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The year 1919 will be forever remembered in Glasgow for the events of ‘Bloody Friday’ on January 31, when tanks rolled in to Glasgow to quell the unrest generated by an estimated 30 - 60,000 striking workers in the city.

Yet another event occurred days prior that also warrants special attention, the Glasgow ‘Harbour Riot’, also known as ‘the Broomielaw Race Riot', which is an event that will go down as one of the ugliest days in the area's history.

100 years ago, on January 23, 1919, over 600 sailors with the Merchant Navy gathered here to hear a speech by local delegates of the National Seamen's Union and prominent Labour leaders.

The delegates are said to have informed the gathered group of white Glasgow-based sailors that one of the reasons they were having trouble finding employment was that "foreigners" i.e. black British colonial and Chinese sailors, were becoming unfair economic competitors (by accepting lower wages).

The reason? To try to involve the local seafaring workforce in the general strike called (in favour of a 40-hour working week) on the Clydeside, which would rear its head a few days later in George Square.

(Image: Getty)

This "inflammatory" speech, which served to scapegoat non-white sailors, would set the tone for a violent confrontation on the Clydeside, one detailed in the book '1919: Britain's Year of Revolution' by Simon Webb.

A confrontation that came at a time when racism was already apparent within the shipping trade, by virtue of the fact that many shipowners had instigated a 'colour ban', following earlier opposition from figures within of the shipping federations and trade unions to the employment of non-white British subjects as long as white men are unemployed.

Shipping firms and ship owners had also neglected to inform non-white soldiers that they were entitled to the same wages as white sailors, on the basis that if sailors hired on British soil had the right to be paid the same wage rates as any fellow sailor, with the difference in wages only being for those hired in non-British territory.

Later that day, as merchant ships crowded the port, Webb notes that two sets of sailors were lined up at the very same offices in the hope of gaining employment on the ships: one group of white sailors of the Merchant Navy and the other a group of sailors of African descent (believed to be Sierra Leone).

The African sailors - who numbered around 30 - were harassed and abused by the much larger crowd of British seamen and white sailors of other nationalities, whose ill feeling towards the black colonial sailors had grown with the arrival of Chinese sailors to the city in the preceding months.

Having ran off to seek refuge in their accommodation at the Glasgow Sailors’ Home on the Broomielaw, the building was attacked by the white sailors and members of the public who had joined them in their dispute - leaving the African sailors to flee elsewhere to a nearby lodging house.

Again the crowd (numbering in their hundreds) attacked the building with bricks and bottles, while the African sailors - some of them in possession of revolvers - fired into the street below to try and disperse the mob.

After the police arrived to put a stop to the violent confrontation, one person was found to have suffered a bullet wound, while two people (one black sailor and one white sailor) had been stabbed.

The African sailors were taken by the police into protective custody and subsequently charged with riot and weapons offences, while it is believed that none of the white rioters were arrested.

Newspaper reports played down the severity of the event, detailing how there had been some "chaff’ between white and black sailors, while others detailed how ‘a large and hostile crowd of British seamen and white sailors of other nationalities" followed the African sailors to their lodging house.

In the end 27 pleas of not guilty were accepted, with three others received fines for breach of the peace after pleading guilty.

The aftermath of an event which, while being downplayed and forgotten by historians due to the violent clashes which took place eight days later, deserves to be remembered for all the wrong reasons as one of the ugliest days in the history of our city.