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“It feels prophetic” … the shot Morris took in the Black House in 1969. “When I was 14, I used to go to a place in London called the Black House, an organisation run by Michael X, who had been a henchman for a slum landlord. When he came round, if you didn’t pay, you got hurt. But then he switched and tried to become England’s answer to Malcolm X – except he was nothing like him. He got some funding, though, and some donations from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, to create a community centre for young black kids. It was a very militant organisation, constantly being raided by the police, who thought there were lots of drugs and guns on the premises. It eventually closed because of the pressure. Michael then went to Trinidad and set up a commune. He went crazy and killed two people there, including the daughter of a British MP, and was hanged. The Black House had a library, a games room and a rehearsal room. We congregated there, those of us who wanted to find out more about ourselves. It was quite a big building, a warren of rooms and basements. You’d turn a corner and stumble across some secret meeting you shouldn’t be a part of. While walking around one day, I came across this kid and took some shots. I don’t remember who it was, but there were no questions, no who, what, where. I knew immediately it would make a great photograph. I was quite frightened – the way he was handling the gun, the way he portrayed himself, he had a sense of purpose. He was about 10”. (Photo by Dennis Morris)
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