Democracy and protest

In August 1976, a group of migrant workers led by Jayaben Desai took a historic stand against racism, low pay and limited workers’ rights.

Records of a coroner’s inquest on the body of the sailor Thomas Aird reveal details of a little-known seamen’s strike that was brutally suppressed.

Sophia Duleep Singh (1876–1948) was an Indian princess and a formidable figure in the women's suffrage movement.

This note threatens death upon anyone talking to the authorities about the Luddites, textile workers protesting against new, labour-saving technology.

Over three days in April 1981, violence broke out in Brixton, London between young people and the Metropolitan Police. What did the inquiry about it find out?

On 16 December 1773, 340 chests of tea were thrown into Boston harbour by protesting colonists. This letter from the East India Company requests reimbursement.

This document records the first time that citizens outside of the elites were invited to join an English parliament – without being asked to support new taxes.

Sarah Parker Remond (1826–1894) fought for a more equal world as an abolitionist and suffrage supporter. Why and how did she apply for British citizenship?

In 1888, the women and girls employed by Bryant & May in the East End of London went out on strike. Why did these workers feel so driven to remove their labour?

What was the everyday reality for LGBTQ+ people in the 80s and 90s living under the infamous Section 28, and how was it eventually repealed?

Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act negatively affected LGBTQ+ lives for decades. How did such a seismic piece of legislation come about?

These handwritten pages offer a window onto a Prime Minister’s thinking about the issues of the day. In 1978, they ranged from education to the environment.

Robert Wedderburn (1762–1835) was a British-Jamaican radical preacher, abolitionist and writer.

This angry letter offers a rare view of the words of ordinary people at the time, threatening violence in response to falling living standards in rural England.

The Imperial Typewriters dispute in Leicester saw over 500 workers, largely from South Asia, go on strike over discrimination in 1974.

In 1920, hundreds of members of the National League of the Blind (NLB) marched 200 miles to campaign for support. This printed circular explains what happened.

A handwritten letter written by sewing machinists working at Dagenham car plant who famously went on strike for equal wages in the late 1960s.

More than a thousand people who supported women’s right to vote were arrested for their activism. This document records them – and includes some famous names.

Margaret Bondfield (1873–1953) was a trade unionist and Labour politician. In 1929 she became Britain’s first female cabinet minister.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) was a tireless political activist, who led the WSPU – the militant faction of the movement for women’s suffrage.

One of the first MPs of Indian heritage, Shapurji Saklatvala (1874–1936) was an agitator for change, which led to his surveillance by the Security Service.

Alice Hawkins (1863–1946) was a working class suffragette and trade unionist, who boldly campaigned for the rights of women.

William Cuffey (1788–1870) was a disabled, working-class campaigner. He was a leading figure in the Chartism movement, famed for his powerful oratory.

The trial of nine black protestors who were arrested while demonstrating in Notting Hill in the early 1970s became a public platform to criticise police racism.