From Jamaica to England revisited - Blanche Blackwell and the joys of reading obituaries: Reading Race, Collecting Cultures - The Roving Reader Files

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre is an open access University of Manchester facility. The Roving Reader Files category of blog posts is produced by Alison Newby (under the pseudonym The Roving Reader) in collaboration with Hannah Niblett (Collections Access Officer). The Roving Reader Files are designed as public engagement materials, the intention being to introduce research skills and terminology to the general user/reader in an entertaining yet informative manner by revealing hidden stories, making unusual connections and sharing insights into using the Centre's collection for research. The blog post 'From Jamaica to England revisited - Blanche Blackwell and the joys of reading obituaries' looks back to the 'From Jamaica to England' series of 5 blog posts which brought together the stories and recollections of Black and 'middle-class brown' individuals who had migrated from Jamaica to England in past decades. Through considering the obituary of Blanche Blackwell (who had died aged 104), the history of the tiny white community of Jamaica is considered. Blackwell was from the Jewish elite Lindo family, and her experience is compared and contrasted with those of the Jamaicans we met before in the previous 5 posts of the series.