Thinking Black in the Blitz: Harold Moody, the League of Coloured Peoples and its shift of Pan-African ideas in Second World War London

Simeon Marty

doi:10.5007/2175-7976.2021.e78269

Abstract

London, as the capital of the British Empire, was the centre for imperial structures and networks in the middle of the 20th century. The city enabled and regulated the transport of people, ideas and wealth. Similarly, it offered space for the development of ideas and became a venue for the critique of colonialism. This article examines how the London-based Black pressure group League of Coloured Peoples shifted its political vision from moderate reforms for equal rights for all inhabitants of the British Empire towards Pan-African forms of independence beyond the concept of independent nation states for British Colonies in Africa and the West Indies during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath.

Highlights

London, as the capital of the British Empire, was the centre for imperial structures and networks in the middle of the 20th century
This paper concludes with the part the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP) played in the preparations for the 5th PanAfrican Congress held in Manchester in 1945 and the formation of the vision of Black internationalism
It will point out the shift of its political vision from moderate reforms for equal rights for all inhabitants of the British Empire towards Pan-African forms of independence beyond the concept of independent nation states for British Colonies in Africa and the West Indies during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath

Summary

Introduction

As the capital of the British Empire, was the centre for imperial structures and networks in the middle of the 20th century. It will point out the shift of its political vision from moderate reforms for equal rights for all inhabitants of the British Empire towards Pan-African forms of independence beyond the concept of independent nation states for British Colonies in Africa and the West Indies during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath.

Results

Conclusion