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).
Handsworth Riots – Twenty Summers On Even today people still ask the question "how could a tiny spark turn into such a gigantic flame"? An online exhibition from the Pogus Caesar / OOM Gallery Archives as part of British Black History Month 2005 Handsworth Riots – Twenty Summers On Handsworth Riots – Twenty Summers On is the name of an exhibition of photographs taken by Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar during and in the wake of the Handsworth Riots, 9–11 September 1985. In September 1985 the days were warm and sunny, thousands of dancing revellers, many in brightly coloured costumes were pouring into the