ABSTRACT
A number of influences have been shown to have created a climate of opinion amongst the political classes favourable to the 1976 statute. The race riots of 1958 in Notting Hill alarmed both public and politicians, and led pretty well everyone to take race relations more seriously; though, in point of fact, existing legislation allowed the courts to deal with appropriate severity with the white racial thugs responsible for the mayhem. The expression of the urge to legislate in the field of race relations was the 1965 Act. The 1965 Act was important in that it established the principle that state intrusion into race relations was legitimate—at least according to Parliament—and that the law could and should be invoked in order to combat racial discrimination. By about 1970 race relations had become, not only a source of professional jobs, and intense pressure group activity, but also of academic interest.
