People involved in or witness to the uprising of 1981 recall the ‘exhilarating, frightening’ time
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It’s been 40 years since Ros Griffiths watched her neighbourhood burn to the ground. Then 15, she wandered the streets through one of the most devastating civil disturbances England has seen, in a state of shock. “As I got into the area, you could see the fighting. It looked like war.”
But even amid the smoke, fire and police cars that tore through the streets, Griffiths still remembers the reggae music that played softly into the night.