After the Second World War, the United Kingdom had its own Ku Klux Klan. Self-styled British Klansmen sent threatening letters, held public meetings, and staged cross burnings. Feeding off of the notoriety and support of their American counterpart as well as Britain’s growing anti-immigrant sentiment, these men and women worked as individuals and in small groups (often bound together by family ties) to terrorize communities of African, Caribbean, and Asian descent.

In response, people of color and their advocacy organizations lobbied for government protection. Parliament, facing persistent pressure at home and abroad, eventually acted — looking to the United States as a model. Still, patchy prosecutions of Klansmen and the bungled implementation of the first Race Relations Act left communities of color to fight for themselves.

Join Noah Secondo to explore the transnational strategies of social movements, the politics of racial comparison, and the challenges of legislating against hate. Noah Secondo is a Ph.D. student in the History Department at Harvard University. His research focuses on the relationship between social movements and the law in the United States.