"The Voice" was founded in 1982 by Val McCalla, who, while working on a London local paper called the "East End News" in 1981, led a group of businessmen and journalists in the creation of a weekly newspaper to cater for the interests of British-born Afro-Caribbean people. Until then the Afro-Caribbean press in Britain had always addressed a generation of immigrants, relaying news from their countries of origin in the Caribbean and Africa. Publications were named accordingly, with titles such as the "West Indian Gazette", "West Indian World", "The Caribbean Times" and "West Africa". According to Beulah Ainley, who worked with McCalla on the "East End News", "nobody thought the Voice would work", however, as "The Independent" has noted: "The previous summer, Brixton had rioted, and Afro-Caribbean enterprises of all kinds were now being encouraged in the hope of preventing a repetition. London's councils, in particular, were keen to advertise for black staff, and even keener to do so in an Afro-Caribbean newspaper. McCalla also had a business partner, Alex Pascall, with BBC connections; soon the Corporation was advertising too."