At the time, the true extent of the violence and its racial motivations were not fully exposed. Senior Metropolitan police officers attempted to dismiss the violence as the work of “ruffians, both coloured and white” hellbent on hooliganism. But confidential police files only released in 2002 confirm what many in the black community already knew to be true: that the unrest was overwhelmingly instigated by 300 to 400-strong “Keep Britain White” mobs, many of them Teddy Boys armed with iron bars, butcher’s knives and weighted leather belts, who went on a rampage among the West Indian residents of Notting Hill. The files, which were closed under the 75-year rule but were released early, show that senior officers tried to convince the then home secretary, “Rab” Butler, that there had been no real racial element to the rioting.
The forgotten racial history of Notting Hill Carnival
