Page 7 - Race Awareness Pocket Book
P. 7
What was the Race Relations Act?
The first Race Relations Act came into force on 8
th
December 1965. It was the first law in the UK to deal
with racial discrimination.
The Race Relations Acts were introduced to provide
clear laws that said that everyone in Britain had a legal
right to be treated fairly and equally, and that
everyone had a responsibility to make sure that people
abided by these rules
At the time it was passed, there were nearly one
million immigrants living in the UK - and it was not
illegal to treat those who were not white differently to
those who were.
Anyone whose name sounded 'foreign' might have had
an application for something rejected because of their
name, or sometimes discrimination happened to a
person's face by being told 'people like you, don't fit in
here'."
The 1965 law made it an offence to discriminate
against somebody because of the colour of their skin,
race, or ethnic or national background in public places,
like hotels, restaurants or the cinema.
Acts of discrimination included refusing to serve a
person, taking an unreasonable amount of time to do
so, or charging them too much money.
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