Race Relations Act 1968

The Race Relations Act 1968, which was introduced by Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Labour government, focused on outlawing racism in housing and employment. This, in turn, expanded the provisions of the Race Relations Act 1965, the first legislation directed towards making racial discrimination illegal.

The Act created the Community Relations Commission (CRC), which replaced the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants. Its purpose was to liaise with government, local authorities and organizations to promote national measures concerned with positive community relations. The commission had twelve members, who were chosen by the Home Secretary, and its first Chair was former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union Frank Cousins. Mark Bonham Carter would succeed Cousins in 1971. The efficacy of the Race Relations Bill and CRC were subject to debate. The League of Overseas Pakistanis argued that the CRC was the most important part of the Race Relations Bill. They recognized the importance of local community relation councils and liaison officers in supporting newly arrived immigrants in places such as the Midlands and north of England, but criticized the bureaucratic formalities proposed for local organizations to obtain valuable financial support from the commission.

Conservative MP Enoch Powell commented on the Bill that first introduced the Act during his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, which he delivered in Birmingham on 20 April 1968. He described the Race Relations Bill as a method by which racialized minority immigrants could agitate against and overpower white groups.