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What was the Race Relations Act?

Families arriving at Heathrow around 1967.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

These families are pictured arriving at Heathrow airport in London to live in Britain around 1967

On 26 November 1968, changes came into force to do with an important law called the Race Relations Act.

The Race Relations Act 1968 was the second of three laws related to race in Britain.

All of the laws made it illegal to discriminate against somebody because of the colour of their skin, which is racial discrimination.

Discrimination is when a person is treated unfairly because of who they are or characteristics that they have - for example, because of their religion, their race, their sexuality or whether they are a boy or a girl.

Take the quiz below to find out a bit more about the situation in Britain before the Race Relations Act, then read on to find out more.

What was the Race Relations Act?

The first Race Relations Act was came into force on 8 December 1965. It was the first law in the UK to deal with racial discrimination.

"The Race Relations Acts were introduced to provide clear laws that said that everyone in Britain had a legal right to be treated fairly and equally, and that everyone had a responsibility to make sure that people abided by these rules," explains Uzo Iwobi, who is head of Race Council Cymru in Wales.

At the time it was passed, there were nearly one million immigrants living in the UK - and it was not illegal to treat those who were not white differently to those who were.

Samir Jeraj, who works for the Race Equality Foundation told Newsround: "Anyone whose name sounded 'foreign' might have had an application for something rejected because of their name, or sometimes discrimination happened to a person's face by being told 'people like you, don't fit in here'."

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

It wasn't just a problem in Britain. This sign from Ohio, USA, in 1938 shows a restaurant clearly stating that it would only serve white people

The 1965 law made it an offence to discriminate against somebody because of the colour of their skin, race, or ethnic or national background in public places, like hotels, restaurants or the cinema.

Acts of discrimination included refusing to serve a person, taking an unreasonable amount of time to do so, or charging them too much money.

The law came in because there was a lot of anger and discrimination shown towards black and Asian immigrants who had come to Britain to work after World War Two, in particular.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

These people were arriving to Britain from the West Indies in 1956

But even after the 1965 law, there was still a long way to go to address the problem of discrimination in society.

The law didn't include certain places like shops, and racial discrimination in many other areas of life was still incredibly common - and not illegal.

Many black and Asian people were not allowed houses and couldn't get jobs because of the colour of their skin.

Why was the original law changed?

So, in 1968, a new Race Relations Act law made it illegal for someone to be refused housing, a job or access to services (like a mortgage) because of their ethnic background.

Then, in 1976, the third Race Relations Act tightened the law even more. It outlined what direct and indirect discrimination was, and the Commission for Racial Equality was founded.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

This picture was at a demonstration against Asian immigration in London in 1972. You can see the demonstrators are holding signs saying 'Britain for the British' so racist attitudes were still a big problem

"The 1968 and 1976 versions of the Race Relations Acts, in particular, completely transformed the way that discrimination was dealt with, although there was - and still is - a lot more to be done to stamp out racism from society completely," explains Uzo.

What's the situation now?

Many charities, organisations and individuals continue to work hard to eliminate racial discrimination from society.

"Race Council Cymru has done reports which have showed that many people still experience racism in their lives - whether it's being left out or being called names. It can even happen in schools," Uzo told Newsround.

About 20 years ago, a report was done into the murder of a boy called Stephen Lawrence. It found that there were racist attitudes and beliefs within the Metropolitan police, which had affected how his murder was investigated.

So, the 1976 law was changed in 2000 to include the police for the first time.

Direct v Indirect discrimination (Citizens Advice)

Sometimes discrimination can be easy to spot - for example, if a hotel turns you away because you are gay. This is called direct discrimination. This is when you're treated differently simply because of who you are.

But there are other times when you may be treated in the same way as everybody else, but it has a different or worse effect on you because of who you are. This is indirect discrimination.

According to many experts, though, the laws around discrimination haven't changed very much since the 1970s.

A law called the Equality Act was established in 2010, which covered not only race, but also gender and disability (which had their own separate laws before too).

The idea was it would be one simple law that clearly explained the ways in which it was illegal to treat someone.

But many feel that lots of people are still treated differently because of the colour of their skin, their religion, their sexuality or their gender.

Samir told Newsround: "Racial discrimination is still very common. You only have to look at some of the nasty things that people say on social media to see that it is still a problem.

"The UK has good laws to stop racial discrimination, but it is one thing to make a law or a rule, and a whole other thing to actually change everyone's attitudes and behaviour, and get rid of discrimination completely.

"What we can do is make sure we take action ourselves by understanding what racism is and opposing it wherever we see it, no matter who we are."

As you grow up, you may see racism, you may have racist things happen to you or to people you care about. It is important to know what racism is and what to do about it because no one should be treated badly because of how they look, the language they speak or where their family is from.

— Samir Jeraj, Race Equality Foundation

Uzo told Newsround: "We need to make sure that children understand what discrimination is and learn what it is to treat everybody fairly and equally. History has shown that changing the law isn't enough to change attitudes completely. We should all learn to live together in harmony and celebrate our differences. Everybody deserves a chance to live a racism-free life."

What do you think? Do you think that we have done enough to stop people from being discriminated against because of their race or do you think that we could do more? Let us know in the comments below.