Avtar Singh Jouhl

As of 2018, 55.9% of the population of Smethwick was described as "non-white", a higher percentage of "ethnic minorities" than the borough of Sandwell (30.1%) or England overall (14.6%). Smethwick contains a rich array of Desi pubs and across the UK these are multicultural establishments for all.

The visit gained press coverage at the time and was also captured in BBC film footage which had been hitherto unscreened until it was discovered in 2005, by Stephen C Page, a local artist.

Jouhl was awarded the Order of the British Empire (civil division) in 2000 for 'services to Community Relations and to Trade Unionism'.

Jouhl worked at the Smethwick foundries as a moulder's mate before becoming a shop steward. He was furious to learn he and other South Asian workers were paid less than half their white counterparts for the same dangerous, hot work. He acted as a welfare worker and saw the need for collective action to end the colour bar and to end the use of separate toilets for white and non-white workers in these factories. Jouhl played a role in the 1984–85 miners strike by sending six coaches of IWA members to the picket line. He also fought for Indian-born workers to be granted British passports so they would not be deported. A lifelong agitator and communist, Jouhl spent almost thirty years working with the IWA in foundries, campaigning against racism and campaigning for the working class.

Jouhl organised for six coaches of IWA members to be sent to the 1984–1985 Miners' strike in solidarity for the plight of the striking workers even though the non-white workers experienced racism from some miners on the picket lines.

The colour bar system of apartheid had led directly to the Indian immigrant community setting up their own pubs, Desi pubs, in the 1970s where they could play Indian music and serve Indian food and have safe places which acted as something of a community hub for many. Initially, the Desi pubs also provided their patrons with access to advice on legal, employment and marriage matters as well as offering a community fund for those who suffered hard times.

His work campaigning to end the racial segregation in drinking establishments in Smethwick, West Midlands drew the attention of Malcolm X who visited the town, on 12 February 1965, and was taken to a segregated pub, the Blue Gates, with Jouhl and Indian activists to witness where non-white customers were forced to drink in separate rooms.

The US civil rights activist Malcolm X traveled to Smethwick on 12 February 1965 following an invitation by Jouhl. Malcolm X stated to the newspapers that he visited because he was "disturbed by reports that coloured people in Smethwick are being treated badly".

The visit highlighted the issue of the colour bar and racism in the UK. Jouhl called Malcolm X's visit "the shot in the arm for the anti-racism struggle in Britain.” The publicity of the visit "put racism in Britain on the international map" for the first time occurring as it did just a few days before Malcolm X's assassination. This and the wider work of Jouhl and the IWA in the first two decades of the mid-20th century in raising awareness of the anti-racism movement helped bring the topic of racism to the national discourse during the 1964 general election and helped deliver the Race Relations Act 1965, the first legislation to outlaw discrimination due to colour, race, ethnic origin, or national origins in public places in Great Britain.

This evidence of the blatant racism of the colour bar was then used to oppose the renewal of any publican's license owing to the fact that licensing law prevented any licensee from ever refusing to serve an entire class of people in such a clear cut way. When some of the licenses were not renewed, Jouhl stated that it "got huge publicity in 1963 because up until then racial discrimination was not unlawful so everyone and anyone was free to discriminate." The publicans argued that this was not a colour bar but a poverty bar but Asian teachers and doctors were also barred from these rooms. Jouhl campaigned to make it so that the Labour party and trade unions would support legislation opposing the colour bar and racial discrimination. A result of the campaign was a raised profile and backlash against the campaigners.His comrade Jagmohan Joshi's wife, Shirley Joshi, was an anti racism campaigner herself but was depicted and belittled as a "whore" in the press for having a non-white husband. The continued protests against any licensee's clear use of the colour bar did however begin to have a big impact on the commerce and reputation of the Mitchells and Butlers Brewery who ran much of the pubs in the surrounding area.

Jouhl left India for the UK for the economic opportunities he believed it represented and because he had been admitted to the London School of Economics so would be able to achieve his desired future as a history lecturer. He arrived in Heathrow on 4 February 1958, with his wife following three years later. Jouhl met his elder brother at the London house he was staying at for his first night and he was taken to Smethwick the next day. His intention was to study but this decision changed after his arrival in Smethwick. Jouhl and his fellow Indian migrants lived in cramped conditions with sometimes 15–24 tenants living in the same house. He observed how the migrants suffered racism in the workplace and in the street and became committed to helping their cause.

Jouhl joined the Indian Workers Association after finding IWA membership cards in the regular delivery of a box of rationed food supplied to his home by an Indian grocer. Interested to learn more, Jouhl asked the delivery man to bring membership forms next time. Some of the others living in the house were already members and had been to a couple of IWA meetings in Wolverhampton. Jouhl took it upon himself to begin recruiting members alongside Jagmohan Joshi and they organised the Birmingham IWA which had its first meeting in 1958. Looking after the welfare concerns and political issues affecting the Indian immigrant community in Britain was its primary concern, and this included fighting against all forms of discrimination.

His father died in 1954, when Jouhl was 16. That same year, he underwent an arranged marriage to Manjeet (whom he was engaged to when he was nine or 10 years old). They loved one another and Jouhl did not remarry after Manjeet died in 1981 at age 40.

Following the partition of India in 1947, life in Jandiala had changed and its Muslim residents began to leave among increasing fears of safety, despite the village elders trying to assure them. After protests were made by villagers over the replacement of the red communist flag by the independent India tri-colour flag, a compromise was met whereby the red flag would be flown alongside the new Indian flag.

Jouhl's cousin was jailed in 1941 for involvement in India's pre-independence movement. Prior to his incarceration and while he was eluding capture, the police kept raiding the Jouhl family house in order to find his cousin. Jouhl has stated that his early childhood remembrances involve his parents and other relatives being taken to the police station where they would be questioned and beaten.

Avtar Singh Jouhl OBE (2 November 1937 – 8 October 2022) was a British anti-racism campaigner, national president of the Indian Workers' Association (IWA), foundry worker and trade union lecturer.

Avtar Jouhl Singh was born in November 1937 in Jandiala, a village named for a jand tree, within India's Jalandhar district. Jandiala villagers flew the communist red flag and before partition the village was a flourishing multi-faith society that included Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and members of the Dalit community. Jouhl came from an agricultural family who donated grains to conferences to support the communist movement. Jouhl had three elder brothers and a sister who all worked on the farm but was the only one to be sent to school, due to the high cost of attending. At primary school, Jouhl learned to read and write as part of an all-boy class of 40 students, who would sit outside on jute mats while learning Urdu.