1985 Handsworth riots

Handsworth had been the scene of a less serious riot four years earlier, when a wave of rioting hit over 30 other British towns and cities during the spring and summer of 1981.


Racial tension and friction between the police and the local ethnic minority communities was seen as a major factor in the riots. Handsworth had been predominantly populated by the black and Asian communities for around 30 years by 1985. Handsworth also had one of the highest unemployment rates in Birmingham.


Two brothers (Kassamali Moledina, 38, and his 44-year-old brother Amirali)^[1] were burnt to death in the post office that they ran.^[2] Two other people were unaccounted for, 35 others injured, more than 1500 police officers drafted into the area, about 45 shops looted and burnt, and a trail of damage running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.^[3] As well as racial tension, unemployment was seen as a major factor in the riots; fewer than 5% of black pupils to have left school in the summer preceding the riot had found employment.


The riots were the subject of John Akomfrah's award-winning documentary film Handsworth Songs. Filmmaker and artist Pogus Caesar extensively documented the riots, his photographs have been exhibited at ICA, London, TATE Britain, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA.^[4] They were depicted in reggae artist Pato Banton's song Handsworth Riots.^[5] And they were witnessed by Goldie and Bronx graffiti artists Brim, who documented the devastation in the documentary Bombin' (1987).


The riots were the first of a series of similar riots across the country during the autumn of 1985, notably the Broadwater Farm riot in London which also resulted in a fatality (the murder of policeman Keith Blakelock).