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{{Short description|
{{for|the Scottish footballer|Bernie Grant (footballer)}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
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|imagesize =
|alt =
|caption = Grant's funeral
|office = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] <br> for [[Tottenham (UK Parliament constituency)|Tottenham]]
|parliament =
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'''Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant''' (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a
== Biography ==
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As council leader during the 1985 [[Broadwater Farm riot]], in which policeman [[Death of Keith Blakelock|PC Keith Blakelock]] was murdered, Grant was brought to national attention when he gave a speech outside Tottenham Town Hall, in which he was widely misquoted as saying "The police were to blame for what happened on Sunday night and what they got was a bloody good hiding"<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860173-9 |page=348 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6rFno1ffQoC |access-date=23 October 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Almanac"/><ref name="Weekly Worker">{{cite news |url=http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/331/changing-man?searched=bernie+grant&advsearch=allwords&highlight=ajaxSearch_highlight+ajaxSearch_highlight1+ajaxSearch_highlight2 |first=Dean|last= Woodward |title=Changing man: Bernie Grant February 17 1944 – April 8 2000 |work=[[Weekly Worker]] |publisher=[[Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)|Communist Party of Great Britain (PCC)]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130423203414/http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/331/changing-man?searched=bernie+grant&advsearch=allwords&highlight=ajaxSearch_highlight+ajaxSearch_highlight1+ajaxSearch_highlight2 |date=13 April 2000 |archive-date=23 April 2013 }}</ref> – his actual words were "the youth think they gave the police a bloody good hiding".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/06/the-radical-legacy-of-bernie-grant|title=The Radical Legacy of Bernie Grant|website=Tribune|author=Onapa, Emmanuel|date=11 June 2021|access-date=27 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/may/25/uk.labour|title=Politics, race and the fight to inherit|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 May 2000|author=Younge, Gary|access-date=27 August 2023}}</ref> His comments brought swift denunciation from the Labour Party leadership, and the then Conservative [[Home Secretary]], [[Douglas Hurd]], called him "the high priest of conflict"; several British newspapers also dubbed him "Barmy Bernie". Grant claimed that he was merely explaining to a wider audience what the feeling on the estate was like. He claimed his words had been taken out of context, but offered an apology to the family of PC Blakelock.{{cn|date=October 2022}} There is conflicting information over whether Grant condemned the violence of the rioters the following day.<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/apr/09/uk.politicalnews1 | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Farewell to a firebrand | first=Sarah | last=Ryle | date=9 April 2000 | access-date=26 April 2010}}</ref><ref name=BBC2000>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/706403.stm |title=Bernie Grant: A controversial figure |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=8 April 2000 |access-date=8 April 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.berniegrantarchive.org.uk/gallery/1980.asp |title=Bernie Grant Archive |publisher=Bernie Grant Trust |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107035254/http://www.berniegrantarchive.org.uk/gallery/1980.asp |archive-date=7 January 2009 }}</ref> To some, Grant was an extremist, yet he supported the prosecution of 45 people subsequently charged with riot and affray.<ref name="Cashmore">{{cite book |last=Cashmore |first=Ellis |title=Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations |date=1996 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-15167-2 |page=326 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMR259jZoF0C |access-date=23 October 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
The controversy did not prevent him from being elected as MP for Tottenham at the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]], one of the UK's first [[Black British people|Black British]] MPs since the Liberal [[Peter McLagan]] in the 19th century, all of them members of the [[Labour Party Black Sections]] movement, being elected at the same time as [[Diane Abbott]] and [[Paul Boateng]], as well as Britain's first [[British Asian]] MP since the 1920s, [[Keith Vaz]]. Grant later stood for the [[deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|deputy leadership of the Labour Party]], but was unsuccessful.
In 1989, he established and chaired the Parliamentary Black Caucus, modelled after the [[Congressional Black Caucus]] of the United States. The organisation was committed to advancing the opportunities of Britain's ethnic minority communities.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/03/world/british-mp-s-form-caucus-to-advance-rights-of-minorities.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=British M.P.'s Form Caucus to Advance Rights of Minorities |first=Sheila |last=Rule |date=3 April 1989 }}</ref>
=== African Reparations Movement ===
In 1993, Grant co-founded and chaired the [[African Reparations Movement]] (ARM UK) to campaign for the movement for [[reparations for slavery]] and racism. ARM UK was formed following the [[Reparations for slavery#Abuja Proclamation and ARM (1993)|1993 Abuja Proclamation]] declared at the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations, in [[Abuja, Nigeria]], convened by the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) and the Nigerian government. On 10 May 1993 Grant tabled a motion in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] that the House welcomed the proclamation and "calls upon the international community to recognise that the unprecedented moral debt owed to African people has yet to be paid, and urges all those countries who were enriched by enslavement and colonisation to review the case for reparations to be paid to Africa and to Africans in the Diaspora; acknowledges the continuing painful economic and personal consequences of the exploitation of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora and the racism it has generated; and supports the OAU as it intensifies its efforts to pursue the cause of reparations." The motion was sponsored by Grant, [[Tony Benn]], [[Tony Banks, Baron Stratford|Tony Banks]], [[John Austin-Walker]], [[Harry Barnes (Labour politician)|Harry Barnes]], and [[Gerry Bermingham]]; an additional 46 Labour Party MPs signed to support the motion, including [[Jeremy Corbyn]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=10 May 1993|title=ABUJA PROCLAMATION - Early Day Motions|url=https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/5521/abuja-proclamation|access-date=2020-07-09|website=edm.parliament.uk|publisher=UK Parliament}}</ref> ARM UK, in a "Birmingham Declaration" of 1 January 1994,<ref>Quoted in [https://stopthemaangamizi.com/tag/1st-august/page/2/ "Why We March on 1st August"], stopthemaangamizi.com.</ref> called upon:
{{Quote|text=all people of Afrikan origin in the Caribbean, Afrika, Europe, the Americas and elsewhere to support the movement for reparations and join forces with a view to forming a strong united front capable of exposing, confronting and overcoming the psychological, economic and cultural harm inflicted upon us by peoples of European origin.|author=|title=|source=}}
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==Legacy==
Grant's widow, Sharon, was on the shortlist to succeed him as the official Labour candidate for Tottenham, but was beaten by the 27-year-old [[David Lammy]], who won the [[2000 Tottenham by-election|by-election]] in June 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.davidlammy.co.uk/da/13246 |first=David|last= Lammy |title=A Tribute to Bernie Grant |publisher=Davidlammy.co.uk |date=10 October 2000 |access-date=27 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822004614/http://www.davidlammy.co.uk/da/13246 |archive-date=22 August 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
[[File:Bernie Grant Blue Plaque on the old Tottenham Town Hall.jpg|thumb|alt=Blue plaque reading: "Bernie Grant
In September 2007, in Tottenham, [[Haringey Council]] opened the [[Bernie Grant Arts Centre]] in his name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.berniegrantcentre.co.uk/index.php?pid=8 |title=About Bernie |publisher=Bernie Grants Arts Centre |date=21 September 2015 |access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref> On Sunday, 28 October 2012, a blue plaque, organised by the [[Nubian Jak Community Trust]], was unveiled at [[Tottenham Town Hall|Tottenham Old Town Hall]] in tribute to Grant.<ref>{{cite web|first=Bruce|last= Thain |url=http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/10013603.Hundreds_turn_out_for_Bernie_Grant_plaque_unveiling/ |title=Hundreds turn out for Bernie Grant plaque unveiling |website=Haringey Independent |date=29 October 2012 |access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref> On 5 December 2017, a portrait of Grant was unveiled in Parliament.
In March 2019, the Labour Party launched the Bernie Grant Leadership programme, which was created to train and equip BAME Labour members.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Bernie Grant Leadership Programme|url=https://labour.org.uk/members/take-part/bernie-grant-leadership-programme/|website=The Labour Party|access-date=2020-05-08}}</ref> [[Dawn Butler]] wrote on the launch that "This national programme is about empowering more Black, Asian, minority ethnic members to take on leadership positions in the Labour Party, develop skills and join a network of talented members and community activists across the country
Grant's archive is held at the [[Bishopsgate Institute]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://berniegrantarchive.org.uk/ |title=The Bernie Grant Archive |access-date=27 July 2021}}</ref>
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