League of Coloured Peoples

League of Coloured Peoples
Name	League of Coloured Peoples
Founder	Dr. Harold Moody
Founded	1931
Dissolved	1950s
Headquarters	London
Region	United Kingdom, Caribbean, Nigeria, Ghana
Focus	Civil rights, anti-racism, welfare

League of Coloured Peoples was a civil rights organization established in London in 1931 to combat racial discrimination and promote the welfare of people of African, Caribbean, and Asian descent in the United Kingdom and across the British Empire. The League connected activists, intellectuals, professionals, and artists from diverse locations including the West Indies, West Africa, and British Guiana, forming networks that engaged with institutions such as All Souls College, London County Council, and the British Parliament. Its membership and leadership included prominent figures from fields represented by Marcus Garvey, C. L. R. James, Paul Robeson, Kwame Nkrumah, and Jomo Kenyatta who intersected with the League’s activities, while collaborating with organizations like the International African Service Bureau, West African Students' Union, and the Women's Social and Political Union.

History

The League emerged in a period shaped by events including the aftermath of the First World War, the rise of the Harlem Renaissance, and the global reverberations of the Russian Revolution and the Great Depression. Its formation responded to incidents such as racially motivated employment discrimination in London and racial violence in colonial settings like Liverpool and Bermuda, intersecting with campaigns led by figures like Cristóbal de Olid and movements such as Pan-African Congresses. Early activities occurred against the backdrop of debates around the League of Nations mandate system and colonial representation exemplified by the campaigns of E. D. Morel and the anti-imperialist critiques of George Padmore.

Founding and Leadership

Founded by Dr. Harold Moody with support from professionals including C. L. R. James, Una Marson, J. H. H. Scarisbrick and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor sympathizers, the League attracted leaders from across the Empire such as Learie Constantine, Claude McKay, Paul Robeson (ally), and Doris Thompson. Its executive committees included lawyers, doctors, clergymen and journalists who liaised with institutions like The Times, BBC, and University College London to challenge discriminatory practices. The League’s leadership maintained contacts with colonial politicians including Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, and Jomo Kenyatta while engaging sympathetic parliamentarians such as William Wedgwood Benn and Fenner Brockway.

Objectives and Activities

The League set out objectives including the abolition of racial discrimination in employment, housing and public services, improvement of welfare for seamen and colonial migrants, and promotion of racial pride through cultural events tied to figures such as Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson. It organized legal aid initiatives referencing judgments from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and campaigned on cases involving migrant rights that intersected with legislation like the Aliens Restriction Act and debates in Westminster. The League coordinated educational lectures at venues including The Royal Society, fundraisers featuring artists linked to the Harlem Renaissance, and welfare drives for seamen docked at Liverpool and Southampton.

Campaigns and Impact

Campaigns included efforts against discriminatory employment policies at institutions like Imperial Chemical Industries and the British Overseas Airways Corporation, as well as high-profile protests over exclusion in trade unions such as the National Union of Railwaymen and the Transport and General Workers' Union. The League campaigned internationally on issues such as anti-lynching solidarity comparable to campaigns by NAACP leaders including W. E. B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, and supported pan-African causes raised at the Pan-African Congress gatherings led by W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore. Impact included influencing debates in the House of Commons and prompting inquiries by bodies like the Colonial Office into racial discrimination in public services and shipping lines.

Membership and Organization

Membership spanned professionals, students, clergy and trade unionists from regions including Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, British Guiana, and Mauritius. The League maintained branches and affiliates collaborating with groups such as the West Indian Seamen's Federation, the West African Students' Union, and local clubs in Brixton, Notting Hill, and Bermondsey. Organizational structures featured committees on employment, housing, legal aid and education, with trustees drawn from figures like Learie Constantine, Harold Moody and allied intellectuals such as C. L. R. James.

Publications and Communications

The League produced pamphlets, circulars and newsletters and communicated through periodicals sympathetic to its aims, including contributions to The Crisis, The Negro World, African Times and Orient Review, and local papers like the West Indian Gazette. It organized public lectures and debates with participants from institutions such as London School of Economics, King’s College London, and the Royal Society of Arts, and its meetings attracted speakers allied with movements represented by Marcus Garvey, Pan-African Congress delegates, and critics from the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Decline and Legacy

Post-Second World War shifts including the emergence of new nationalist leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and Nnamdi Azikiwe, the growth of organizations like the Commonwealth Secretariat, and changes in postwar immigration patterns led to the League’s gradual decline as newer parties, trade unions and community groups took on civil rights roles. Its legacy persisted in the careers of members who influenced decolonization debates at the United Nations and in domestic anti-discrimination legislation that followed parliamentary campaigns similar to those advanced by Lord Brockway and Sir Learie Constantine. The League’s archives and the biographies of figures such as Harold Moody and C. L. R. James continue to inform scholarship in studies associated with Pan-Africanism, the Windrush generation, and postwar civil rights organizing.

Category:Pan-African organizations Category:Civil rights organizations in the United Kingdom