Rivers of Blood speech facts for kids
The "Rivers of Blood" speech was given by a British politician named Enoch Powell. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Conservative Party. He gave this speech on April 20, 1968, in Birmingham, England.
In his speech, Powell strongly spoke out against a lot of people moving to the United Kingdom from other countries, especially from Commonwealth countries. He also criticized a new law called the Race Relations Act. This law aimed to stop unfair treatment based on race.
The speech became known as the "Rivers of Blood" speech. This name came from a quote Powell used from an old Roman poem, the Aeneid by Virgil. He said:
As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'.
This speech caused a huge stir in British politics. It made Powell a very famous, but also very controversial, politician. Because of the speech, the leader of the Conservative Party, Edward Heath, removed Powell from his team of top politicians, called the Shadow Cabinet. Many people believe that Powell's ideas about immigration helped the Conservatives win the 1970 general election.
Contents
Why the Speech Happened
What Was Happening in 1968?
Enoch Powell was the MP for Wolverhampton South West. He was also the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence. This meant he was the main spokesperson for the Conservative Party on defence matters. He gave his speech at a meeting for the Conservative Party in the West Midlands.
At this time, the Labour government was trying to pass a new law. It was the 1968 Race Relations Bill. This law aimed to stop unfair treatment against people because of their race. The Conservative Party, who were the Opposition, wanted to make the law weaker.
How the Speech Became Famous
A TV company called ATV got a copy of Powell's speech before he gave it. They sent a TV crew to film parts of it. A few days before the speech, Powell told his friend Clem Jones, a journalist, that his speech would be like a rocket that "is going to stay up."
Powell planned his speech carefully. He knew that if he gave it on a Saturday afternoon and shared it with journalists beforehand, it would get a lot of attention. This way, the speech would be covered in Saturday evening news, Sunday newspapers, and Monday newspapers.
What Powell Said
Stories from His Constituents
In his speech, Powell shared a story from a man in his local area. The man told Powell: "If I had the money to go, I wouldn't stay in this country." He also said that in 15 or 20 years, "the black man will have the whip hand over the white man."
Powell then said:
Here is a decent, ordinary fellow Englishman, who in broad daylight in my own town says to me, his Member of Parliament, that the country will not be worth living in for his children. I simply do not have the right to shrug my shoulders and think about something else. What he is saying, thousands and hundreds of thousands are saying and thinking – not throughout Great Britain, perhaps, but in the areas that are already undergoing the total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of English history. We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. So insane are we that we actually permit unmarried persons to immigrate for the purpose of founding a family with spouses and fiancées whom they have never seen.
He also read a letter from an elderly woman in Northumberland. She lived on a street in Wolverhampton where she was the only white resident. She had rented out rooms in her house. After immigrants moved onto her street, her white renters left. She said two black men knocked on her door early in the morning to use her phone. She refused, and they were rude to her. When she asked for a tax reduction, she was told to rent out her rooms. When she said only black people would rent them, a council worker said, "Racial prejudice won't get you anywhere in this country."
Powell's Main Points
Powell suggested that immigrants should be offered money and help to move back to their home countries. He said that all citizens should be treated equally by the law. However, he also argued that people should be allowed to choose who they deal with in their own lives.
He believed that journalists who supported anti-discrimination laws were wrong. He compared them to those who ignored the dangers before World War II.
Powell felt that many white British people felt like strangers in their own country. He said they couldn't get hospital beds or school places for their children. He also claimed that employers treated immigrant workers differently. He worried that the new Race Relations Bill would create unfairness against the native population.
Powell warned that if the new law passed, it would be like "throwing a match on to gunpowder." He believed that the country needed to stop almost all new immigration immediately.
He also said that while some immigrants wanted to fit in, most did not. He claimed some were trying to create racial and religious differences to gain power.
Powell ended his speech by quoting the Roman poem again. He spoke of seeing "the River Tiber foaming with much blood." He warned that the UK was heading towards problems like those seen in America, due to its own choices and neglect.
How People Reacted
Political Reactions
Many people at the meeting where Powell spoke did not show much anger. The day after the speech, Powell seemed surprised by the strong reaction. He appeared on TV to defend what he had said.
Some politicians were very angry. A Labour MP wanted to report Powell to the police. The leader of the Liberal Party thought Powell might have encouraged violence.
Top Conservative politicians were very upset. Several threatened to quit if Powell wasn't fired. Margaret Thatcher, who was also a Conservative leader, thought parts of the speech were "strong meat." Edward Heath, the Conservative leader, fired Powell from his job as Shadow Defence Secretary. Heath publicly said the speech was "racialist in tone" and would make racial tensions worse. Some Conservative MPs supported Powell and disagreed with his firing.
An opinion poll later in 1968 found that some immigrants felt they were treated worse after the speech. However, many also said they would return home if offered money. A significant number supported immigration control.
Public Reaction
The speech led to a huge amount of letters and postcards sent to newspapers, especially the Express & Star in Wolverhampton. Most of these messages supported Powell. The editor of the Express & Star said that 95% of the letters were "pro-Enoch."
Soon after, there were marches in Wolverhampton. Some people supported Powell, and others opposed him. Police had to keep the two groups apart.
When the Race Relations Bill was discussed in Parliament, many MPs talked about Powell's speech. Some criticized it, while others were sympathetic. Powell was there but did not speak.
Many London dockers (people who load and unload ships) went on strike to protest Powell's firing. They marched to Parliament with signs supporting him. They even went inside to talk to MPs. One docker leader said, "I have just met Enoch Powell and it made me feel proud to be an Englishman." Powell told them he would keep speaking out.
More strikes happened across the country. Meat porters in Smithfield also marched to Parliament to support Powell. Powell advised people to write to politicians instead of striking.
By early May, Powell claimed to have received thousands of letters and telegrams supporting him. Only a small number were against him. The government decided not to charge Powell with any crime.
Public Opinion Polls
A Gallup poll in April 1968 showed that 74% of people agreed with Powell's speech. Only 15% disagreed. Most people (69%) thought Heath was wrong to fire Powell. Before the speech, few people wanted Powell to be the Conservative leader. After the speech, many more people did. The poll also showed that more people wanted immigration to be limited.
Historians believe that Powell's speech made many British people feel that he was listening to their concerns.
Powell's Thoughts Later
Years later, in 1977, Powell was asked if he still thought the country was on a "funeral pyre." He said yes, and that his predictions had actually been too low compared to official estimates. He felt that politicians would continue to ignore the issue until it was too late.
Cultural Impact
Polls in the 1960s and 1970s showed that Powell's ideas were very popular. One poll showed 75% of people agreed with him. Another showed that about 75% wanted all non-white immigration to stop, and 60% wanted non-white people already in Britain to return home.
Some people have blamed the speech for leading to violent attacks against British Pakistanis and other British Asians. These attacks became more common after 1968.
The speech was even mentioned in an early version of the Beatles' song "Get Back." This version made fun of anti-immigrant views. In 1976, musician Eric Clapton also spoke out against immigration at a concert, supporting Powell's views.
The speech caused fear among some British people of Indian origin. Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar remembered that his parents kept suitcases ready in case they had to leave the country.
Some people believe the speech stopped important discussions about how immigrants could fit into society. It made the topic very divided and difficult to talk about.
Who Was the Woman in the Speech?
After Powell's speech, people tried to find the elderly woman he mentioned. The editor of the local newspaper, Clem Jones, said he couldn't find her.
However, after Powell died, a lawyer named Kenneth Nock claimed his firm had represented the woman. In 2007, a BBC radio show said they found her. They believed she was Druscilla Cotterill (1907–1978). She was a widow whose husband died in World War II. She lived in Wolverhampton on a street that had many immigrant families. She used to rent out rooms but stopped when the Race Relations Act 1968 made it illegal to refuse tenants based on race.
Support for the Speech
The phrase "Enoch [Powell] was right" became a common saying in the UK. It is used by people who criticize immigration and multiculturalism. You can sometimes see this slogan on badges and T-shirts. Powell gained support from both right-wing and working-class voters because of his anti-immigration ideas.
Powell also gained support from far-right groups in Britain. These groups often use the slogan "Enoch was right."
In 1998, a TV show asked if Powell was a racist. 64% of the audience voted that he was not. However, some religious leaders disagreed. A bishop named Wilfred Wood said that Powell "gave a certificate of respectability to white racist views."
More recently, some politicians have also mentioned Powell's speech. In 2016, a writer named Trevor Phillips compared his own warnings about immigration to Powell's. He said that after the reaction to Powell's speech, politicians became afraid to talk openly about race.
What Politicians Said Later
Years after the speech, some politicians acknowledged it. Margaret Thatcher, who later became Prime Minister, said Powell "made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms."
Edward Heath, who fired Powell, said that Powell's points about the "economic burden of immigration" were "not without prescience" (meaning they had some truth).
A Labour MP named Michael Foot said it was "tragic" that Powell was misunderstood. He believed Powell used the quote about "blood" to show his strong feelings, not to predict actual violence.
In 2007, a Conservative politician named Nigel Hastilow had to resign. He wrote an article saying Powell "was right" about immigration changing Britain.
In 2014, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said that Powell's warning about large numbers of people changing an area was "basically right." Other Conservative politicians also referred to Powell's warnings when discussing issues related to immigration.
Dramatic Portrayals
The speech has been the subject of plays and books. A play called What Shadows was staged in 2016, with an actor playing Powell. A novel called The Speech was also published.
In 2018, the BBC broadcast a program that included the full speech being read aloud for the first time on British radio. This caused some discussion because the speech is still controversial. In 2023, an episode of the TV show Call the Midwife also showed the impact of the speech.
See also
- Criticism of multiculturalism
- Demographics of the United Kingdom
- Great replacement theory
- Le bruit et l'odeur
- Protests of 1968
- Racism in the UK Conservative Party
