Kamal A. Chunchie of the Coloured Men's Institute: the man and the legend

The lives of black communities in Britain in the inter-war period, the racial hostility faced by them, the discriminatory Coloured Alien Seamen's Order (1925), have all been documented by historians of black history. The lives of the black communities of the East End of London, and the work of organizations, notably, Harold Moody's League of Coloured Peoples, among them has also been touched on by historians. The work of other individuals and organizations among the black communities in the East End are less well known. This piece rescues and documents the work of one such individual, Pastor Kamal A Chunchie, and his organization, the Coloured Men's Institute. Kamal A. Chunchie, arriving in Britain from the trenches of the First World War, struggled for upwards of 30 years to improve the lives of the black communities in London's docklands, through social welfare and Christian fellowship, working first with the Methodists, and later as a freelance. It also examines the relationship between Chunchie and Methodism.