-Society has gradually adapted to these changes the 'black' community have played a huge role in British history
-1948 still counting the cost of WWII
-half a million people migrated from the West Indies
-felt as if they were 'intuders' and 'foreigners'
-they brought colour,music and life
-'you can only suppress people for so long'
-Britain can now accommodate the Black population
-June 21st 1948-Windrush arrived
-5,000 miles to Britain
-everything which was seen being done in Britain was repeated in the Caribbean
-people were brought up to consider Britain as the 'Mother Country' and to respect the royal family
-'the King was our King, the flag was our flag'
-Hitler compared Black people to Jews and considered them to be the same
-West Indians and Britain's not only lived together they died together
-52 killed from Trinidad alone is battle
-'we fought as men'
-Noel Brown entertained the British troops
-Noel Brown announced the war was over to a room full of people
-the attitude changed abruptly
-'about time they went back to their homes'
-'unecessary evils'
-250 left to go back to the Caribbean on holiday
-£28 and ten shillings for a one way fare on the Empire Windrush, there was no shortage of takers
-A hurricane in the Caribbean destroyed all the crops, few people worked as the economy was suffering
-The Empire Windrush left from a harbour in Kingston on the 24th of May 1948
-Arrived 3 weeks after leaving Kingston
-June 21st 1948 docked in Essex
-500 Jamaicans
-'British Empire citizens coming to the Mother Country with good intent'
-'London this lovely city'
-excitement was tinged with uncertainty
-feared what was going to happen
-they saw chimneys and thought they were factories so assumed their were jobs
-most arrivals had no where to live and no jobs to go to
-the Government housed them in an air raid shelter under Clapham Common
-In the 1950s a quarter of a million West Indians had arrived in Britain
-Many people believed Britain was dark and grey
-those coming from the Caribbean had a distinctive taste in music which was not suited to the British people
-the K.B.W (Keep Britain White) was established in an attempt to stop this Caribbean migration
-the Black population had ,made it clear that they were not going back to where they had originally come from
-the Black people were very different to the White British as they came from completely different places, so they handed themselves in a different way. They washed themselves with a specific oil which the British people did not like the smell of
-new arrivals were not well accepted and began to feel isolated as the minority in a predominantly white country
-Black people and White people did not interact creating segregation
-referred to as the ‘Dark folks’
-the West Indians found comfort within their communities
-romance across the colour line came as a shock
-many of those who migrated were single and unmarried
-Black men ‘sexual deviants’
-‘no decent girl would go out with a black man’
-the mixed colour relationships were frowned upon by the white families and the general public
-by the mid 1950s immigration had exploded over 20,000 a year were travelling across the Atlantic
-housing caused the sharpest conflict
-it had been suggested through the increasing number of West Indian home owners that they had been raising money through prostitution
-brought methods of raising money from the Caribbean to allow people to buy houses
-this caused a problem and speculation over the gain of money
-racial inequality was met with violence
-they created an industry of rebuilding bombsites they joint with the Irish to do this
-Summer of 1958 in Nottingham there was a Race Riot; they were not prepared to deal with this racial abuse any longer
-Riots began in London
-White people began using petrol bombs in the homes of the Black people
-these violent acts had not been seen in Britain
-the epicentre of these riots was Notting hill where White people would gather to attack the Black people
-the British police took the side of the White people even though those being attacked were the Black people
-the last riot took place on the 1st of September
-only 9 White youths were arrested as a result of the riots they were arrested for their violence and remained in prison for 4 years
-In the May of 1959 a West Indian man was fatally stabbed by 3 ‘Teddy Boys’ however no one was charged for the murder
-Eventually the White people began realising the violence had to come to an end, after understanding the extent of the violence and the horror of the stabbing the White people paid respect to the West Indian at his funeral
-Mosley was blamed for the stabbing
-White and Blacks were reacting and responding to each other in a different way
-5 months later Mosley was forced to retire from politics
-‘guests in this country’ this changed and the West Indians expressed their opinions and attitudes
-a unique thing was introduced to Britain
-As the 60s began a new music type was introduced ‘Ska’ which was introduced to London
-‘My Boy Lollipop’ major music breakthrough
-Mixing was not confined to the dancefloor
-It became fashionable for a White woman to be with a Black man, it was a revelation
-Educated/cultured people mixed with the Black people
-Black men became a fascination for wealthy White people, this fascination caused scandal
-Christine Keeler was a call girl and was seeing two West Indian men simultaneously, the two men clashed over the incident-this culminated to a political scandal and almost the breakdown of British Government
-ordinary Black families tried fitting into the British way of life
-West Indians were refused by the Church because they were scared that they would lose the White congregation
-‘thrown back on their own tradition’
-the Pentecostal Church
-they found comfort, counselling and healing at this place, they supported one another and could get financial support
-By the mid 1960s wife and children began migrating with the men
-the Blacks began settling and did not want to go home
-‘take calculated risks’ the migrants
-Martin Luther King emerged and began discussing how racial equality could be achieved
-In Bristol
-It took 4 months of boycotting to make the bus companies stop discriminating
-Paul Stevenson brought this matter to the public
-No laws against racism existed in England/Britain
-When Labour came into power they made sure no racial discrimination law against Blacks would be introduced, Labour came into power in 1964
-It took Labour a year and a half to introduce the race relations act
-Malcolm X visited Britain
-Michael X most well known and controversial figure in politics
-he was arrested and sentenced for 18 months
-John Lennon and his wife shaved their hair and donated it to Michael X’s society
-there was confusion over whether he was doing any good, couldn’t tell if he was being serious
-Michael X went back to Trinidad , he was not the leader of the Black Movement-he was found guilty of two murders and was hanged
-the late 1960s was a time of liberal reform and social change
-1966 The National Front was founded they had an immediate impact
-‘If you want a nigga neighbour vote labour’
-white unease over the influx of Asian immigrants to the West Midlands was exploited by the Wolverhampton MP Enoch Powell
-‘In 15 or 20 years time the Black man will have the whip hand over the White man’
-‘Like the Roman, I seem to see the Rover Tiber foaming with much blood’
-Powell claimed he was speaking the truth of what others only dared to mutter
-he was removed from the Conservative party with 48 hours of making the speech
-3/4 of the parties’ followers agreed with Enoch Powell
-Students and left wing supporters said they were against Powell, whereas Dockers took to the streets to back Enoch, they thought no more immigrants should be allowed in
-Enoch received 50,000 letters of support
-Black families were kept inside especially the children
-the Black community felt threatened
-January 1981, fire in South London home, 13 Black children died, sparked the wave of protest relating back to 1948
-resistance to the Black British presence had been growing for 30 years
-Britain
-3 times as many Black men were unemployed compared to White men
-the Black children began to feel like outsiders
-‘colour-bar policy’
-church halls were used to create a club scene
-‘society seemed alien and cold’
-Bangladeshi people immigrated in the 1970s
-it became common for people to believe Black people would fail
-large amount of Black children were considered to be ‘educationally subnormal’
-conflict between the police and Black youth was not new during the 70s it first began in the 50s
-local people organised a protest in August 1970 showing they miscommunication with the police
-9 Black people were charged for the protest
-late 50s early 60s people were worried about being attacked
-‘being Black and being on the streets was very frightening’
-many police believed they were protecting society
-the Black people began organising protection from the police for their children
-the Notting Hill Carnival used to represent the Caribbean culture until it became a violent scene in 1976
-‘Rampage at the Carnival’
-it was hard to understand why the Black people were not being accepted
-Bob Marley eventually would gain recognitions across the British music scene
-‘trouble out of tribulation’
-Rastafarians
-Reggae and Rasta became a way of life for the Black youth and they used it to cope with racism
-Many were attracted to the religion
-this would become a way in which the Blacks could build a Black British community
-a significant racial march through a predominantly Black area, Lewisham
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