The Leicester Mercury: Race on the Front Page.

This working paper is based on research into the change in front page coverage of the Leicester Mercury on immigration, race and ethnic minority subjects between 1967 and 1979. This period was key in the history of race relations in the Leicester highlighted by increasing immigration to Leicester from Kenya in the late 1960s, Uganda in the 1970s and the rise and fall of the anti-immigration National Front as a sustainable electoral force in the city by 1980. The coverage of these issues by the Leicester Mercury during this period has been described in the existing literature on immigration to Leicester as racist.1 This working paper challenges this view and asks to what extent was the Leicester Mercury leading the debate around immigration or following events as any responsible local newspaper should do? The answer lies somewhere in between but a change in the coverage of the issues in the Leicester Mercury is discernible from the mid 1970s. The tables on the following pages show all of the stories featuring immigration, race or ethnic minority subjects that the Leicester Mercury placed on its front pages between 1967 and 1979. Over this thirteen year period 365 stories featured on the Leicester Mercury front page. Given that each year the newspaper published on an average of 290 days this suggests that on average stories appeared every ten days. However, in tabulated form the trends and high points become clearer.