“Cavaliers made us ‘United’: Local football and the identity politics of second-generation African-Caribbean youth in the East Midlands c.1970-1979”

The concept of a unified African-Caribbean community or identity is a modern construction in that it emerged in its present guise during the second half of the twentieth century. Prior to this, the identity politics of the ‘black’ people from this region were largely polarized. They were frequently divided along lines of island identities (Jamaica, Barbados, St Kitts etc.). They were also subdivided along lines of complexion and class. There is a general recognition that blanket social, structural and institutional racisms experienced by most black-Caribbean workers in Britain helped to forge a more unified Caribbean identity. Focusing on the period between 1970 and 1979, this article sketches out the ways in which the black experience within local-level football also contributed to this identity change among a particular group of young sportsmen in Leicester.