Race Relations Act 1968

The Race Relations Act 1968 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom making it illegal to refuse housing, employment, or public services to a person on the grounds of colour, race, ethnic or national origins in Great Britain (although not in Northern Ireland, which had its own parliament at the time). It also created the Community Relations Commission to promote 'harmonious community relations'.[2]

Race Relations Act 1968[1]
Long titleAn Act to make fresh provision with respect to discrimination on racial grounds, and to make provision with respect to relations between people of different racial origins.
Citation1968 c. 71
Dates
Royal assent25 October 1968
Other legislation
Repealed byRace Relations Act 1976
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Act made amendments to the Race Relations Act 1965. It was superseded (and repealed) by the Race Relations Act 1976.

The Act was criticised for poorly translating "new standards of behaviour" into an effective legal document.[3] The bill which introduced the Act was the focus of Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech, delivered to the West Midlands Conservative Association on 20 April 1968.[4] Powell was sacked from Ted Heath's shadow cabinet the following day.

See also

References
  1. Short title as conferred by s. 29 of the Act
  2. "Research Paper: The Race Relations Amendment Bill" (PDF). The Parliament of the United Kingdom. 8 March 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2009.
  3. Hepple, B.A. (1969). "Statutes: Race Relations Act 1968". The Modern Law Review. 32 (2): 181–186. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.1969.tb02294.x.
  4. telegraph.co.uk: "Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech", 12 Dec 2007


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