Harold Moody, League of Coloured Peoples anniversary plaque: 13 March 2019


Anniversary Plaque Honours Founder of Britain’s First Civil Rights Movement Britain has a long history of different racial groups coming to these shores, and the first organisations involving civil liberties concentrated mainly on Migration and the abolition Abolition Movement.

However, what could be coined Britain’s first Civil Rights Movement, was formed on 13th March 1931. Founded by a Jamaican-born physician named Dr Harold Moody, it was called The League of Coloured Peoples, and set up at the Central YMCA in Great Russel just off Tottenham Court Road. Although the League’s main emphasis was on Black Civil Rights In Britain, the wider goal of the organisation was to establish racial equality around the world. The League also sought to address the persecution of Jews in Germany before WWII.

On the 13th March 2019, to mark the 88th anniversary since the historic founding of the League of Coloured Peoples, a blue commemorative plaque Commemorative plaque to Dr Harold Moody will be unveiled at Central YMCA in Tottenham Court Road, the world’s oldest YMCA. The event will be attended by members of the Moody Family, politicians, local councillors, members of the public and media.

Two years after its formation the League began to publish its own journal called The Keys. The paper became a powerful medium to discuss issues such as the Colour Bar in Britain, prejudice in the work place, treatment of Black Nurses, discrimination against evacuation of children of colour during WWII, as well as desegregating sections of the British Armed Forces British Armed Forces during WWII.

The League of Coloured Peoples folded soon after the death of Dr Harold Moody in 1947, but not before taking its place as Britain’s first civil rights movement of the 20th century.