Thanks to the African Lives in Northern England project, discover these often untold stories of Newcastle upon Tyne’s rich and diverse past.
1. Henry Box Brown at the Music Hall
The Music Hall at Nelson Street had a lecture room on the ground floor and its hall above. Several African-American campaigners against enslavement lectured here, including Henry Brown (1815 to 1897).
To escape enslavement in Richmond, USA, Brown asked a carpenter to make him a wooden box. On 23 March 1849, his friends posted him in the box to freedom in Philadelphia.
Brown moved to Liverpool in 1850 to avoid recapture and travelled across northern England. He performed on 4 occasions, in October 1852, at Newcastle’s Music Hall.
With the new name Henry ‘Box’ Brown, he used his story to create an anti-slavery performance, getting in and out of a box and displaying images of the horrific treatment of enslaved people.
2. Ida B. Wells at Brunswick Methodist Chapel
Journalist Ida B. Wells (1862 to 1931) visited Newcastle in 1893 and 1894 to win support for her anti-lynching campaign.
She was an active feminist who co-founded the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, USA. She campaigned to further voting rights for all women, particularly Black women.
Wells spoke at the Wesleyan Chapel at Brunswick Place, Ryehill Baptist Church and twice at the Friends Meeting House during her visit to Newcastle in 1893.
She shocked the audiences with stories of the mutilations and deaths of Black men from lynching, using evidence from the investigations she had written about in her book ‘Southern Horrors’ (1892).
3. Paul Robeson at Newcastle City Hall
Musician and actor Paul Robeson (1898 to 1976) visited Newcastle and Gateshead several times between the 1930s and 1950s.
He delighted audiences with his songs, such as ‘Old Man River’, and highlights of his successful acting career in England were his performances in ‘Othello’ and ‘Showboat’.
In 1958, he performed to a packed audience at Newcastle City Hall (now the O2 City Hall).
From 1933, Robeson supported the rights of Black people and workers everywhere despite the damage this caused to his career.
He was outspoken, so the US government blocked his career and movements. It was recently revealed that security services shadowed him on a visit to Tyneside and throughout much of his time in the UK.
4. Olaudah Equiano at Bigg Market
Olaudah Equiano (1745 to 1797) was a writer and abolitionist who published a book called ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African.’
He sold his book at Robert Denton’s bookshop, near Bigg Market, and other bookshops in Newcastle.
The Turks Head Inn (now demolished) had a few rooms for travellers, and it is likely that Olaudah Equiano stayed there and spoke at its meeting room, named the ‘Theatre in the Bigg Market’.
In 1792, Equiano spent 3 weeks in Newcastle, expressing appreciation for his book sales and reception in Newcastle.
Warmest thanks… for your fellow-feeling for the Africans and their cause.
Abolitionist and writer Olaudah Equiano on visiting Newcastle in 1792.
5. Victor Oyenuga and Sabinah Onabajo at St John’s Baptist Church
Victor Oyenuga and Sabinah Onabajo were from the Ijebu region of Nigeria.
Victor left for England to undertake an agricultural degree in Newcastle in 1945. Sabinah, a teacher, joined him in 1949, enrolling for nurse training at Princess Mary Maternity Home.
Upon arriving, Victor was ‘shocked and also embarrassed that the churches at Newcastle did not welcome blacks’. However, following an introduction, he was welcomed by the Vicar of St John the Baptist Church.
A wedding was held for Victor and Sabinah. The ceremony was exceptional not only because it was for a Black couple, but because it was attended by massive crowds, 4 ministers and lasted 4 hours.
6. Koi Larbi at West Indies House
West Indies House, at 14 to 16 Lovaine Place, was where Newcastle Civic Centre now stands.
The house was established as a hub for West Indian and other colonial sailors between 1941 and 1942. It accommodated Black sailors stranded in Tyneside at the outbreak of the Second World War.
The hostel was managed by Koi Obuadabang Larbi, an economics graduate and a law student from Ghana. Larbi later became the Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of People of African Descent, which was formed to provide legal support to Black people in Britain.
In Newcastle, Larbi was committed to creating a ‘home away from home’ for the residents, with familiar foods and various facilities.
7. Fela Sowande at the Hatton Gallery
In June 1943, an African arts and crafts exhibition was held at the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University.
The exhibition at the Hatton Gallery included exhibits of crafts such as leatherwork. It was visited by Fela Sowande, a musician and composer from Lagos, Nigeria, now considered the father of modern Nigerian Music.
This was the second exhibition of African arts in the North East and was inspired by the Newcastle International Club and the Society for the Cultural Advancement of Africa in Newcastle.
It was also a response to an earlier exhibition held in 1929 on the Town Moor, where African people were exhibited in a ‘village’ in the amusement section of the North East Coast Exhibition, causing an international outcry.
8. Early African doctors at the Royal Victoria Infirmary
Irene Cole (1916 to 1995) was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She entered Newcastle Medical School in 1938, and in 1944, she became the first Sierra Leone woman to qualify as a doctor.
She worked at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, specialising in gynaecology, and during the Second World War, worked in the hospital’s decontamination squad and treated war casualties. She advocated for women’s rights, health care and education in Nigeria and was awarded an MBE.
Irene Moduepolo Thomas (1917 to 2005) entered Newcastle Medical School in 1947, specialising in gynaecology. On returning to Nigeria, she became one of the first female doctors in the country.
She co-founded the Motherless Babies Home, campaigned against female circumcision at local, national, and international levels and was awarded the Order of the Niger (OON).
Robert Wellesley-Cole (1907 to 1995), of Freetown, Sierra Leone, graduated from Fourah Bay College in 1927 and Newcastle Medical College (Durham University) in 1934.
He overcame racism to become the first African Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1944.
Guided walking tours of Newcastle are available by contacting African Lives in Northern England.
Further reading
- African Lives in Northern England
- Black and British: Uncovering a Forgotten History
- Teaching resource: African Lives in Northern England
- Newcastle City Centre Walks: African Lives in Newcastle
A great idea- really interesting and I hope widely disseminated and used e. g. in schools
Thanks for a marvellous insight. Who would’ve guessed there was so much black history in the north-east of England?
And so well researched and delivered.