In 2021, Lawrence Wishart launched the Radical Black Women book series, in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives. The series seeks to spotlight the contributions of radical Black women to social justice movements in Britain. It aims to redress, if even in a small way, the dire lack of resources about Black British history in general, and Black women’s history in particular. The first book in the series was a new edition of Claudia Jones: A life in exile, with a preface by Black feminist researcher Lola Olufemi. Forthcoming titles include Gerlin Bean: Mother of the Movement by A. S. Francis,  Amy Ashwood Garvey and the Future of Black Feminist Archives by Nydia Swaby, and The Making of June Givanni’s Pan African Cinema Archive by Onyeka Igwe. The series editor is Jumanah Younis.

In addition to commissioning books, LW is running a programme of events as part of the series that seeks to raise awareness of Black women’s history in Britain; promote the teaching of Black British history; and understand the systemic issues undergirding the lack of research in this area. We have hosted discussions with a range of activists, artists and academics on these questions, in person and online. You can watch back some of our past events and find out about future events below. We have also produced educational resources based on to the series, in conjunction with the Young Historians Project, that are free to download and reproduce via the ‘education resources’ link below. Finally, we are continuing to commission for future books in the series and welcome enquiries from prospective writers. Details on what we are looking for and how to submit are included in the ‘write for us’ section below.