1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,280 Speaker 1: Heart Radio hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in 3 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:10,239 Speaker 1: History Class, a show that reveals a little bit more 4 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: about history day by day. Today is April. The day 5 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: was April twentie. Nineteen sixty eight, British Member of Parliament 6 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: Enoch Powell gave a speech to a Conservative Association meeting 7 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 1: in Birmingham, England that became known as the Rivers of 8 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:44,199 Speaker 1: Blood Speech. Powell, a Conservative MP for the Wolverhampton Southwest constituency, 9 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: used the speech to espouse his opposition to mass immigration. 10 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: He argued that so called ordinary English People were becoming 11 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: a persecuted minority and strangers in their own country, and 12 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: he said that for immigrants integration was different cult if 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: not impossible. Powell proposed ending almost all immigration into Britain 14 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: and encouraging immigrants already there to leave voluntarily. Needless to say, 15 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: the speech was and remains controversial. By the time Powell 16 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: gave his speech, hundreds of thousands of people from the 17 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:24,680 Speaker 1: Commonwealth of Nations countries had moved to Britain. This was 18 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: largely due to the British Nationality Act nineteen forty eight, 19 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: which created the new status of citizen of the United 20 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,480 Speaker 1: Kingdom and Colonies that applied to people who were born 21 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:39,120 Speaker 1: are naturalized in the UK or its colonies. These people 22 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: were permitted to live and work in the UK without 23 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: a visa, which led to a rapid increase in immigration 24 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:49,960 Speaker 1: in the UK over the next two decades. British lay 25 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: people and government officials began to object to the large 26 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: number of migrants and express their desire to bar new 27 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: immigrants and to send immigrants already there back out of 28 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: the UK. In nineteen fifty a Cabinet committee formed to 29 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:08,960 Speaker 1: figure out quote ways which might be adopted to check 30 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: the immigration into this country of colored people from British 31 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: colonial territories. After that committee found that no restrictions on 32 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:21,360 Speaker 1: immigration were required, the issue was tossed around without any 33 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: real conclusion for several years, but in nineteen sixty two 34 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: Parliament passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, which tightened regulations on 35 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:34,680 Speaker 1: the immigration of all Commonwealth passport holders. According to the Act, 36 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: Commonwealth immigrants had to apply for work a boucher graded 37 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: based on their employment prospects to be able to settle 38 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: in the UK. In nineteen sixty five, the government reduced 39 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: the number of vouchers available. After Asians from Kenya and 40 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: Uganda began to immigrate to Britain in nineteen sixty seven, 41 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: Enoch Powell and other Conservatives started campaigning for more restrictions 42 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:02,359 Speaker 1: on immigration. Parliament months soon passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 43 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:06,119 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, which further restricted immigration to the UK. 44 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: For citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations countries to have 45 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: automatic right of entry into the UK, the person or 46 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,000 Speaker 1: at least one of his parents or grandparents had to 47 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,079 Speaker 1: be born, naturalized or adopted in the UK, or had 48 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: to have become a citizen by registration under the British 49 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: Nationality Acts. It was in a climate divided over the 50 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: issue of immigration that Powell gave his Rivers of Blood speech. 51 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: In it, he criticized the Race Relations Bill going through 52 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: Parliament that would make it illegal to refuse housing, employment, 53 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: or public services to people based on color, race, ethnicity 54 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: or nationality. He argued that in a couple of decades 55 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: or less, quote, the black man will have the whip 56 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: hand over the white man. He gave an anecdote about 57 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: one of his constituents, a white woman who was harassed 58 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: by so called grinning pick and a niece, and he 59 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:04,320 Speaker 1: pointed to the race riots and violence during the Civil 60 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,160 Speaker 1: Rights Movement as an example of what would happen in 61 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,840 Speaker 1: the UK if they stayed on the same path of 62 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: immigration and race relations. Powell said in the speech it 63 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,600 Speaker 1: almost passed his belief that at this moment, twenty or 64 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: thirty additional immigrant children are arriving from overseas in Wolverhampton 65 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,279 Speaker 1: alone every week, and that means fifteen or twenty additional 66 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:29,679 Speaker 1: families a decade or two. Hints. Those whom the gods 67 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: wished to destroy, they first make mad. We must be mad, 68 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:37,520 Speaker 1: literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual 69 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:41,359 Speaker 1: inflow of some fifty dependents, who are, for the most 70 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:44,480 Speaker 1: part the material of the future growth of the immigrant 71 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged 72 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: in heaping up its own funeral pyre. Nowhere in the 73 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: speech did Powell say the phrase rivers of blood, but 74 00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: near the end of the speech he did say the 75 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 1: follow wing, As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. 76 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,280 Speaker 1: Like the Roman, I seemed to see the river Tiber 77 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: foaming with much blood. This allusion to Virgil's epic poem 78 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: A Needed is where the nickname for the speech comes 79 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: from during his speech and after it was finished, how 80 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: was applauded. After Pal gave the speech, people came out 81 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: in support of repatriating immigrants, while others denounced his racism. 82 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: After he gave the speech, Conservative leader Ted Heath dismissed 83 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:36,040 Speaker 1: him from the Conservative Shadow Cabinet and eventually he left 84 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:41,280 Speaker 1: the Conservative Party and became an Ulster unionist. Pale's suggestions 85 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,280 Speaker 1: to restrict immigration did not lead to any major anti 86 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: immigration policy changes, but his anti immigrant views were popular 87 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:52,680 Speaker 1: at the time and the phrase Enoch was right game 88 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: attraction in the year since I'm eaves Jeff Coote and 89 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than 90 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: you did yesterday. Get more notes from history on Twitter, 91 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook at t d I h C podcast. 92 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,960 Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening, and I hope you come back 93 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,720 Speaker 1: tomorrow for more delicious morsels of history.