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Black children in WW2

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by MelbyG (U14025007) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  I'm trying to find out more information about the experience of black children in WW2 - particularly in Bristol. What was the ratio of black children to white in inner city schools? Did many black children experience evacuation? If any one can help, I'd be most grateful.

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  Posted by MattJ18 (U13798409) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  Melby, I'm no expert on this but I don't think there would have been many, if any, black children in Britain in WW2. The Empire Windrush, the ship that arrived at Tilbury on 22 June 1948 from Jamaica, was the first mass migration of black people in to Britain as far as I am aware. Clearly there would have been others before that but I'm not sure that there would have been any in one particular area of any significant number. I suppose with Bristol being a port there might have been, but it seems unlikely to me.
  
  There must have been a fair few afterwards though, given the number of Afro-American troops 'over here' ;o)

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  Posted by JB on a slippery slope to the thin end ofdabiscuit (U13805036) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  Of course there were established black communities in Bristol St Pauls, and others in Cardiff Bay, St Annes Nottingham and Liverpool Eight.
  
  Kids from those districts would have been evacuated along with the rest of the local children to the nearby countryside.
  

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  Posted by U3280211 (U3280211) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  JB on sea is right of course.
  
  There have been substantial numbers of black people in Bristol since at least 1698.
  
  The Churches at Lawrence Hill, Bristol, hold records of baptism of 'free' black children going back to 1758. Slavery became illegal in England 14 years later. Liverpool superseded Bristol as the main 'slave-trade' port.
  
  The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World War Two, 'Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Front' archive includes many interesting tales (including audio records) of evacuation of school children. Bristol is mentioned in that file.

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  Posted by MB (U177470) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  As had been written there are not likely to have been very many.
  
  There was an interesting piece in the Telegraph at the weekend about the black GIs who came to this country and the lack of segregation here that came as a surprise to them.
  
  
  
  I have read other reports which have come close to saying that it might have inspired some of them to take part in the American civil rights campaigns when they went home after WWII.
  
  

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  Posted by JB on a slippery slope to the thin end ofdabiscuit (U13805036) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  Difficult to give numbers since there was no monitoring and no such thing as British citizenship until the 1990s, with anyone born in the Kings Realm being a 'subject'.
  
  The best guess is that there were slightly less than 10,000 non-white subjects resident in the UK before WW2, including Asians and Arabs such as the Yemenis of Cardiff and South Sheilds. The difficulty with this figure is the uncertain number of people who would conceal or play down their mixed-race origins, despite widespread comments about them having what would at the time have been called 'a touch of the tarbrush.'
  
  Regards the black GI's, there were numerous incidents of unrest including some armed exchanges provoked by the imposition of segregation on the surrounding towns and villages by the US military, and the belief that the white enlisted men were being allocated more and better pubs and dances to attend.
  

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  Posted by Palaisglide (U3102587) on Tuesday, 9th June 2009

  Any one who lived in areas with busy ports knows there were black children around.
  We had many ships docking with what we called Lascar seamen and the very first coloured men in uniform around my town were from islands in the Indian ocean.
  They came here as Pioneer troops to build the military compounds needed at the time.
  In the village were one coloured family and we did not think it odd, in fact us lads were curious but they integrated through sport and play.
  Most coast towns had their coloured enclaves and although it must have happened I saw no discrimination at all.
  It must have helped me when later I served with coloured troops and although we were a small number of whites we meshed together and worked in harmony.
  Frank.

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