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Let's, let's walk up.

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(Yeah, OK).

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Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE
www.osdb.link/lm

4
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I haven't walked up this
street for 30 years.

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I used to live...
I think, about here.

6
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A house that's long
since demolished.

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And I was 14 when my family were
attacked in our house.

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One night, bricks came through the
window and one of the bricks...

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With an elastic band there was
a note that said, "Wogs, go home."

10
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And then, a few nights later,

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the same thing happened and we gave
up trying to repair the glass

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so we put plywood in the windows
and me, my sisters,

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my brother, my mother and
grandmother would just lie in bed

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at night in the dark,
the house was completely black,

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and there'd be thuds on the plywood
and we'd scream

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and shake in our beds.

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We'd been moved to emergency housing
and we were living somewhere else

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and I had this urge to come
back and see where I lived.

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And I stood over on that side of the
wall because it was from over there

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that the bricks were thrown at
my house and my family here.

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And I stood there as
a 14-year-old...

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I stood there as a 14-year-old boy
and I looked over and,

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the house, still boarded up...

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and on the white front door, someone
had painted a swastika

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and they'd written "NF..." -
National Front - "..won here",

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because it had been a victory.

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HE SNIFFS

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This...

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This victory had been driving
me and my family out of our home.

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Something went really wrong in this
country in the 1970s and the 1980s,

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and I know that my story
and my experiences...

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that so many black people I know,
they've got similar stories to tell.

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And it's part of this long history.

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For millions of people like me,
that history began long before

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we were born, during the centuries
in which Britain built the Empire.

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Centuries in which people from
Africa and the Caribbean

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were drawn to these shores.

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Over generations,
they made Britain their home.

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APPLAUSE

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Eventually creating the multiracial
nation we live in today.

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These are the people who made it
possible to celebrate

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being black and British.

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CHEERING

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APPLAUSE ECHOES FAINTLY

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Today's multiracial Britain would
have been unimaginable during

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the Victorian era when the Empire
was nearing its height.

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An age in which skin colour divided
the coloniser from the colonised,

48
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the rulers from the ruled.

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ARCHIVE: Not many men in history
have had a country named after them.

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Offhand I can think of Bolivar and
Columbus and, of course,

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Cecil Rhodes.

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Cecil Rhodes, what was he like?

53
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There are few places and few people
who really capture the scale

54
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and the ambition and the avarice of
the Empire at its peak

55
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than this railway
and the man who built it.

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Cecil Rhodes was just a teenager
in 1870 when his father sent him

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to Africa in the hope
that the mild climate here

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would improve his health.

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By his mid-30s, he was the Premier
of the Cape Colony

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and another territory, Rhodesia,
had been named after him.

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He was also one of the richest
men in the world.

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Rhodes got rich in the rush
for South African gold and diamonds,

63
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but he was driven by more
than wealth alone.

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For Rhodes, the supposed
superiority of the British made

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the expansion of the Empire the
destiny of his race,

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and driving this railway across
the entire length of Africa,

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from the Cape to Cairo,
would help fulfil that destiny.

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TRAIN WHISTLE BLARES

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Rhodes had a vision of an Africa
that could be crossed

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without ever
leaving British territory.

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In 1894, five years after the first
section of tracks had been laid,

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this town, Mafeking, lay literally
at the end of the track.

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Between here and Rhodesia
lay Bechuanaland.

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So now Rhodes was busy
lobbying the government

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to get control of Bechuanaland.

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That would allow him to unite
South Africa with Rhodesia

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and extend the railway north.

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The Colonial Office was ready
to support him,

79
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but there was a problem.

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Bechuanaland was a protectorate,
a territory claimed by the British

81
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but governed by local rulers.

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Most prominent among them was

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the multilingual Christian convert
King Khama III.

84
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And Khama could see exactly
what Rhodes was up to.

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What Khama understood was that the
coming of the railways was just

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the first stage in a process
of colonisation.

87
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What Rhodes planned to do was to pay
for this railway by selling

88
00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:44,720
the land on either side.

89
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That would be bought by white
settlers who would

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00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:49,800
flood into the area
and become the new overlords.

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00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:53,320
The Africans would end up as the
landless labourers on white farms

92
00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:55,880
on their own tribal lands.

93
00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:59,960
The same process was happening
across Africa and Khama knew that,

94
00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:03,120
while agreeing to the railway
might sound harmless enough,

95
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:05,960
it would be a disaster for
his people.

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00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:11,360
Khama came up with an ingenious
way to fight back.

97
00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,560
What he decided to do,
as he said in his own words,

98
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was to "Seek another way of approach
by which I can speak

99
00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:20,640
"to the Queen
and to the people of England."

100
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,520
Along with two other
Bechuanaland chiefs,

101
00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:32,240
Khama set sail
for the heart of Empire.

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00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,440
BELL TOLLS

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00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,560
The black African kings were coming
to meet the great white Queen.

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But the Colonial Secretary
blocked their request

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for an audience
with the Queen.

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He fobbed them off
while she took her summer vacation.

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DOOR SLAMS

108
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And so, with the help of
the London Missionary Society,

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00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,880
the kings embarked upon the other
half of their plan,

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to meet the people of Britain.

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00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:20,040
These books are the clippings
that were

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00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,840
produced for the tour
of the three kings.

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All of the newspaper articles,
all of the invitations,

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all of the ephemera of the tour.

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Straight away on their
arrival in Britain,

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00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:36,440
there is a flurry of
newspaper articles.

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The Irish Independent,
the Manchester Evening News.

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00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:41,440
"King Khama,
who has just reached England,

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00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:44,680
"is one of the most interesting
Africans of the century."

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Here's all three of the
kings taking poses,

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looking every bit the educated,
refined, Christian gentleman

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00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,400
that they are portraying
themselves in the press -

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00:08:57,400 --> 00:08:59,040
which they are, of course.

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Is that Khama working the plough
with his top hat on in the fields?

125
00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:05,400
That is wonderful!

126
00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:09,520
And here's a snapshot of a dinner
in honour of the three kings,

127
00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:13,400
and they're at the end of the table,
and the tables are lined with

128
00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:19,160
these earnest faces of these
evangelical Victorian Christians

129
00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:23,760
with their starched suits
and their buttoned up dresses.

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00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,920
"Bechuanaland Protectorate.
Chartered Landgrabbing."

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00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:31,480
Three whole months they are here
in Britain whipping up support

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and they're doing it brilliantly.

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00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,280
Mr John Tweed, Henry Thossen.

134
00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:40,320
These are the people who are won
over by the campaign

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00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:41,840
of the three kings.

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00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:45,360
The Bechuana chiefs know that
militarily on the ground in Africa

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they have no chance against
Cecil Rhodes.

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00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:53,600
They're trying to outmanoeuvre him
by winning over the British public,

139
00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:58,160
and each one of these articles,
each one of these calling cards,

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00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:02,200
each one of these programmes for a
speech or a reception at a town hall

141
00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,160
is evidence that it was working.

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00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:10,560
What is this? Oh, my God!

143
00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:18,200
This is a new line of travel trunks
named after the kings.

144
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The Bathoen trunk, the Sebele trunk
and the Khama trunk.

145
00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:23,840
HE LAUGHS

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00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:28,000
So they brought out a new line of
travel luggage

147
00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:29,520
named after the kings.

148
00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:31,240
That is just amazing!

149
00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:43,120
The kings' direct appeal to the
public undermined

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00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:47,400
some of the prejudice against
Africans that Britain used

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00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:49,840
to justify colonisation.

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00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:53,280
They were, finally,
invited into the corridors of power.

153
00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:56,800
Towards the end of 1895,

154
00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,000
Khama and his delegation were
granted an audience here

155
00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:01,360
at the Colonial Office with

156
00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:03,720
the Colonial Secretary,
Joseph Chamberlain.

157
00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:07,080
At that meeting, the Africans were
granted most of the protection

158
00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:10,320
from Cecil Rhodes and his company
that they'd been looking for.

159
00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:13,560
They were also granted an audience
with Queen Victoria.

160
00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:18,760
It's very clear from this image
what the power relationship is

161
00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:21,200
between the British
and the Africans.

162
00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:25,320
But what it can't disguise is that
these three kings had come

163
00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,720
to Britain, come to the heart of the
Empire, and they had won.

164
00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:37,240
THEY SING

165
00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:41,680
ULULATION

166
00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:45,520
The kings helped save their
homeland from the fate that befell

167
00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:47,320
Rhodesia and South Africa,

168
00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:50,840
where Rhodes was sowing the seeds
of racial segregation.

169
00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:01,240
The deal struck was almost unique,
because most of the people

170
00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:04,440
who were drawn into the British
Empire didn't have any choice

171
00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:07,360
in the matter, they were forced into
the Empire

172
00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:09,040
often at the point of a gun.

173
00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:11,840
But what Khama and the other kings
had critically understood

174
00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:16,040
is that there were differences of
opinion between the British people,

175
00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:18,840
the Colonial Office,
Cecil Rhodes and the Queen,

176
00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:22,360
and they had exploited
those differences brilliantly.

177
00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:33,440
In 1966, the colony of Bechuanaland
became the country of Botswana,

178
00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:35,760
and in London, in 2016,

179
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:39,200
they are celebrating
50 years of independence.

180
00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:45,680
It's a really great story.

181
00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:49,200
50 years of independence after,
you know, our three chiefs

182
00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,000
came to ask for independence.

183
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:52,400
So, yeah, really great.

184
00:12:57,880 --> 00:12:59,320
SINGING CONTINUES

185
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:00,480
I think they were brave.

186
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:03,520
I think they did very well for us
and we're very proud.

187
00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,320
This is a very public celebration of
an event that we've

188
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,000
really forgotten about in Britain.

189
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,600
But the tour of those three kings
of Victorian Britain

190
00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:18,560
was the birth of this nation.

191
00:13:18,560 --> 00:13:22,960
Everybody here can trace the story
of Botswana back to that moment

192
00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:27,080
in the 1890s when three kings
came here and kind of won over

193
00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:30,200
Victorian public opinion.

194
00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,680
This is the genesis story
of Botswana.

195
00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:49,480
CHEERING AND ULULATION

196
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:55,680
This event reminds us that the
relationship between Britain

197
00:13:55,680 --> 00:14:00,520
and the people of Africa was,
on rare occasions, negotiable.

198
00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:17,640
But, as more and more people of
African origin made Britain

199
00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:22,160
their home, the limits of racial
tolerance would be exposed.

200
00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:32,120
There's been a black community in
Liverpool since the 1700s,

201
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:35,600
due largely to the shipping industry
and the slave trade.

202
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,560
During the First World War,
labour shortages swelled

203
00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:47,160
the black population from around
3,000 to around 5,000.

204
00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,560
But at the end of the war,
racial tensions were exposed

205
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,920
that would threaten the
community's very existence.

206
00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:00,040
"White men appear determined to
clear out the black people,

207
00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,320
"who have been advised
to stay indoors."

208
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:08,560
"The district was in an uproar
and every coloured man seen

209
00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:12,120
"was followed by a large,
hostile crowd."

210
00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:19,560
He was lynched, and there's
no getting away from that.

211
00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:32,400
Liverpool's descent into racial
violence has largely been forgotten,

212
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:36,240
but the recent discovery of letters
from the black community

213
00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,200
to the mayor has allowed
a local history project

214
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:40,800
to bring the past to life.

215
00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,800
"The coloured people of this city
are daily insulted in the streets,

216
00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:49,560
"they are attacked and assaulted
without the slightest provocation.

217
00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:52,800
"Hundreds of our men have been
ejected from their employment

218
00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:56,080
"and left completely
stranded in the city today."

219
00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:58,360
"My wife is in the house all day.

220
00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:01,560
"She hasn't any freedom to walk
in the street.

221
00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:05,960
"She's been insulted by people
as being a coloured woman.

222
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:09,000
"I believe if there
is no help for us

223
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:12,560
"my wife will do something wrong
to herself."

224
00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:16,000
So he's so worried at the level of
racial abuse his wife is suffering,

225
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,600
he's saying she's
going to harm herself.

226
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,040
She's going to harm herself,
basically.

227
00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,400
These are really eloquent...
They are. ..pleas to officialdom.

228
00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:29,760
They are passionate declarations of
the suffering they're going through.

229
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:38,400
There's a letter here from the mayor
to the Colonial Office.

230
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,320
"Only the other night there was
a fight between the two races

231
00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,600
"and matters are not likely to
improve in this direction as

232
00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:48,840
"the position develops and
probably grows worse."

233
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:51,120
So things are already getting
out of control. Yeah.

234
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,520
This is the mayor of a British city
saying, "This is going to explode."

235
00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:55,800
Yeah.

236
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:00,040
SIREN WAILS

237
00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:05,400
Within days of the mayor
writing this letter,

238
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,760
the city would erupt in violence.

239
00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:12,240
On the night of the 5th June, 1919,

240
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:16,200
a fight broke out in a pub here
on Great George Square.

241
00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:18,040
It was between
a bunch of black sailors

242
00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,520
and a bunch
of Scandinavian sailors.

243
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:25,040
When the police arrived
on the scene,

244
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,440
they decided to arrest
the black men.

245
00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:30,640
So they came round the corner
to Upper Pitt Street.

246
00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,200
But by this point, a mob
several hundred strong had gathered.

247
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,520
Number 18 Upper Pitt Street was
a boarding house

248
00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:43,080
where a young Bermudan sailor
was staying.

249
00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,960
His name was Charles Wotten,
and when the police tried to

250
00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:49,640
force the door to his boarding
house, he escaped out the back.

251
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:51,240
But he was quickly spotted.

252
00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:01,840
He was chased by the police
and the mob through the city

253
00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:03,960
to a place he probably knew well.

254
00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:10,800
Charles Wooten was pursued all the
way down here to the Queen's Dock.

255
00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:13,840
The eyewitness accounts tell us
what happened next.

256
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:17,480
"When the crowd was at its height,

257
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:21,400
"there would be about 2,000
white people there."

258
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:27,840
"The witness could not say whether
the negro was thrown into the dock

259
00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:30,960
"or was swept in
by the swaying crowd."

260
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:35,680
"They shouted, 'Let him drown!' "

261
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,560
"Had we arrived a few moments
earlier we probably

262
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:44,840
"could have saved him."

263
00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,800
Following Charles Wotten's death,

264
00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:00,400
there were three days of rioting
against the black community.

265
00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:05,760
There was windows being smashed,
there was fires being lit,

266
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:07,640
there was gangs of men, jeering,

267
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,440
shouting and screaming,
children were crying.

268
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,840
Just hustled out of your house or,
"We'd better take you to safety.

269
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,040
"We'll take you to the police
station for safety."

270
00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:22,920
They must have been bewildered.

271
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,240
They must have been
in a terrible state.

272
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:32,840
Do you think that your grandmother
and your mother's house

273
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,800
had been attacked?
Yeah, I think it was.

274
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:38,920
They were under attack, because my
grandmother was a fiery woman

275
00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:41,000
and I don't thing she would
have left the house

276
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,120
unless it was absolutely necessary.

277
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,400
So when you first read these
documents and you read about

278
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:52,040
the violence, the hunting of black
people on the street,

279
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,520
you must have linked that to
your family history.

280
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,520
That must have been a shocking
moment. Yeah. It's...

281
00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:02,920
I'm so sorry that I didn't know the
whole history of this years ago.

282
00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,840
But this isn't history that's
well-known. Oh, no.

283
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:13,200
The majority of people we've
encountered with the project

284
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,560
have all said, "Oh, we didn't know.
We didn't know this happened."

285
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:22,040
I mean, I barely knew anything about
it myself before the project.

286
00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:26,880
It was not until we started going
through the documents properly that,

287
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:31,200
you know, you get to understand how
bad the situation was really.

288
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:44,440
Almost a century later, and another
crowd are gathering at Queen's Dock.

289
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:50,680
This time, to remember
Charles Wotten and the victims

290
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,480
of the violence that followed.

291
00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:00,120
It's a tragic circumstance
that we are gathered here today.

292
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:02,320
This is one of our ancestors.

293
00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,640
It's a time for remembering our
forefathers and mothers.

294
00:21:10,360 --> 00:21:13,640
He could have been my brother,
he could have been your nephew,

295
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,240
he could have been your son.

296
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:35,200
I wanted to cry. You know,
you look at the waters here...

297
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:38,560
In my mind I was seeing this mob
chasing this young, black boy

298
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:42,440
and he's thinking,
"Where do I go? What do I do?"

299
00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:51,000
He was lynched and there's
no getting away from that.

300
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:52,680
That story needs to be told

301
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,040
and that degree of racism
needs to be confronted.

302
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,720
This was a violent rejection,
but some were determined

303
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,560
that Britain, as the centre of the
Empire, was still home.

304
00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:12,040
One thing the British public does
not realise adequately

305
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:13,680
is that we are a coloured Empire.

306
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:16,080
You cannot prevent the black man
from coming here.

307
00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,160
You could no more tell him that
he must not come to Liverpool,

308
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,160
London or Cardiff than
he has the right to tell you

309
00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,800
that you must not go to Lagos
or Durban or Johannesburg.

310
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:30,080
As we unveiled a plaque,

311
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:33,000
it made me reflect on everybody
that came before me.

312
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,000
I'm in a very fortunate position

313
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,320
to be a fifth generation
black person

314
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,520
of the city and I thought
about what my grandparents

315
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,640
and great-grandparents went through
before I came along

316
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,600
and they've really paved the
way for everything that I am today.

317
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,840
In the aftermath of war, there were
similar outbreaks of violence

318
00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:01,560
in Glasgow, London, Newport,
Cardiff and on Tyneside.

319
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:08,120
They brought an underlying racism
onto the streets of Britain.

320
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:17,160
As the nation entered the 1920s,

321
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:20,440
there was one man who carved out
a home here.

322
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,960
CABARET MUSIC PLAYS

323
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,640
He became the era's acceptable
face of blackness.

324
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,680
His appeal was he was
an extremely competent

325
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:41,400
and very, very good artist.

326
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:44,440
I mean, he had a voice which people
would, quite literally, die for.

327
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:46,720
I think a few people probably did.

328
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,480
He was born on the
British Caribbean island of Grenada

329
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,400
and he performed in
Paris and New York.

330
00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,160
But it was in London that
he shot to fame,

331
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,280
taking the exclusive cabaret
scene by storm.

332
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:05,640
# I should like you all to know

333
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,640
# I'm a famous gigolo

334
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:13,360
# And of lavender, my nature's got
just a splash in it... #

335
00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:17,160
What he did, one of his things,
he would sit at the piano

336
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,600
and he would get his big, white
handkerchief and mop his brow

337
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:26,400
like this and, apparently,
all the girls used to swoon.

338
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,240
# ..you'll find me
stretching my braces

339
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,760
# Pushing ladies with lifted faces
round the floor... #

340
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:37,880
His name was Leslie Hutchinson,
better known simply as "Hutch".

341
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,160
# I'm a baby
who has no mother but jazz

342
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,160
# I'm a gigolo... #

343
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:49,480
Good-looking,
charismatic and bisexual,

344
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,960
part of Hutch's appeal was an
air of exotic mystery.

345
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,400
# I'm a gigolo. #

346
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:57,560
APPLAUSE

347
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,480
Among his many lovers was the
American Broadway composer

348
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:06,800
Cole Porter and Hollywood stars
Tallulah Bankhead and Merle Oberon.

349
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,160
But it was among London's
aristocratic elite,

350
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:12,240
the bright young things, that he
was in most demand,

351
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,840
and by playing special after-hours
private parties,

352
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,360
he became part of
London's in-crowd.

353
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:23,560
How was it possible for this black
man to be accepted into this world,

354
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:27,520
or seemingly accepted into this
world of the aristocratic elite?

355
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:31,840
Because he had talent and
he was admired for what he could do.

356
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:35,360
And the seduction of money and
lonely lives within the Royals,

357
00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:40,000
a lot of them, and society,
a lot of unhappy marriages.

358
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,160
He was an alternative pleasure.

359
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:48,560
# I've got you under my skin... #

360
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,760
Hutch was a star,
but he could never escape racism.

361
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,760
One of the times, he went up to
Liverpool and he was at the top

362
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:59,760
and the height of his fame and
he had to go in at the back door.

363
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,360
He wasn't allowed to go in the
front, and yet he was on stage

364
00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:05,160
and adored by thousands.
Through the back door?

365
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,720
And he wasn't allowed to stay at the
hotel where he was playing.

366
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,160
# So deep in my heart that you're
really a part of me... #

367
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,280
Caught between desire and rejection,

368
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,640
Hutch was forced to lead
a double life.

369
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,440
I think he was surviving
against all the odds,

370
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,880
against all the racism and
so on, and he did it

371
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,840
by protecting himself,
by joining the enemy, as it were.

372
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,120
Joining in with the aristocratic
life that was there to have.

373
00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:36,080
Sometimes his accent went from like
American slang, jazzy, to...

374
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:38,680
POSH VOICE: "Oh, where do you live?"

375
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:40,440
He could become Oxford black.

376
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,880
I know it's not a nice term, that,
but that's what he would do.

377
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:48,760
# I would sacrifice anything
come what might

378
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,600
# For the sake of having
you near... #

379
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:56,120
Eventually, Hutch's
double life caught up with him.

380
00:26:56,120 --> 00:27:00,160
Since the 1930s, he'd been
having an affair with

381
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,680
the wealthy society heiress
Edwina Mountbatten.

382
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,160
She was closely connected to
the Royal Family.

383
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:09,040
Her husband Louis, the
great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

384
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,760
The story hit the gossip columns.

385
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,560
Edwina Mountbatten was identified
as the woman in question,

386
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,920
but the papers wrongly named the
black American performer

387
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,160
and activist Paul Robeson
as her lover.

388
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:27,960
# And I want you under my skin. #

389
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:32,280
APPLAUSE

390
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,520
The newspapers had
got the wrong man,

391
00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,440
but the story
scandalised the palace,

392
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,760
and Hutch would pay
the price.

393
00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:50,120
Perhaps naively, Hutch imagined that
the British establishment

394
00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:53,840
would afford him the same sort of
freedom from censure and criticism

395
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,320
that they gave one another.

396
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:59,240
It was at this moment in his life
that Leslie Hutchinson

397
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,960
discovered that he wasn't really
part of the aristocratic elite

398
00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:05,440
that he spent his life
surrounded by.

399
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:14,200
He remained popular,
but it would be decades before

400
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,400
he would be brought back into the
fold of the establishment.

401
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,680
By the time of his comeback here
at Quaglino's in the 1950s,

402
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:28,400
musical tastes had moved on and
Hutch faced a long downward spiral.

403
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:32,280
He sort of went into a decline,
to be honest with you.

404
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,160
He had to sell his house in
Hampstead which he loved.

405
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,880
Moved into a flat, and the days of
the Rolls-Royce and, you know,

406
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,400
endless parties and champagne,
I'm afraid, came to a halt.

407
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:51,440
When Hutch died aged 69,

408
00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,160
Lord Mountbatten offered to pay
for his funeral,

409
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:57,920
which was attended
by only 42 people.

410
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,640
But Hutch lives on in the memory.

411
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,800
Not least in his children,
Gabrielle and Chris.

412
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:09,680
The relationship between Hutch
and your mother

413
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:11,800
was a scandalous affair, wasn't it?

414
00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:15,960
As far as I know, she was probably
here and she passed her card

415
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,200
to take to his dressing room,
so she went for him, as it were.

416
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,000
And I don't know how long
an affair it was,

417
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,160
but this is what happened
and I was the result.

418
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:28,200
And, because it was an aristocratic
family, a private midwife

419
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:33,800
came in and I was delivered by her
and, um, then I was removed.

420
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,640
I've got letters written by my
mother's husband saying,

421
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,120
"Please remove this child."

422
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,840
Gabrielle never met Hutch and she
was unaware that he was her father

423
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:45,560
until she was in her 40s.

424
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,640
Chris is Hutch's son by
a different woman.

425
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,120
He saw his father only occasionally.

426
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:54,440
I'm torn between pride and anger.

427
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,960
You know, I'm angry about the way
he was treated.

428
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:00,200
It's despicable, a lot of it.

429
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:04,280
But also angry about sometimes
the way he treated us. And...

430
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:08,200
But proud
of who he was and what he achieved.

431
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:18,160
Today, Hutch's fans and members of
his extended Grenadian family

432
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:20,520
are gathering to honour his memory.

433
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,680
It's wonderful to be here today on
this very special occasion.

434
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,480
Thank you, Quaglino's.
He's home again.

435
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,120
He was so worried
he wouldn't be remembered.

436
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:33,560
He's certainly remembered today.
A ripping, roaring round of applause

437
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,320
in memory of a wonderful
entertainer,

438
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,560
Leslie Arthur Julien Hutchinson,
our father, Hutch.

439
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,760
APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING

440
00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:59,720
Well, I really,
really had a lot of time for him.

441
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,040
I still play his music and in
a funny sort of way I miss him.

442
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,760
And events like this,
with his plaque going up, you know,

443
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:09,720
just reminds one of what
a great personality he was

444
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:11,840
and how important he was.

445
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,280
So there you are, that's Hutch.

446
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:19,880
One of the last times I was
with him, he said,

447
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,280
"I'm just worried they won't
remember me, Christopher," you know.

448
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:24,880
I said, "They will, they will."

449
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,000
So we left rather downhearted but we
walked along Frith Street

450
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,440
and taxis...
"Hello, Hutch, how are you, mate?"

451
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,440
And he's, "Oh, never been better,
I've never been better."

452
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:35,040
So he was top of the world again.

453
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:38,080
All he wanted was to be
loved and adored.

454
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:48,440
Despite his fame, Hutch's life
reveals that to be both black

455
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,280
and British was still out of reach.

456
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:57,560
But during the Second World War,
the people of Britain would be

457
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:02,680
confronted with the reality of
a truly racial society.

458
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:05,240
CHOIR SINGS

459
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:11,440
This is Abersychan
in the Welsh Valleys.

460
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,800
The people here, and in towns and
villages across Britain,

461
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:22,800
became unknowing participants in
a great social experiment.

462
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:26,480
For all the years that
we've been in Wales,

463
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:32,240
people still can't accept the fact
that we are black and Welsh.

464
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,240
Some would come out with new
friendships

465
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,600
and their lives enhanced.

466
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,840
They took this young soldier into
their home and they really

467
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:45,960
loved him as their own.

468
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,080
For others, the choices they would
make would lead to years of

469
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,000
shame and secrecy.

470
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,600
People would say to me,
"Where are you from?"

471
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,400
And I couldn't answer because I knew
that I lived in Blaenavon but

472
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:04,800
I knew that I looked different.

473
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:19,240
By 1944, over a million US soldiers
had landed in Britain,

474
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:23,440
and around 130,000 were black GIs.

475
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:37,760
One spring day, the 320th Barrage
Balloon Battalion arrived here.

476
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,280
MAN CHUCKLES

477
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:43,320
But there was a problem.

478
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:47,400
Segregated America sent
a segregated army to Britain.

479
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,240
Black and white troops lived in
separate camps,

480
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:51,920
they ate in separate canteens

481
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:54,840
and spent their free time in
separate clubs,

482
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,960
just like they did back home
under the so-called Jim Crow laws.

483
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:05,280
The Americans also brought with them
racial violence.

484
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:10,040
White GIs would routinely
attack black Allied soldiers.

485
00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:17,760
These official documents relate to
one of many such incidents.

486
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,560
It's from March 1942, and these
documents tell the story of

487
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:26,640
how one Corporal Samson Morris, who
was a West Indian, was attacked by

488
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,920
a group of US Marines at
Lyons' Corner House in Marble Arch,

489
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,000
and Morris tells us that while he's
waiting in the queue to go

490
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,800
into the restaurant, one of the
Americans comes up to him and

491
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,960
says, "You're not going in
there to eat with us."

492
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,040
Perhaps unwisely, Morris says,

493
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:45,160
"I'm a British subject from
the West Indies,

494
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,920
"and you're not in America now,
where you lynch us people."

495
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,000
At this, one of the Americans
threatens to stab him

496
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,560
and six of them attack him
and beat him up.

497
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,120
Wartime Britain was getting to
see close up what

498
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:07,560
a racially segregated
society was like.

499
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:12,040
But would they fall in line with
their American allies?

500
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,560
Would British pubs refuse to serve
black GIs

501
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:16,560
because of the
colour of their skin?

502
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,920
Would British restaurants and dance
halls refuse them entry?

503
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:22,840
Would there be white-only
carriages on British trains?

504
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:26,840
And would the British people really
accept the imposition of

505
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,640
American Jim Crow-style segregation
onto their communities?

506
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,640
Across the nation there was
a resounding response.

507
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:45,720
Its spirit is captured in a single
letter from one Welsh mother

508
00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:47,760
to a black American mother.

509
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:53,960
"Mrs Monk, you have a son to
treasure and feel very proud of.

510
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,840
"We love him very dearly and we'll
do anything in the world for him.

511
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:02,440
"We have told him he can look upon
our home as his home while in

512
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:07,560
"our country, and I will try to fill
your place, if only in a small way.

513
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:10,600
"We will look upon him now
as our own.

514
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:14,760
"Mother to mother, very sincerely,
with loving thoughts,

515
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,600
"Jessie Pryor, xxxx."

516
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:25,040
The recipient of this motherly love

517
00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:28,520
was the 19-year-old Wilson Monk
from New Jersey.

518
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,960
He was taken into the home of
Jessie and Godfrey Pryor,

519
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:35,880
who handed down their wartime story
to granddaughter Cheryl.

520
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,760
Your grandparents encounter this
young African-American... Yes.

521
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,480
..and almost...adopt him.
Yes, they did.

522
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:44,840
They really did,

523
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:49,080
they took him in and they spoke
a lot and they had great fun.

524
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,200
Do you think your grandparents had
known or met any black people

525
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,160
before they met Wilson? No, I don't
think they would have, actually.

526
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:58,040
And to my grandmother it wouldn't
have made any difference.

527
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:02,920
That's just how she was. And to her,
that's what you did then.

528
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:13,280
'Just as suddenly as the black GIs
had arrived, in June 1944 they

529
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,960
'were gone, to play their part in
the liberation of Europe.'

530
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:19,800
I think that was further down.

531
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,800
'But they left a lasting legacy.'

532
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:27,360
This is a school one.
So this is you? Yeah.

533
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,840
And you're not the only mixed-race
child in this class. No.

534
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:33,720
There's David Phillips by there.

535
00:37:33,720 --> 00:37:36,320
His father was also a black GI?

536
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:37,480
Must have been.

537
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:40,640
Were all the mixed-race children at
school the products of

538
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,080
relationships between black GIs and
local women? Yeah, must have been.

539
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:48,520
Cos, erm, you never seen any
darker...you know, any black man,

540
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:50,840
fathers or anything like that,

541
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,400
it was only children that I can
remember seeing.

542
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,520
'Ann Johnson was born in 1945 and
brought up by her grandmother.'

543
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,320
That was the one that reared me.
This is your grandmother?

544
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:05,640
Yeah, and we used to call her Mam.

545
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,120
So this is the woman you call your
mother

546
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:11,200
but was really your grandmother?
That's right.

547
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:12,840
She looks a tough woman.

548
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:15,480
Yeah, she was strict,
I can tell you.

549
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:18,160
'Ann's grandmother was fiercely
protective.

550
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:21,480
'For most of Ann's childhood,
she didn't know that the woman

551
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:25,360
'she thought of as her sister,
Molly, was really her mother.'

552
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,040
But that was my rightful mother...

553
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,080
That's your mother? Yeah.

554
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:32,560
But you know that your father
was a black American soldier?

555
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:34,440
American, yeah.

556
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:39,000
But by all accounts he used to send
letters home to Molly

557
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:42,040
and then our mam used to burn them.

558
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,200
So... And then she was put in
the doghouse, as they say,

559
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:47,400
weren't it, in the workhouse.

560
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:51,040
So other than that, it was
all kept silent.

561
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:01,960
In many communities like Abersychan,
the secret history of

562
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:06,640
the so-called "brown babies" is only
now being uncovered.

563
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,800
So your birth mother never told you
who your father was?

564
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:13,320
Can never remember that.

565
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,200
And your grandmother who
brought you up

566
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,040
never said your
father was a black GI?

567
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:18,680
No.

568
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:23,960
So there was some sense of needing
to keep this a family secret? Yeah.

569
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:26,280
Yeah. I think so.

570
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:33,920
Ann's family history is now being
passed on to her great-granddaughter

571
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:37,520
and her daughter Claire,
who reject the shame of the past.

572
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:41,480
They wanted the silence.

573
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:46,040
They wanted to block out everything
that went on at those times.

574
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:49,480
I think they wanted to forget
all what went on.

575
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,560
But now we look back,
it's part of our history

576
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,760
and who we are, so I've got an
acceptance I think is...

577
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,160
You know, I'm fine with it.

578
00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:10,360
I'd like to introduce Ann to join
me here, because Ann is going to

579
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:14,600
unveil the plaque which is
commemorated to her father

580
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:18,880
and all the African-American
soldiers that were billeted here.

581
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:27,200
APPLAUSE

582
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:43,680
70 years ago. I know.

583
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:45,840
Never forget. You know?

584
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:49,080
It's part of history,
and my family history especially,

585
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:50,640
and, no, you mustn't forget.

586
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,520
I brought my granddaughter today
and I thought, yes, because

587
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:57,800
she does history in school, and you
have to remember these things.

588
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:15,280
The black GIs offered a glimpse of

589
00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:18,920
what a post-colonial Britain might
look like.

590
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:29,560
The aftermath of war would soon
make that a reality.

591
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:36,480
Across Africa, it gave fresh impetus
to independence movements.

592
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,640
In the Caribbean, many who had
fought for Britain

593
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:46,680
felt the bonds to the mother country
become ever stronger.

594
00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:48,840
We were taught that we were British

595
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,360
and we accepted that without
question.

596
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:56,320
And now they were coming home.

597
00:41:58,080 --> 00:41:59,880
NEWSREEL: Arrivals at Tilbury.

598
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:02,840
The Empire Windrush
brings to Britain 500 Jamaicans.

599
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,000
Many are ex-servicemen who
know England.

600
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,280
They served this country well.
In Jamaica...

601
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:11,880
The arrival of the Empire Windrush
in June 1948 has come to

602
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:16,960
symbolise the founding moment
of modern black British history.

603
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,520
We're hoping to collect lots of
people's stories and memories

604
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:22,400
about their journey to Britain.

605
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,600
We can't just focus on the big
names in history,

606
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:27,400
we need to focus on the history
makers that live amongst us.

607
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,720
NEWSREEL: Citizens of the British
Empire coming to the mother country

608
00:42:30,720 --> 00:42:31,880
with good intent.

609
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,480
Today in Brixton, members and
descendants of

610
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:38,440
the Windrush generation are
celebrating their history.

611
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:42,000
I've been here from, erm, 1944.

612
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,080
The groundwork I did here in this
country

613
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:45,600
has stood me well all my life.

614
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,040
So it has many of my fellow
West Indians who are here today.

615
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:51,720
Many of the migrants arrived in
Britain thanks to

616
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:53,920
a new open-door policy.

617
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:57,880
Introduced in 1948, it offered
some 800 million

618
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:02,320
citizens of the Empire the right to
settle in the UK.

619
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:05,360
My father was
a member of that generation.

620
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:08,160
He was born in Jamaica in 1925.

621
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:12,320
His father was Chinese and his
mother was black Jamaican.

622
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:17,000
NEWSREEL: In 1954, about 10,000
West Indians came to Britain.

623
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:21,320
In 1955, it is believed another
15,000 will make the long journey.

624
00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:26,680
This kind of mass migration wasn't
creating the post-colonial Britain

625
00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:29,960
that the policymakers
had had in mind.

626
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,240
The people whom the Government
imagined would make use of

627
00:43:34,240 --> 00:43:38,400
the rights of entry and residence
enshrined within the 1948 act

628
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,840
were white people, people who were
said to be of British stock -

629
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,760
Australians, Canadians,
white South Africans.

630
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:48,440
People who were coming home to the
imperial mother country.

631
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:51,920
And their rights of entry were seen
as valuable bonds that were

632
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:55,680
essential if Britain was to remain
the lodestar around which

633
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,400
the colonies and former colonies
orbited.

634
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:01,800
Almost nobody imagined that
black people,

635
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,760
people from the Caribbean and
Africa, would make use of

636
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:08,360
their rights to enter and live in
the United Kingdom.

637
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,800
# London is the place for me

638
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:13,840
# Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum

639
00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:17,480
# London, this lovely city... #

640
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:19,920
And my mum was one of the first set
of people

641
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,440
to work in the hospitals,
and she...

642
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:26,200
You know,
that generation made the most of it.

643
00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:30,120
Many people from the Commonwealth
wanted to come to Britain,

644
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:33,800
and post-war austerity Britain
badly needed them.

645
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:37,480
# I've been travelling the
countries years ago

646
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:41,440
# But this is the place I wanted
to know, darling London

647
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:43,440
# This is the place for me... #

648
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:45,920
Nursing was calling me,

649
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:50,800
so I came to England to pursue the
career that I wanted so badly.

650
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,760
That's me. That's you?

651
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:57,720
That's Myrtle, and that's Greta
Fitzthomas,

652
00:44:57,720 --> 00:45:00,520
and this is my book, for surgery.

653
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:07,680
I came from St Catherine, Jamaica,
in 1960, at the age of 20.

654
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:12,800
This was the very first time I was
leaving my parents.

655
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:21,160
I came out of the plane and I just
could not believe how cold it was.

656
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:26,080
My first thought was, "How do these
people live in this icebox?!"

657
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:29,520
Right from the start,

658
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:34,240
the new National Health Service
recruited staff from the Caribbean.

659
00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:37,560
When you arrived in Britain,

660
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:40,840
did you feel that people recognised
that you were British?

661
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:42,400
WOMEN: No.

662
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:46,880
That's... Everyone said no. No!
No. That's all round the table, no.

663
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:50,080
They asked you what part of Africa
you come from. Yes, yes.

664
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:51,400
Well, you see,

665
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:56,000
I don't think that they learned
history and geography like we did.

666
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:00,080
The image of Britain that
you got from

667
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,120
a British education in the
Caribbean,

668
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,800
how did that differ from the reality
of Britain when you arrived?

669
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:11,760
When we came here and I saw the
houses in England,

670
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,080
I was shocked,

671
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:18,000
because I've left better
houses back home!

672
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:22,520
And the poverty of the people,
it did upset me.

673
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:27,160
When they came into hospital,
the state of the hygiene...

674
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:34,400
Sometimes we used to have, like,
a delousing trolley. I wonder why...

675
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:41,480
..nobody never tell me that's what,
you know, the country was like.

676
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:47,520
As well as dealing with the harsh
realities of post-war Britain,

677
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:52,080
these young women were at times
denied their British identity.

678
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:55,640
I found it extremely hard,

679
00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:01,280
and when I was in my second year
and this patient said...

680
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:06,000
when I was going to wash her, she
said, "Take your black hand off me."

681
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,680
And she said it with so much venom

682
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:12,440
that I just rushed to the
toilet and cried.

683
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,400
But that was so hurtful.

684
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:21,960
Found it extremely upsetting.

685
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:27,120
If you knew what you know now about
Britain and everything that's

686
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:29,880
happened,
would you still do the same thing?

687
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,120
ALL, EMPHATICALLY: Yes.

688
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:37,200
That's everybody. Yes. You don't
regret your choice at all? No.

689
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:40,640
In the end, this great experiment
we've all been through

690
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,960
in this country, with immigration
and moving around the world,

691
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:45,640
it worked out for you guys.

692
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:50,160
Really and truly, Britain
has given us what we didn't have,

693
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,320
but we had to work very hard for it.

694
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:56,840
And when you came, you were suddenly
seen as West Indian

695
00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:58,400
rather than British.

696
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:00,720
How do you see yourselves now?

697
00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:05,280
I am a bit confused.
When I left home I was a Vincentian.

698
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:08,400
When I came here I was a
West Indian.

699
00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:10,480
Then I was a Caribbean.

700
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:14,040
Now I'm an ethnic minority.
I am so confused.

701
00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:16,680
THEY LAUGH

702
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:21,680
I say I am black British.
Mm-hm. And that will do.

703
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:28,720
The Windrush generation never let go
of the British identity

704
00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:31,360
they'd grown up with in the
Caribbean.

705
00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:35,160
But those who were born here and
those who arrived here as children

706
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:37,760
faced their own struggle to belong.

707
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:42,120
It was only in the early '60s
and late '60s and this growing

708
00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:46,320
pride in the '70s of belonging to
a culture that was distinct,

709
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:49,000
and this is the story that I tell.

710
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:59,840
I was trying to capture
strength and proudness.

711
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:06,920
And I decided that I would never
click the camera unless I

712
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:09,840
see strength in that person's
eyes and body.

713
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:17,600
And if you look up my images, you
almost know that that's one of mine,

714
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:22,360
because the subject is
always very sure of themself.

715
00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:27,840
Photographer Neil Kenlock captured

716
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:31,000
the experiences of this new
generation.

717
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:38,280
Yes, that's me. That was in 1976.

718
00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:43,560
I entered that competition, and
the prize was a trip to Jamaica.

719
00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:47,080
It was attractive to me
to go back to see my grandmother,

720
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:51,000
whom sadly I'd left,
and was desperately missing her.

721
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,960
I didn't win the first prize
that year

722
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:56,040
but I did enter the following year.

723
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:57,720
Fortunately I did win the prize

724
00:49:57,720 --> 00:49:59,920
and I did go back to Jamaica
to see Granny!

725
00:49:59,920 --> 00:50:01,440
Well done, well done!

726
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:05,600
Well, they was enjoying themself.
Later on, like in this photograph,

727
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:08,720
they've realised now that
the opportunities that they were

728
00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:13,760
promised were not available to the
full extent that they should be,

729
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:17,520
and this is a demonstration in
Brixton against discrimination

730
00:50:17,520 --> 00:50:20,720
and the police treatment of
our community.

731
00:50:20,720 --> 00:50:23,480
You were there to capture the
politicisation

732
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,960
of this second generation.
Absolutely.

733
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:27,880
The children of the immigrants. Yes.

734
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:33,280
And here again, I used my camera to
tell that story, erm,

735
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,240
because there was nobody else
taking photographs.

736
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:41,720
Yeah, a difficult image for us,
because this is Desmond's Hip City,

737
00:50:41,720 --> 00:50:44,040
that's the name of the record shop
in Brixton,

738
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:48,640
and somebody drove a vehicle into
the shop and smashed it up.

739
00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:51,120
And here you can see Neville here.

740
00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:53,560
This is you, Neville? It is, yes.

741
00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:56,760
What year is this?
Probably about '72.

742
00:50:56,760 --> 00:50:59,200
And as you can see there, I was
helping Desmond

743
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:01,080
to clear up after the...incident.

744
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:03,800
So this is an attack
not just on a record shop...

745
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:06,640
Oh, no, no, it's an attack of our
society,

746
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:08,640
the black society, so to speak.

747
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:11,280
Did you feel under...under assault,
under attack?

748
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:12,720
HE SCOFFS

749
00:51:12,720 --> 00:51:14,360
In those days, if you was
in Brixton,

750
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:16,960
you was always under attack...
by the police...

751
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:20,600
If not the police, it's the
National Front or the skinheads.

752
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:23,680
I think for some people now these
images that were...normally

753
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:26,560
part of your lives... Yes.
..seem shocking.

754
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:29,680
It is hard to believe that this
happened half a mile down the road.

755
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:32,040
It was a part of our lives, yes.

756
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:33,720
And...

757
00:51:33,720 --> 00:51:39,400
this image is the one I know of
yours the best. Yes. Mm-hm.

758
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:42,200
But it's you in the photograph,
Barbara, isn't it?

759
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:44,200
Yes, it is me in this photograph.

760
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:47,000
This photograph was taken

761
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:48,960
about 1979, I'd say.

762
00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:52,840
I first saw this picture when I was
I think in my late teens or

763
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,440
early 20s, and I remember thinking,
I wonder what it was like,

764
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:58,240
I wonder what she was thinking.

765
00:51:58,240 --> 00:52:01,920
So it's amazing to meet you
and to find out what you were

766
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,120
feeling and what you were thinking.

767
00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:06,920
Yeah, in terms of my expression,
it was like, well, yeah,

768
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:10,520
it's just another day in the life,
erm, of somebody who's

769
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:13,160
a black person living in
Balham at the time.

770
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:16,560
I think I interpreted
your expression as one of hurt

771
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:18,680
when I first saw this photograph.
Yeah.

772
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:21,320
Well, I think maybe there's just
a constant feeling of hurt

773
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:22,880
that just went through our lives,

774
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:25,360
because, I mean, you can't go
through that kind of abuse

775
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:26,880
sort of day in and day out -

776
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:29,320
it's not even week in and week out,
but day in and day out -

777
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,000
and not have some kind of hurt,
and, you know,

778
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,760
you've got to survive, you know,
as a child and as a young person.

779
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:38,400
You know, I was born in London

780
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:42,160
and, er, my mother had high
aspirations for me

781
00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:45,360
in terms of school
and I did everything I needed to do,

782
00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:48,400
did very well at school,
and just thought, yeah,

783
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:52,120
I can go out and get a job,
and that just wasn't the case.

784
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:04,520
Barbara's experience,

785
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:08,760
like the attack that drove me and my
family from our home, was the

786
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:13,920
violent rejection of the idea that
you could be black and British.

787
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:16,760
NEWSREEL: Cars are overturned and
used to barricade the streets

788
00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:18,600
into a nearly no-go area...

789
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:22,640
Discrimination and deprivation were
widespread, and an entire

790
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:26,720
generation of black youth was
hurt and alienated.

791
00:53:26,720 --> 00:53:30,080
Stopped 101 times walking back to
Willesden, and about ten times

792
00:53:30,080 --> 00:53:32,040
by the same officer...

793
00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:34,560
Systematic harassment by the police

794
00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:37,480
brought all these frustrations
to a head.

795
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:40,240
Grab me up, right,
chuck me in the corner, right,

796
00:53:40,240 --> 00:53:43,480
and say he wants to search me, got
a warrant to search me, right...

797
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:48,040
In the 1980s, the inner-city areas
of Liverpool, London, Bristol,

798
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:51,960
Birmingham and Manchester all
witnessed uprisings.

799
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:57,320
And I can assure them that they will
help in the cultural life in

800
00:53:57,320 --> 00:54:02,560
this country, and every attempt on
their part is at social integration

801
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:06,160
and being completely happy and
cooperative with the British people.

802
00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:09,760
We don't want any special privileges
or anything more than

803
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:12,680
any other British worker
has in this country.

804
00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:19,240
Britain was in a way
haunted by its colonial past.

805
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:25,560
A generation who had worked hard to
make this nation a home for them

806
00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:30,440
and their children had been failed
by the imperial mother country.

807
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:35,920
More than 30 years later,

808
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:39,040
and Britain is an enormously
changed country.

809
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,720
Black people still face many
disadvantages -

810
00:54:41,720 --> 00:54:44,960
high levels of unemployment,
high levels of homelessness

811
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,280
and discrimination within the
legal system -

812
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:50,560
but there is one barrier that
confronted the Windrush generation

813
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:53,080
that we have largely overcome,

814
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:56,880
and that's because there are few
people these days who question

815
00:54:56,880 --> 00:55:00,840
the idea that it is possible to be
both black and British.

816
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:12,240
Now just a handful of those first
post-war Caribbean pioneers remain.

817
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:18,280
I'd love to pay tribute to that
generation of people.

818
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:21,480
Erm, so many of them now
have passed away.

819
00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:27,120
Now is a fitting moment to celebrate

820
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:30,960
their role in shaping
modern Britain.

821
00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:34,080
APPLAUSE

822
00:55:56,040 --> 00:56:00,600
That this is where we would end up
was never a foregone conclusion.

823
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,280
Anybody looking at Britain as it was
a century ago wouldn't have

824
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:07,920
for a second concluded that we
could or would become

825
00:56:07,920 --> 00:56:11,040
the multiracial society that we
are today.

826
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:21,480
Modern Britain looks and feels like
a nation that was once

827
00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:24,760
at the heart of a vast multiracial
empire.

828
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:27,920
I'm British but my parents
are from Nigeria.

829
00:56:27,920 --> 00:56:31,120
My parents are from Cameroon, I'm
from north-west London.

830
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:32,880
Born and raised in
north-west London.

831
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:36,120
I'm from Tanzania,
originally born in Zanzibar.

832
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,600
Old imperial attachments
have brought

833
00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:46,800
a new wave of Africans to
these shores.

834
00:56:46,800 --> 00:56:50,920
My uncle fought in the world wars
on Britain's behalf because

835
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,120
then we were a British colony.

836
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:55,720
Everything in Kenya is about
British.

837
00:56:55,720 --> 00:56:59,120
We love the cup of tea at four
o'clock, like the English people,

838
00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:01,440
so we feel sort of British.

839
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:06,640
Like generations of black
people before them,

840
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:09,120
stretching back to Roman times,

841
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:13,520
these people will help redefine what
it means to be British.

842
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:17,160
For me, home is here,

843
00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:20,640
largely because I am married here
and I have children here.

844
00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:25,320
I would say home is London,
I'm a Londoner now.

845
00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:32,320
I think that there's so much to
black history, and everything

846
00:57:32,320 --> 00:57:36,120
about it is so rich,
it actually makes me so happy.

847
00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:39,280
And makes me a proud African
as well.

848
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:53,040
If we look at the deeper, longer,
more nuanced history,

849
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:57,400
the story that begins 18 centuries
ago with the Afro-Romans,

850
00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,480
there we find a history that shows
we've always been global and

851
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:04,640
the lives of black people and white
people have often been entwined.

852
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:08,000
Peace to Africa!
APPLAUSE

853
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:14,200
And that story suggests that perhaps
we shouldn't be that surprised

854
00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:17,080
that this is where we find
ourselves today.

855
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:24,120
If you'd like to find out how to
research black history in

856
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:30,800
your area, there's an iWonder guide,
with links to our partners, at...

857
00:58:31,305 --> 00:59:31,812
Watch Online Movies and Series for FREE
www.osdb.link/lm