Coming of Age : 1976 and the Road to Anti-Racism

nationalist groups such as the National Front. The campaign involved pop, rock, punk and
reggae musicians staging concerts with an anti-racist theme, in order to discourage young
people from embracing racism. The campaign was founded, in part, as a response to statements
and activities by well-known rock musicians including Eric Clapton and David Bowie.
At its height, in spring 1978, 100,000 people marched six miles from Trafalgar Square to the
East End of London (a National Front hotspot) for an open-air music festival at Victoria to
counteract the growing wave of racist attacks in the UK.
These series of events, all occured in London, and people went from one event to another,
and the influences across the wide spectrum of the black, asian and white communities
since have been huge. indeed, much of what we see in modern day art, politics and
culture can be traced back to this period of political activism, yet this contribution is rarely
talked about today.
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