Title: Fighting Racism: Black Soldiers and Workers in Britain during the Second World War
Abstract: Abstract The Second World War led to a substantial increase in the number of black people living and working in Britain. Existing black British communities were bolstered in this period by the arrival of war volunteer workers from the Empire, who came to serve Britain in a variety of military and civilian roles, as well as by the arrival of 130,000 black GIs in the US army's invasion force. This article considers the reception that these communities received from the British government and the British general public, questioning the extent to which racial ideas of white difference and superiority continued to shape white British reactions to black workers and soldiers. Using a variety of sources, including government papers and Mass Observation reports, this article interrogates the roots of changing dynamics of racial thought in wartime Britain, highlighting in particular the extent to which fears of racial mixing continued to undermine white responses to growing black British communities. Keywords: black immigrantsblack workersracism in BritainMass Observationracial scienceblack GIsSecond World War Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mass Observation for allowing me access to their archive. Notes [1] The term ‘black’ is used in this chapter to encompass Caribbean, African and Asian workers in Britain, interspersed with references to specific geographical locations where these are significant. The term is used in recognition that in many cases African, Caribbean and sometimes Asian workers were lumped together as a category in the thinking of many officials and much of the public, as we shall see below. For the reception of Black people in Britain see CitationSherwood, Many Struggles; CitationLunn, ‘Race Relations or Industrial Relations?’; CitationFryer, Staying Power and CitationSmith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull. Also see CitationGilroy, There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack. [2] See, for example, the development in the wake of the Thatcher period of research which attacked war myths of unity and national solidarity. In particular, see CitationCalder, The Myth of the Blitz and CitationPonting, 1940: Myth or Reality. [3] In particular, see CitationAdi, West Africans in Britain 1900–1960; CitationReynolds, Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain 1942–45; CitationRose, Which People's War? and CitationSpencer, British Immigration Policy since 1939. [4] Specifically, British experiences of racial rioting in 1919 certainly seem to have influenced responses to the heightened black presence in the Second World War. See CitationRich, ‘Philanthropic Racism in Britain’, CitationFlint, ‘Scandal at the Bristol Hotel’ and CitationMarke, In Troubled Waters, 145–6. National Archives of the United Kingdom (NA), Kew, Surrey, CO 876/14, Memorandum from the Home Secretary, 10/10/42. [5] John L Keith, amongst other Colonial Office officials, repeatedly voiced opposition to the idea that the British should adopt American attitudes towards black people. For example, in one 1942 memorandum he noted: ‘We should not allow any nonsense about rape, VD, etc., to deter us from sticking to our principles and resisting the so-called Southern American attitude towards Negroes’. NA, CO876/14, 12/9/42. [6] CitationSmith, When Jim Crow, 217. [7] Figures on British Empire volunteers from CitationSpencer, British Immigration Policy, 17. CitationSherwood's research, in Many Struggles, suggests that numbers were smaller. Also see CitationWynn, ‘“Race War”’, 324–66. For Black GIs see CitationSmith, When Jim Crow, 20–36 and CitationReynolds, Rich Relations, 216–17. [8] See CitationFryer, Staying Power, 359. [9] NA, FO371/30680, Malcolm to Butler, December 1942. For analysis see CitationSmith, When Jim Crow, 45–52. [10] NA, FO371/32530, Campbell to Steele, 30/7/42 and FO371/32530, Steel to Campbell, 12/8/42. [11] On sexual fears see Rose, ‘Race, empire and British wartime national identity, 1939–45’, 237 and CitationSchaffer, Racial Science and British Society 1930–62, 86–9. For in-depth analysis of British attitudes towards Black GIs see CitationWynn, “Race War”, CitationReynolds, Rich Relations and CitationSmith, When Jim Crow. [12] NA, PREM4/29/6, Report by Grigg for the War Cabinet, September 1942. [13] NA, CO968/17/5, Letter from Grigg to Stanley, 23/9/43. [14] See CitationSherwood, Many Struggles, 99. For Colonial Office defence of the Hondurans see NA, CO876/42, Keith to Ministry of Supply, 17/8/43. The Colonial Office felt that the problems of the Hondurans stemmed from the poor leadership of General Harold Carrington. In another memorandum, RH Whitehorne agreed that Carrington was ‘the villain of the piece’. Also see NA, CO 876/42, Note by Whitehorne, 23/8/43 and CO876/42, Note by IG Cummings to JL Keith, 3/9/43. For efforts from the Colonial Office to place the Hondurans in new jobs see NA, CO876/68. The Colonial Office attempted to secure roles for Hondurans in the Rolls Royce plant in Glasgow, 9/12/43, in the Royal Navy, 10/12/43 and in Lochaber Camp and Works, British Aluminium Co, 22/12/43. [15] NA, CO876/42, Note by IG Cummings to JL Keith, 3/9/43. [16] NA, CO876/68. IG Cummings, at the Colonial Office, wrote a memorandum noting: ‘Quite naturally, some of the men have expressed an option to serve in His Majesty's Forces, and in particular a few of them have said they would like to be considered for service in the Royal Navy’, 9/12/43. The Navy confirmed that the rejection of the Hondurans was not related to colour, NA, CO876/68, Cummings to Keith, 9/12/43. [17] CitationSherwood, Many Struggles, 15. [18] For one account of Caribbean recruitment and service in the Royal Air Force see CitationNoble, Jamaica Airman. [19] NA, AIR2/6876, Report of Wing Commander Shone, circa May 1945. [20] See CitationReynolds, Rich Relations, 302–24 and CitationSmith, When Jim Crow, 20–36 and 218–27. Also see CitationWynn, ‘“Race War”’, 328–9; CitationFryer, Staying Power, 359 and Rose, ‘Race, Empire …’, 225. [21] The instructions to British troops to respect the US colour bar were written down by General Arthur Dowler, Senior Administrative Officer in Southern Command. See CitationReynolds, Rich Relations, 224–6 and CitationSmith, When Jim Crow …, 56–60. [22] For one famous example of such an incident see CitationToole, GIs and the Race Bar in Wartime Warrington. [23] On the merits of using Mass Observation in war research see CitationCalder, ‘Mass-Observation 1937–1949’, 121–36; CitationHubble, Mass-Observation and Everyday Life; CitationKushner, We Europeans? and CitationSheridan, Street and Bloome, (eds.), Writing Ourselves: Mass-Observation and Literary Practices. [24] Calder has rightly criticised the use of inconsistent language in this directive, while acknowledging the importance of its results. See CitationCalder, Mass Observation …,133–5. [25] CitationKushner, We Europeans, 128. [26] M-OA, ‘Race Directive 1939’, D1129, D2151 and D1939. [27] Ibid., D1423, D1460 and D1346. Also see CitationReynolds, Rich Relations, 304–308. These views regarding the immaturity of black peoples corresponded with some high-ranking expert opinion in this period. See scientific support for the idea of Britain taking a ‘parental’ stance towards its black Empire in Huxley, Democracy Marches, 86–95. [28] M-OA, ‘Race Directive 1939’, D2091 and D2007. [29] Ibid., D1403 and D1529. [30] Ibid., D1379 and D1423. Alibai Brown's records of attitudes amongst British soldiers in India during the war have highlighted the commonness of positive constructions of Black troops which were nonetheless framed within a discourse of inferiority. Recalling the attitudes of his colleagues and himself towards ‘native’ Indian troops, one retired, white soldier said: ‘To be honest, we regarded these soldiers very highly but never as our equals’, Alibai Brown, Y, recorded in the Black Cultural Archives, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, File for 1991. Also see CitationWilson, ‘“In their own words”, 71–87. [31] M-OA: FR 2021. [32] M-OA: FR 1885. For analysis of these data see CitationKushner, We Europeans, 129–33. [33] M-OA, Race Directive 1939, D2145. [34] See CitationFryer, Staying Power, 363, CitationWynn, ‘“Race War”’, 325 and Rose, ‘Race, Empire…’, 226. [35] See CitationSchaffer, Racial Science and British Society, 39–48. Also see CitationBarkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism, 279–340 and CitationStepan, The Idea of Race in Science, 140–69. [36] CitationJBS Haldane, Science Advances (London: George Allen and Unwin), 1947, 236. [37] In actuality, We Europeans was not just the work of Huxley and Haddon, but was team-written by a larger group of scholars including Charles Singer, Alexander Carr-Saunders and Charles Seligman. For analysis see Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism, 296–310 and CitationSchaffer, Racial Science and British Society, 32–5. For Huxley's agenda see CitationHuxley, Memories I, 207. [38] CitationHuxley and Haddon, We Europeans: A Survey of Racial Problems, 107 and 282–3. [39] CitationHaldane MSS, 20549. ‘Our Men and Women’, Reynolds News, November 1950. [40] CitationTabili, ‘The Construction of Racial Difference in Twentieth-Century Britain’, Journal of British Studies, 98. Also see CitationLunn, ‘Race Relations or Industrial Relations’. [41] Rose, ‘Race, Empire …’, 237. [42] For an analysis of the influence of social and political issues in shaping British racial science see CitationMazumdar, Eugenics, Human Genetics and Human Failings, CitationJones, ‘Eugenics and Social Policy Between the Wars’, 717–28 and CitationHawkins, Social Darwinism in European and American Thought. [43] Smith has cited this tendency, noting that ‘… few people saw any intellectual gulf between their broad acceptance of Blacks and their particular dislike of miscegenation’ in CitationSmith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull, 199. [44] M-OA, ‘Race Directive’, 1939, D1456 & D1119. [45] See CitationNoble, Jamaica Airman, 60–1 and CitationMarke, In Troubled Waters, 140–1. [46] Michael Banton noted the common belief that only ‘rebels’ or ‘those whom the white group have rejected’ had relationships with immigrants in The Coloured Quarter, 150. [47] M-OA, ‘Race Directive’, 1939, D1264 and D2094. [48] Ibid., D1077 and D1563. [49] Ibid., D1656, D1423 and D1559. [50] Ibid., D1047 and D1616. [51] Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 20/9/40. [52] CitationBanton, The Coloured Quarter, 151. Banton's findings echo the research of other pioneering sociological studies of black communities in Britain. See, for example, CitationRichmond, Colour Prejudice in Britain, 78. [53] NA, PREM 4/26/9, Marlborough to Churchill, (Undated), 1943 and PREM 4/26/9, Grigg to Churchill, 2/12/43. [54] See CitationReynolds, Rich Relations, 229. [55] NA, PREM 4/26/9, Grigg told Churchill that there was a necessity ‘for measures more stringent than education’, Grigg to Churchill, 21/10/43. [56] See CitationMarke, In Troubled Waters, 142–6 and CitationNoble, Jamaica Airman, 64–5.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-05-28
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 8
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