Bristol Bus Boycott (1963): Challenging the Colour Bar in Britain

The Bristol bus boycott was a campaign in 1963 against the refusal of the Bristol Omnibus Company to employ Black and Asian people as bus drivers and conductors. Led by the young youth worker Paul Stephenson and a group of West Indian community leaders, the boycott began on 30 April 1963 and ended in victory on 28 August, when the company dropped its colour bar. It is widely seen as a landmark in the history of Black civil rights in Britain and helped build support for the country’s first race relations laws.

Background: a colour bar on the buses

After the Second World War, thousands of people from the Caribbean came to Britain to work, many following the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush in 1948. By the early 1960s Bristol had a West Indian community of roughly 3,000 people, many living in the St Pauls area.

The Bristol Omnibus Company, part of a state-owned transport group, was short of staff. Yet it did not employ Black or Asian people as bus crews, although they could work in lower-paid jobs such as garage or canteen work. Managers denied any formal policy, but the colour bar was widely known and was backed in practice by the local branch of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, whose members feared for their pay and jobs.

There was no British law against racial discrimination at the time, so the practice was legal. Tensions over immigration had been high since the Notting Hill race riots of 1958, and the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 had restricted entry from the Commonwealth.

The test case

Paul Stephenson, then in his mid-20s, had grown up in Essex, served in the Royal Air Force, and become Bristol’s first Black youth officer. He worked with a group of West Indian men, including Roy Hackett, Owen Henry, Audley Evans and Prince Brown, who had formed the West Indian Development Council to tackle discrimination in housing and work.

To prove the colour bar existed, Stephenson arranged an interview for Guy Bailey, an 18-year-old Jamaican-born warehouse worker and Boys’ Brigade officer with a good record. In April 1963, when Stephenson telephoned to confirm the appointment and said Bailey was Black, the interview was cancelled; the manager reportedly said there was no point in him coming.

The boycott

On 30 April 1963 Stephenson and the council announced at a press conference that they were calling on people not to use Bristol’s buses. They were inspired in part by the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama.

The boycott drew national attention. On 1 May students from the University of Bristol marched to the bus station in support. Local churches and some local politicians backed the campaign, including Tony Benn, the Labour MP for Bristol South East. The Labour leader Harold Wilson spoke out against the colour bar, and the cricketer Learie Constantine, then High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago, criticised the company publicly.

Opinion was divided. The company and the union defended their position, some local people resented outside criticism, and even some members of Bristol’s Black community were wary of the confrontational approach. Talks involving the company, the union, churches and community representatives continued through the summer.

Victory

After months of pressure, a mass meeting of about 500 bus workers voted to end the colour bar, and on 28 August 1963 the company’s general manager, Ian Patey, announced that crews would be employed regardless of race. By coincidence it was the same day as the March on Washington in the United States.

On 17 September 1963 Raghbir Singh, a Sikh, became Bristol’s first non-white bus conductor. Several Jamaican and Pakistani recruits soon followed.

Consequences and legacy

The boycott showed that campaigns against discrimination could win in Britain. It added to the case for legislation, and the Labour government elected in 1964 passed the Race Relations Act 1965, which outlawed discrimination on grounds of race, colour or national origin in public places such as hotels and restaurants. The Act did not cover employment or housing; those were added by the Race Relations Act 1968.

Paul Stephenson continued campaigning; in 1964 he was arrested after refusing to leave a pub that would not serve him, and the case drew further attention to discrimination. He was appointed OBE in 2009 and died in 2024. In recent years the boycott has been commemorated in Bristol with plaques and murals, and the leading campaigners have received honours.

Timeline

• 1948, June: HMT Empire Windrush arrives, beginning large-scale Caribbean migration to Britain.
• 1963, April: Guy Bailey’s job interview with the Bristol Omnibus Company is cancelled because he is Black.
• 1963, 30 April: The West Indian Development Council announces the boycott.
• 1963, 1 May: Bristol University students march in support.
• 1963, 28 August: The company announces the end of the colour bar.
• 1963, 17 September: Raghbir Singh becomes Bristol’s first non-white bus conductor.
• 1965, 8 November: The Race Relations Act 1965 receives royal assent.
• 1968: A second Race Relations Act extends protection to employment and housing.

Why it matters

The Bristol bus boycott was one of the first successful campaigns against racial discrimination in post-war Britain. It exposed a colour bar that many had preferred not to acknowledge, showed the power of organised community action, and helped push Parliament towards the race relations laws that began to make such discrimination illegal.