In the Grip of Change: the Caribbean and its British Diaspora is an online exhibition based on the exhibition of the same name that took place at Senate House Library, 29 October 2024 - 12 April 2025.

The exhibition, designed to showcase the archive of Caribbean material held in Senate House Library’s Special Collections, focuses on the gradual transition of Britain's former Caribbean colonies to independence in the 1960s-80s, and the period that followed. It explores the pre-independence experience of British Caribbean migrants to the UK, their resilience and resistance in the face of structural racism, and the long history of the Windrush Scandal. It points to the significance of transnational activism through a spotlight on the lives of C.L.R. James, Billy Strachan, and Claudia Jones. With the goal of uniting the personal with the political, the exhibition also draws on oral histories from the AHRC-funded project ‘The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context’. To learn more about the 60 oral history interviews that were conducted as part of the project go to windrushscandal.org.

The exhibition was accompanied by monthly curator-led tours and an events programme, which expanded upon the exhibition. The website offers further resources, including a timeline, map, recordings from events and a guide to library and archive resources available at Senate House Library and other institutions to explore the exhibition's themes further.

At the exhibition's centre stands a suitcase, also called a ‘grip’, which formerly belonged to John Mark Adamson (1938–2024), who came to the UK from British Guiana (present-day Guyana) in 1961. The ‘grip’ pulls the themes of the exhibition together, pointing to the human, personal stories that intersect with the public sphere; the intertwined histories of the Caribbean and Britain, the tradition of migration, transnationalism, and the forces of decolonisation, which continue to impact people’s lives. In response to the exhibition, award-winning poet Jenny Mitchell created the poem 'The Caribbean Grip'.

Curation: Dr Juanita Cox, Argula Rublack

Conservation: Salvador Alcántara-Peláez, Christos Fotelis

Interpretation: Susan Dymond

Design: Northover&Brown

Web design: Ollie Nelmes

Digitisation: Dave Jackson, Arianna Milighetti

Mount-making: Rebecca Ash

Graphic production: Displayways

AV installation: ADi Audiovisual Ltd

With special thanks to the following organisations and individuals: Senate House Library team, Guyana SPEAKS, the Convocation Trust for sponsoring the events programme, Maisie Barrett, Dr Tisa Bryant, Professor David Dabydeen, Professor Katherine Harloe, Professor Philip Murphy, Dr Angelina Osborne, Frances Swaine, Rod Westmaas and to everyone who contributed so generously to the AHRC-funded project, The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context. The project team members were Principal Investigator Professor Philip Murphy, Co-Investigator Dr Rob Waters, and Research Fellows Dr Juanita Cox and Dr Eve Hayes de Kalaf.

We make every effort to ensure the material in this online exhibition is displayed according to our copyright policy and that it does not negatively impact the copyright holders, nor the subjects depicted in the material. However, we acknowledge there may be cases in which a copyright holder or subject may be opposed to the material being displayed in this manner. For this situation, we operate a ‘Notice and Takedown’ policy, under which copyright holders and subjects may request the material be removed from display. Valid reasons for removing material include, but are not limited to:

• Legal requirements
• Proven violations of copyright
• Material that has been found to be libellous or defamatory
• Breaches of confidentiality
• Material contains personal or sensitive data, or includes content that may be regarded as factually incorrect, offensive, indecent, or defamatory.

To request the removal (takedown) of an image from this website, either as the item’s author/subject or if you believe that its content infringes UK law, please contact us by emailing SHL.digitisation@london.ac.uk and using the subject title of ‘Takedown Request’.

In your email please include:

• Your contact details
• Details of the material you wish to be removed from display (including the URL if possible)
• The reason for your takedown request.

If your complaint concerns intellectual property rights, you will need to provide evidence that you are the rights holder, or an authorised representative of the rights holder.

Your request will be acknowledged and an initial assessment undertaken by Senate House Library staff within 14 days. Where the grounds for the request appear to be reasonable, we will temporarily suspend access to the material in question, pending further investigation. If the reason for the request is found to be valid, the material will be removed from public view either permanently or for an agreed period. A record giving information about the item may remain visible; this will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

It may be necessary for legal advice to be taken before the issue can be fully resolved.