A new series of walking tours will bring Manchester's Black history to life, exploring stories that have been largely overlooked. The Heritage in Action trail, launching on 7 October, will delve into the lives of individuals whose labour shaped the city and its direct relationship with transatlantic slavery.
Local historians Linford Sweeney and Hayley Flynn will lead the guided walks. The events are a collaboration between the Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement programme and the charity Greater Manchester Moving.
The trails will highlight Manchester's rich history of Black activism, from 1787 abolition campaigns to postwar independence struggles and influential concerts by artists such as Nina Simone. Despite being home to one of the UK's largest postwar Black communities and its evolution depending on cotton produced by enslaved Africans, there are few public commemorations of Black history in the city.
One of the tours will explore the impact of changes to the built environment on Black communities in Moss Side and Hulme, linking lost and surviving landmarks with the legacy of the Windrush generation. Another tour will question the city's approach to memorialisation over centuries, starting at the River Irwell and moving through the Northern Quarter.