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===Political history=== {{main|Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)}} The town is notable for a somewhat turbulent political history. It was first created as a separate [[United Kingdom constituencies|parliamentary constituency]] in 1918, having previously been part of the [[Birmingham Handsworth (UK Parliament constituency)|Handsworth constituency]]. At [[1918 United Kingdom general election|that year's general election]], [[Christabel Pankhurst]], standing as a [[Women's Party (UK)|Women's Party]] candidate, narrowly failed to become one of Britain's first woman Members of Parliament. She lost to the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] candidate by 775 votes in a straight fight.<ref>[http://www.brewinbooks.com/taking_on_the_men Hallam, David J.A. Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629203313/https://www.brewinbooks.com/taking_on_the_men |date=29 June 2019 }}, Studley, 2018 Chap 2 "Christabel Pankhurst in Smethwick"</ref> Labour held the seat until 1931; from 1926, the MP was Sir [[Oswald Mosley]], future founder of the [[British Union of Fascists]]. Mosley resigned the Labour [[Whip (politics)|whip]] in March 1931, but continued to represent the constituency until it was taken by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] at [[1931 United Kingdom general election|that year's general election]]. Labour won it back at the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|UK general election of 1945]], held on 26 July that year. However, the victorious MP, [[Alfred Dobbs]], was killed in a car crash the very next day. He is thus the shortest-serving Member of Parliament (MP) in British history, if one discounts a few cases of people being elected posthumously. In the [[1945 Smethwick by-election|resulting by-election]], [[Patrick Gordon Walker]] won again for Labour. The seat remained held by Labour until 1964. At the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]], sitting MP Gordon Walker, who was Shadow [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]], was defeated in highly controversial circumstances in the constituency by the virulently anti-immigration Conservative Party candidate [[Peter Griffiths]]. Smethwick had attracted immigration from the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] in the economic and industrial growth of the years following the [[World War II|Second World War]] and Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the government's policy. His supporters had circulated the slogan "If you want a [[nigger]] for a neighbour, vote [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] or Labour."<ref>Peter H. S. Griffiths A Question of Colour? (1966); See pp. 154, 166, 171.</ref> Griffiths refused to condemn the slogan.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Yemm |first=Rachel |date=2019 |title=Immigration, Race and Local Media: Smethwick and the 1964 General Election |journal=Contemporary British History |volume=33 |pages=106β109 |doi=10.1080/13619462.2018.1535973 |s2cid=150219506}}</ref> [[Colin Jordan]], a British Neo-Nazi and later leader of the [[British Movement]], claimed that members of his group had produced the initial slogan as well as spread the publicised poster and sticker campaign which contained it; Jordan's group in the past had also campaigned on other slogans, such as: "Don't vote - a vote for Tory, Labour or Liberal is a vote for more Blacks!".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Colin Jordan and Britain's Neo-Nazi Movement: Hitler's Echo |last=Jackson |first=Paul |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2016 |isbn=978-1472509314 |page=129}}</ref> Jordan would also use similar campaign tactics against Gordon Walker in the [[1965 Leyton by-election]]. The election of Griffiths led to Smethwick becoming notorious as 'Britain's most racist town'.<ref name=":0" /> Historian Rachel Yemm argues that the anti-immigration sentiment in the town was the result of a housing shortage, which local newspapers, such as ''The Smethwick Telephone'', blamed on the migrants. Griffiths not only drew on these fears, but also raised racist concerns about '[[miscegenation]]' and argued for the [[repatriation]] of migrants.<ref name=":0" /> At the beginning of 1965 Smethwick Council was planning "to purchase all available houses on Marshall Street to prevent their sale to immigrants". This made national headlines, and the plan was later stopped by the government.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=2013 |title=Not everything is black and white - Marshall Street: Then and now |url=https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/11/30/not-everything-is-black-and-white-marshall-street-then-and-now/ |access-date=3 April 2022 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417165543/https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2013/11/30/not-everything-is-black-and-white-marshall-street-then-and-now/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In February 1965, American black activist [[Malcolm X]] visited Marshall Street just days before his [[Assassination of Malcolm X|assassination]]. Earlier in his career he had advocated the complete separation of African Americans from whites, but he now showed his opposition to [[racial segregation]],<ref name="BBC Malcolm X" /><ref>{{cite book |title=[[Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire]] |date=21 March 2019 |publisher=[[Two Roads]] |isbn=9781473661233 |page=271}}</ref> telling the press: {{quotation|I have come here because I am disturbed by reports that coloured people in Smethwick are being treated badly. I have heard they are being treated as the [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Jews were under Hitler]]. I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens.}} Malcolm X had been invited to Smethwick by Claudia Jones on behalf of Avtar Singh Jouhl<ref>{{Cite web |title=When Malcolm X Came to the West Midlands |url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/03/malcolm-x-smethwick-peter-griffiths-racism-1965 |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=tribunemag.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> of the Indian Workers' Association.<ref name="BBC Malcolm X" /> The [[BBC]] had been intending to make a feature about a new black-led newspaper,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Documentary - Malcolm in the Midlands - BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2zvp |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> and a [[BBC News]] journalist had a view to X having a debate with Griffiths outside a council house in Smethwick. Griffiths declined at late notice, and so an interview with X was conducted on the streets of Smethwick. This was to be one of X's last TV interviews before his assassination nine days later. The footage was never screened until Stephen C Page,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stephen C. Page {{!}} Art Department, Actor, Producer |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656348/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}}</ref> a community artist, uncovered the footage in 2005.<ref name="BBC Malcolm X">{{cite news |title=Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick remembered in pictures |date=12 February 2015 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-31417235 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=22 June 2020 |archive-date=19 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619162407/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-31417235 |url-status=live }}</ref> Labour candidate and actor [[Andrew Faulds]] defeated Griffiths in the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 general election]], remaining as an MP until his retirement at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]], 23 years after Smethwick became part of the [[Warley East (UK Parliament constituency)|Warley East]] constituency. Griffiths subsequently moved away from the area and later served as Conservative MP for [[Portsmouth North (UK Parliament constituency)|Portsmouth North]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10479104/PeterGriffiths-obituary.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140620214153/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10479104/PeterGriffiths-obituary.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-06-20 |title=Peter Griffiths - obituary |publisher=Telegraph |access-date=2016-06-29}}</ref>
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