Plaque marking the death of Charles Wotten

This plaque, situated in Queen’s Dock, Liverpool, England, marks Charles Wotten’s death.
There had been a black community in Liverpool since the 1700s, largely due to shipping and the slave trade. During World War I, labour shortages swelled the black population from 3,000 to around 5,000. But the war’s end exposed deep lying racial tensions that would threaten the community’s existence.
On the night of the 5th of June 1919 racial tensions in the city exploded following a fight between local black people and Scandinavian sailors at a pub.
When the police arrived at the scene they decided to arrest the black men. They went around the corner from the pub to Upper Pitt Street, here there were a number of hostels and boarding houses used by the black community. But by this point a mob, several hundred strong, had gathered.
In Number 18 Upper Pitt Street a young, Bermudan sailor was staying. His name was Charles Wotten and when the police tried to force the door to his boarding house he escaped out the back, but he was quickly spotted.
Charles Wotten was pursued all the way down to the Queen’s Dock. At one point it seems that the police managed to get hold of him and then the mob seized him back. The crowd pelted him with missiles and Charles ended up in the water and drowned.
Over the next three days, widespread rioting aimed at the black community took hold.
This plaque was created by BBC History and is one of twenty placed around the world for the series Black and British: A Forgotten History.