History Classroom Handout: Civil Rights and the Colour Bar in Britain
How a Sit-In Helped Crack the Colour Bar: The Story of the IWA and Community Resistance
Historical Context: Britain in the 1960s
In the 1960s, Britain was changing rapidly. The country was rebuilding after World War II and welcoming thousands of immigrants from former colonies—particularly from South Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. But many of these new citizens faced racism, poor housing, low wages, and exclusion from public spaces.
One such form of exclusion was the “colour bar”—an unwritten but widespread rule that banned non-white customers from bars, clubs, and restaurants.
The Indian Workers’ Association (IWA)
The Indian Workers’ Association (IWA) was one of Britain’s most powerful anti-racist organisations in this era. Based in Birmingham and other industrial cities, the IWA supported working-class immigrants through legal help, political education, and protests. Its members—many of whom were educated and politically active before arriving in the UK—connected local campaigns to global movements like anti-apartheid and Black Power.
They also launched new organisations like:
CCARD (Coordinating Committee Against Racial Discrimination)
Black People’s Alliance
Action Committee Against Racialism
The Colour Bar Campaign
In many British pubs during the 1960s, non-white customers were banned from the main bar or forced to drink in back rooms. These racist practices were enforced by landlords and ignored by authorities.
The IWA, through CCARD, began a campaign to challenge this. One of their main strategies was the sit-in.
Sit-Ins: Peaceful Protest, Powerful Message
What happened:
Protestors—Black, white, and Asian—entered pubs in small groups. A white woman would first order drinks. Moments later, Black and Asian men joined her. Together, they sat in silence.
Why it mattered:
This simple, peaceful act forced people to witness racism in public. It was powerful, lawful, and strategic. One protestor, Roger Tanner, described it as “a performance” meant to reclaim space.
Another participant, Jill Westby, was only 18. She later said:
“It made me more aware and more connected to the people around me... They had to stop and look. The law was on our side.”
With support from churches, trade unions, and local activists, the colour bar campaign gained momentum—and helped end racial bans in public spaces.
Discussion Questions
What made the sit-in protest an effective strategy in this campaign?
Why was the IWA important in linking local and global civil rights movements?
How did the campaign use silence and stillness as a form of protest?
Can we compare these actions to any movements happening today?
How a Sit-In in a British Pub Helped Crack the Colour Bar: Inside the IWA’s Radical Fight Against Racism
In a smoky Birmingham pub in the mid-1960s, a quiet protest unfolded with precision and purpose. A white woman ordered two drinks and sat at a table. Minutes later, a young Black man joined her, followed by a silent wave of protestors—Black, white, and Asian—who filled the pub. They did not chant. They did not argue. They simply sat.
The act was deliberate, choreographed, and defiant. It was also illegal—according to the social norms of the time.
The protest, organized by the Co-ordinating Committee Against Racial Discrimination (CCARD), was part of a growing national campaign to dismantle Britain’s informal but entrenched colour bars—racist restrictions that prevented non-white customers from drinking in public spaces. Though not enshrined in law, these practices were enforced by pub landlords, tolerated by the police, and largely ignored by Parliament.
At the heart of this movement was the Indian Workers’ Association (IWA), one of the most formidable anti-racist organisations of postwar Britain. Founded in the Midlands and forged in the fire of imperial migration, the IWA was more than a cultural network—it was a force that bridged trade union activism, Black Power politics, and Afro-Asian solidarity.
During the 1960s, the IWA brought together a remarkable array of global figures—from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to Claudia Jones and Stokely Carmichael—reflecting its deep ties to the wider struggle against racism and colonialism.
The IWA’s success lay not just in protest but in infrastructure. It launched grassroots initiatives like CCARD and the Black People’s Alliance, produced radical newspapers and reports (Lalkar, Smethwick: Integration or Racialism, The Victims Speak), and supported international liberation movements, including anti-apartheid campaigns and solidarity with Patrice Lumumba’s Congo.
Many of its members, though employed in Britain’s industrial economy, carried social and political capital from their homelands—former students, teachers’ children, and veterans of India’s Communist Party. In Birmingham, nearly all of the IWA’s leadership came from such backgrounds.
But it was the sit-in strategy that resonated most with the public. Protestors like Roger Tanner, a white schoolteacher who participated in the CCARD actions, described the protest as part political theatre, part moral intervention.
“We had it tightly choreographed,” Tanner said. “It was like a performance. We were reclaiming the space, showing that silence could be powerful.”
For 18-year-old Jill Westby, one of the youngest participants, the sit-in was a life-changing act of solidarity.
“Something about sitting in silence made me more aware. Those white men—who thought they owned the place—had to stop and watch. They couldn’t do anything. The law was on our side.”
Indeed, the moral authority behind the campaign was sharpened by religious support. Reverend John Toon, of Birmingham’s Central Methodist Mission, called the practice of racial segregation in pubs "anti-God." That spiritual dimension helped galvanize broader support from students, trade unions, artists, and churches.
These sit-ins, though brief and understated, were revolutionary in their symbolism. They transformed everyday acts—sitting, drinking, being present—into a direct challenge to systemic racism. In time, the movement succeeded. The colour bars began to fall. Public houses opened their doors. And British civil rights gained a new language—quiet, dignified, and undeniable.