Altab Ali: Bangladeshis in east London reflect on legacy of a racist murder

When a young Bangladeshi man, Altab Ali, was found murdered on the streets of Whitechapel, London, on May 4, 1978, his murder awoke the local Bangladeshi community.

Ten years after Enoch Powell’s infamous Rivers of Blood speech, Ali’s murder was symptomatic of the racial antagonism stirred up in the 1970s. Extreme white supremacist groups such as the National Front engaged in organised and systematic patterns of violence against the local Bangladeshis of east London, using slogans such as “Blacks Out”, “White is Right” and “kill the black bastards”.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Ali’s senseless murder, I spoke to people who knew him personally, as well as community leaders and local residents who experienced first-hand the culture of violence and hate that contributed to the racially motivated killing.