"[8] The birth of Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP) was a direct response[4] to the 1968 banning from Jamaica of historian and scholar Walter Rodney, who was then teaching at the University of the West Indies in Mona and outside the lecture halls had been sharing his knowledge and exchanging ideas with the island's working people, prompting the government's censure.
Thousands of Jamaicans took to the streets protesting the ban and in London a group of concerned West Indians – the Huntleys, Richard Small, Ewart Thomas, Andrew Salkey and others[9] – decided to challenge it by publishing and distributing Rodney's speeches and lectures.
"[15] BLP initially functioned from the living-room of the Huntley home in West London, which additionally served as a bookshop where teachers could come to browse and buy, and became a meeting place that hosted "book launches and readings, political and social debates, with contributors from the Caribbean, Africa, US and Asia.
"[15] Bogle regularly organised meetings, talks and readings at the bookshop with the participation of such eminent writers as Ntozake Shange,[19] Louise Bennett, Farrukh Dhondy,[20] Andrew Salkey, Sam Selvon, Kamau Brathwaite, Merle Hodge, Petronella Breinburg, Cecil Rajendra, and others.
[15] In 1977–79, the Bookshop was targeted for attack by racist groups,[21] as were the few other outlets for radical material – including New Beacon Books, Grassroots and Headstart in London, as well as enterprises in Nottingham, Manchester and Birmingham — with abusive graffiti repeated daubed on the windows and doors, National Front literature and excrement pushed through the letterbox.
"[25] A "cultural extravaganza" was held at the Commonwealth Institute, compered by Carmen Munroe and featuring a variety of performers, poets, drummers, dancers and musicians including Misty in Roots, Keith Waithe, Cecil Rajendra, Linton Kwesi Johnson and others.
[38][39] Artists featured in the exhibition[40] — which was described by Colin Prescod (chair of the Institute of Race Relations) as an "exposition of startling and radical imaginative works, addressing grand British cultural and historical matters, and touching on themes of existential and social restlessness"[37] — include those on whose talents Bogle-L'Ouverture drew for its book jackets or for the posters, greetings cards and other artwork sold in the bookshop, such as Errol Lloyd and George "Fowokan" Kelly.