'Scrap SUS now' badge
Object
Badge
Production date
1977-1981
Object number
2024.105
Physical Description
Metal, circular badge with a white background and red and black text reading 'Scrap SUS now/Black Peoples Organisations/Campaign against SUS'. The black and white illustration represents a young Black man being stopped by the hand of a black silhouette wearing a police helmet.
Object history
In 1970′s London, the notorious SUS law (based on the 1824 Vagrancy Act) was used by police to stop, search, arrest, detain and assault young black men. In 1977, 60% of arrests under the ‘sus’ laws in Hackney were of people defined as 'black', even though this represented only 11% of the borough's population at the time.
Mavis Best and a group of black women from Lewisham lobbied the police and the government to scrap the SUS law. It took numerous demonstrations and meetings with Government officials but within 3 years the law was scrapped. This was a major chapter in the Black British fight for civil rights.
Mavis Best and a group of black women from Lewisham lobbied the police and the government to scrap the SUS law. It took numerous demonstrations and meetings with Government officials but within 3 years the law was scrapped. This was a major chapter in the Black British fight for civil rights.
Associated Person
Material
Metal
Plastics
Dimension
Diameter (Front): 4.4cm
On display?
No
Inscription
Scrap SUS now/Black Peoples Organisations/Campaign against SUS
