The contributions of African, Caribbean and Asian people to Scottish history are often forgotten, or relegated to a ‘bit part’. We believe that Black History is Scotland's history.​

CRER co-ordinates Black History Month in Scotland, but we recognise that one month in a year is not acceptable. Access to education on Scotland's Black History needs to be available to everyone, 365 days per year. It particularly needs to be woven throughout our school curriculum. This is backed up by the findings from the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), who recommended “that Scotland’s school curricula (should) contain a balanced account of the history of British Empire and colonialism, including slavery and other grave human rights violations.”

We want to bring Black History to audiences who might not be aware of Scotland’s connections to all of this, and to bring it into the mainstream. We want to see a more accurate view of Scotland’s history that does not exclude the contributions and sacrifices of African, Caribbean and Asian people.

You can read more about Scotland's Black History Month and view this year’s programme as well as previous programmes on our dedicated Black History Month website. 

We’re campaigning for a national museum, archive and learning centre dedicated to illuminating Scotland’s role in empire, colonialism, slavery and migration. As a step towards this, we're building a virtual Empire Museum. You can find out more about this work at the Empire Museum website, which is a work in progress. We've also begun to pinpoint some of the key locations for Black History in Scotland through our Black History Map.

For more information on these and other projects, contact Amy Rich, Communities and Campaigns Officer.