Robert S. Abbott (1870-1940) was a very successful Chicago businessman, having founded and edited the Chicago Defender, one of the best selling African American newspapers. He and his wife Helen took a three months tour of Europe in the summer of 1929. They first went to Paris “where I was accorded the highest treatment a man could have … nothing denied to me”. They had the same experiences in Antwerp, Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Wiesbaden and Cologne [Halifax Daily Courier, 28 August 1929, page 7]. This Yorkshire newspaper headed its report “Negro Millionaire’s Ordeal. Colour Bar of London Hotels. White Wife”.

Abbott said they had been refused admission to thirty hotels, compelled to leave one hotel at half an hour’s notice, and requested to leave another after having booked rooms for a fortnight. This was reported by the Daily Express and other national newspapers. Abbott recalled “the name of a professional coloured man and rang him up … we are staying with him in Forest Hill [south London]”. The left-wing Daily Herald [31 August 1929, page 2] had “Hotel Colour Bar Protest. M.P.’s letter to the Prime Minister”, reporting that London member of parliament James Marley had written to the prime minister – James Ramsay MacDonald. Far away in Northern Ireland the Belfast Telegraph [30 August 1929, page 5] reported “Millionaire snubbed. Government Action in Colour Bar. Hotels under criticism”. The reports in several newspapers were similar, some like the Sydenham, Forest Hill and Penge Gazette [30 August 1929, page 7] ending “London hotel-keepers deny the existence of a colour bar”. The Lewisham Borough News [4 September 1929, page 4] had “Negro Millionaire’s Ordeal”.

The “professional coloured man” was voice coach Louis George Drysdale, who first arrived in Britain with a Jamaican choir in 1906 [see page 027 of this website], who lived at 11 Westbourne Road in Forest Hill. Drysdale had taught several leading African American singers, who were members of the song-and-dance theatrical shows which were popular from the 1920s. Abbott would have known them, by reputation or through meetings, and Drysdale advertised his studio and qualifications. Drysdale died in March 1933. The house in Westbourne Road still stands, but his grave and any memorial were destroyed in wartime bombing. Robert Abbott is widely recognised as an important and influential black American. Both men have website biographies.

Peter Fryer wrote in his Staying Power – the History of Black People in Britain (London: 1984) that “Before 1944 it was common for London’s West End hotels to refuse accommodation to black people” [page 364]. The best known case was that of Paul Robeson, in 1929. Lady Colefax invited him and his wife Essie to the Savoy Grill. The couple were refused entry. There was an unspoken policy among management, kindled by the American tourists to bar access to people of colour.

Labour MP James Marley announced that he’d raise the issue in the House of Commons, and Ramsay MacDonald said it was against hotel practices, although he declined to intervene at a government level. The Quakers set up a council to muster opinion against racism; the Evening Standard published an article calling for an investigation of all hotels in London; hotel managers from a variety of establishments, including the Mayfair, the Berkeley, and the Ritz, came out opposing the Savoy Grill’s actions. The matter was discussed in parliament. No legal action followed.

No doubt other dark visitors had similar experiences – if Abbott’s wealth and Robeson’s considerable fame as a singer and actor did not shield them, what of lesser mortals?