>In the 1964 general election, Gordon Walker, who was Shadow Foreign Secretary, was defeated in controversial circumstances in the constituency by the openly anti-immigration Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths. Labour's victory at the general election would inevitably have seen him appointed as Foreign Secretary in the government led by Harold Wilson; however, Smethwick had attracted immigration from the Commonwealth in the economic and industrial growth of the years following the Second World War and Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the government's policy. There were rumours that his supporters had circulated the slogan "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour."[19] Griffiths refused to condemn the slogan.[20] Colin Jordan, a British Neo-Nazi and leader of the British Movement, claimed that members of his group had produced the initial slogan as well as spread the publicised poster and sticker campaign which contained it; Jordan's group in the past had also campaigned on other slogans, such as: "Don't vote - a vote for Tory, Labour or Liberal is a vote for more Blacks!".[21] Jordan would also use similar campaign tactics against Gordon Walker in the 1965 Leyton by-election. The election of Griffith led to Smethwick becoming famous worldwide as 'Britain's most racist town'.[20]
>At the beginning of 1965 Smethwick Council was planning "to purchase all available houses on Marshall Street to prevent their sale to immigrants". This made national headlines, and the plan was later stopped by the government.[20][22] In February 1965, American black activist Malcolm X visited Marshall Street just days before his assassination. Earlier in his career he had advocated the complete separation of African Americans from whites, but he now showed his opposition to racial segregation,[23][24] telling the press: "I have come here because I am disturbed by reports that coloured people in Smethwick are being treated badly. I have heard they are being treated as the Jews under Hitler. I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens."
Today Smethwick is 12% White British.