12 Facts About Henry Gunter

Henry Gunter was a leading British communist and civil rights leader, most famous for his campaigns for racial equality in the English city of Birmingham.

Henry Gunter authored numerous articles exposing racism in Birmingham's hotels, housing, and employment.

Henry Gunter dedicated his entire life to both trade union activism and fighting for the equal rights of black people.

Henry Gunter continued working in the United States until the end of World War II, becoming more deeply entrenched in the trade union movement and the fight for the rights of black people.

Job opportunities were extremely few after Henry Gunter had been blocked from returning to the United States, so he chose to instead move to Britain, where he would then spend the remainder of his life, making his home in the English city of Birmingham sometime in 1949.

Henry Gunter achieved further success within the trade union movement after forwarding a successful motion to the Trades Union Congress, one of the largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, in support of the rights of immigrant workers in Britain.

Henry Gunter often wrote articles for their newspaper Caribbean News.

Henry Gunter wrote a work titled A Man's A Man: A Study of Colour Bar in Birmingham and an Answer, which was published by the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Henry Gunter led the Afro Caribbean Society to campaign for an end to racial discrimination in Birmingham city's bus transport system, which was refusing to hire black people, and the city council consequently changed this policy and allowed black people to join the bus services as employees.

In 1958, Henry Gunter met American black civil rights legend Paul Robeson, who was very often a guest of British communist activists.

Henry Gunter met Seretse Khama, who went on to become the president of Botswana.

Research papers connected to Henry Gunter are contained in the Wolfson Centre for Archival Research, held under the name "MS 2165".