The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre was founded in 1999 specifically to combat racist ideas about Black people, and is named in honour of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah who was murdered in 1986 in the playground of a Manchester High School .

The Centre contains material that documents the contributions of Black people to British and American history, and the struggle against racism in its many forms.

The collection includes books, newspaper cuttings, journal and magazine articles, posters and other ephemeral material. We have material that is difficult to find elsewhere - for example several collections of slave narratives, including audio-tape of interviews with ex-slaves, from the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s.

A unique cataloguing system allows visitors to identify material relevant to their research needs. We are open to the public daily, and visitors can use the materials in the Centre free of charge.

Search our Database by visiting www.racearchive.manchester.ac.uk

We have a small local history section that is the focus of current efforts to increase the recording of the histories of African, Asian and Caribbean communities in Manchester. We quickly became aware of very large gaps in this area. Volunteers and placement students have been working to gather such material to lodge in the centre. We also hold all of the interviews and resources collected by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust as part of it's oral history projects.

Find out more about the collection by visiting the Special Collections page.

In 2009, the Centre took ownership of the library of the former Commision for Racial Equality - a collection of over 20000 items. The Centre team are busy sorting and cataloguing this material onto our database.

The Centre and Trust have also collaborated with the Children's University of Manchester to bring some of Britain's Black heroes to life as part of the Children's University's History webpages. Find out which heroes feature on their website.

In addition, the Centre produces a free online international journal - Ethnicity and Race in Changing World: A Review Journal (ERCW). It is an international, multidisciplinary journal aimed at academics, undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and practitioners in the field. The journal will be published twice yearly. Find out more by visiting the ERCW page

Where to find us:

J Floor, Sackville Street Building, University of Manchester, Sackville Street, M1 3BU or M60 1QD

Tel: 0161- 275 2920 / Fax: 0161 275 0916 / e-mail: rrarchive@manchester.ac.uk

The centre is open to the public Monday to Friday, 9.30a.m - 4.30p.m.

For group visits, please make an appointment first.