Equality
Black Members Council
The NUJ Black Members' Council (BMC) consists of eight members elected by an annual conference of Black Members and one member from each of the union's industrial councils, Scottish Executive Council and Irish Executive Council.
The Black Members' Council campaigns for race equality in the union and in the workplace and tackles racism in the media.
Every year the council organises the Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture.
The lecture is held every year as part of London’s Black History Month in honour of Claudia Jones who was a pioneering radical journalist. Born in Trinidad in 1924, she moved to New York where she became radicalised by poverty and discrimination.
In 1936 she joined the Young Communist League and joined the staff of the Daily Worker. In 1955 she was arrested and served a year in prison before being deported and given asylum in the UK. Confronted by posters saying “No Blacks, no Dogs, No Irish” she became a leader in the Black equal rights movement emerging in London’s Notting Hill and founded “The West Indian Gazette”, one of the first Black newspapers in the UK.
Claudia always believed that “A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom” and in 1959 was one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival. Today the Carnival is the biggest in Europe and is a fitting memorial to Claudia’s life of activism and campaigning. Claudia died in London on Christmas Day, 1964 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery next to Karl Marx.
Claudia Jones Memorial lectures 2012
Organised to coincide with Black History month and was the first time it was held in Newcastle. This also coincided with the first time since 1974 that the city played host to the National Union of Journalists conference. This event was filmed live on Friday 5th October 2012 in the King’s Hall, Newcastle University.
The video can be found here: http://ncl-film.com/1250
Claudia Jones Memorial lecture 2011 with Hugh Muir
"Unravelling Social Inequalities, and Social Unrest"
Thursday 27 October
Watch the 2011 video here
Black members can get involved in the council by attending the Black Members' Conference, held every year at the union's headquarters in either February or March. Black members who wish to receive an invitation should email info@nuj.org.uk for inclusion on the Black Members mailing list. Black members who are registered with the union also receive a copy of the Black Members newsletter.
The Council has also produced Guidelines on Race Reporting
