1985 Handsworth riots 1500 police officers drafted into the area, about 45 shops looted and burnt, and a trail of damage running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. As well as racial tension, unemployment was seen as a major factor in the riots; by the time of the riots, fewer than 5% of the black population to have left school that summer had found employment. The riots were the first of a series of similar riots across the country during the autumn of 1985, notably the Broadwater Farm riot in London which also resulted in a fatality (the murder of policeman Keith Blakelock).
Martha Osamor, Baroness Osamor Youth Association Mothers' Project on the nearby Broadwater Farm housing estate. From 1986 to 1990 she served as a Labour Councillor representing the Bruce Grove Ward in the London Borough of Haringey. Following the Broadwater Farm riot Osamor and Dolly Kiffin organised the "first Civil Rights Demonstration ever held in Britain" on 3 October 1987 and produced a "Manifesto of the movement for civil rights and justice". She became a founding member of the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign. Osamor was nominated by some branches within the Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party in the selection for a candidate at the by-election in