Greenheys, Manchester

Old Abbey Taphouse incident

On 30 September 1953, in a blatant act of racial segregation, black boxer Len Johnson and his friends were refused service at the Old Abbey Taphouse pub in Greenheys on account of the colour of Johnson's skin. Manchester police were called to the pub and Johnson and his friends were thrown out. Johnson was angered by this and enlisted the help of the then-Lord Mayor of Manchester, and the Bishop of Manchester to combat the stance. Over the following three days, more than 200 people, black and white, gathered to take part in a demonstration outside of the pub. Eventually the ban was overturned and Johnson, who was teetotal, was invited inside the pub to share a drink with the publican. The Race Relations Act 1965 eventually made racial discrimination in public places unlawful in a direct response to the colour bar. A mural exists outside of the pub dedicated to the event and Johnson's memory.

References

References

1. [http://victorianreview.org/?p=1473 On Topography and Hunger in Mary Barton], Victorian Review
2. [https://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Manchester-Alan.html Elizabeth Gaskell's Manchester] {{Webarchive. link. (7 June 2018 , Alan Shelston, The Gaskell Society Journal,Volume 3 (1989))
3. Ed Glinert, ''The Manchester Compendium: A Street-by-Street History of England's Greatest Industrial City'' (2009), p. 135
4. [https://mspl.co.uk/campuses/manchester-science-park/ Manchester Science Park]
5. Dooley, Terry. (2020-11-01). "Under the shadow of the colour bar: The Ballad of Len Johnson".
6. "Breaking the Colour Bar".
7. Britton, Paul. (2019-02-24). "How a boxer helped overturn the 'colour bar' by ordering drinks in a pub".
8. Britton, Paul. (2019-02-24). "The shameful history of the racist 'colour bar' in Manchester - and how a boxing hero made history by ordering a round in the pub".
9. Coulson, Jess. (2023-01-26). "Northern Voices: The legacy of Len Johnson and radical activism at The Old Abbey Taphouse".