory in Elephant and Castle, my wages were about £5 a week. I remember me and my husband standing in queues and being racially abused. It was hard, and at times I wished I could go back to Jamaica. Being a Christian and having faith was vital, because we knew that God would see us through eventually.’

Marcia Scott, now 78, arrived from Trinidad in 1960: ‘We arrived in the UK two weeks after leaving the Port of Spain. We sailed on SS Antilles and I remember there was a burial at sea for an 18-month child. We docked at Plymouth and took the train from Paddington to Manchester, which was our first home. The cold weather was not comfortable, but we just had to live the life and go along with the change.’

Dwynette Drummond, now 90, arrived from Jamaica in 1959: ‘I remember it being very grey and very cold, when we arrived. My first job was as a trainee nurse in Bolingbroke Hospital’

Zena Josiah, now 89, arrived from Guyana in 1956: ‘My fiancé arrived first and then sent for me and we got married the same year. He was a printer for a newspaper and he had to work there for some time to get a union card.  My first job in the UK was working in a hat store in North London.’

At a time when the anti-immigrant rhetoric keeps going up, quiet, unassuming stories like these help to turn down the dial and remind us that immigrants are people too.