The October 1945 Pan-African Congress, held in the old Manchester Town Hall at Chorlton-on-Medlock, now part of Manchester Metropolitan University’s Grosvenor East building, is perhaps the most significant event in Manchester immediately after the defeat of Hitler’s Nazi regime.
The 5th Pan-African Congress, as it is popularly known, was attended by many Black men and women, as well as Whites, from the US, the Caribbean and Africa. The principal organisers were W.E.B. Du Bois, George Padmore, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and Amy Ashwood Garvey, who presided over the Congress. Importantly, the Congress’s financier, T. Ras Makonnen, a Manchester entrepreneur who owned a chain of restaurants on Oxford Road and Fallowfield, ensured that delegates had places to stay and eat without being subjected to the indignity of the ‘colour bar’.
Although named the 5th Pan-African Congress, it is in fact the 6th, as five Congresses preceded the Manchester Congress
The previous Congresses:
1900, (London)
1919 (Paris),
1921 Brussels and London,
1927 (New York)
In its history, the Paris Congress is now designated the first of the Congresses. The 1919 Congress petitioned the newly formed League of Nations, demanding that former African colonies under German control, which it had been forced to surrender to the Allies under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, be placed under the League of Nations’ supervision and “governed by an international body for the benefit of the African inhabitants, rather than being carved up among the Allies”
It is worth noting that all the Congresses were held in European or American cities, never on African soil.
From the Oversight Committee’s perspective, the fact that the Congress was held in Manchester’s Town Hall, despite the prevailing ‘colour bar’, was remarkable and worthy of tangible celebration. The Oversight Committee wishes to celebrate this rich history in partnership with MMU, which owns the old town hall, and the broad local and international communities.
An excellent introduction to the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester can be found at the website of one of our partners, First Cut Media, at https://firstcutmedia.com/pac45/pac-1945/ .