0:00:01 > 0:00:02Let's, let's walk up.
0:00:02 > 0:00:03(Yeah, OK).
0:00:13 > 0:00:16I haven't walked up this street for 30 years.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21I used to live... I think, about here.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24A house that's long since demolished.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31And I was 14 when my family were attacked in our house.
0:00:31 > 0:00:36One night, bricks came through the window and one of the bricks...
0:00:36 > 0:00:39With an elastic band there was a note that said, "Wogs, go home."
0:00:45 > 0:00:47And then, a few nights later,
0:00:47 > 0:00:52the same thing happened and we gave up trying to repair the glass
0:00:52 > 0:00:58so we put plywood in the windows and me, my sisters,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01my brother, my mother and grandmother would just lie in bed
0:01:01 > 0:01:05at night in the dark, the house was completely black,
0:01:05 > 0:01:10and there'd be thuds on the plywood and we'd scream
0:01:10 > 0:01:12and shake in our beds.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21We'd been moved to emergency housing and we were living somewhere else
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and I had this urge to come back and see where I lived.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28And I stood over on that side of the wall because it was from over there
0:01:28 > 0:01:34that the bricks were thrown at my house and my family here.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37And I stood there as a 14-year-old...
0:01:44 > 0:01:48I stood there as a 14-year-old boy and I looked over and,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51the house, still boarded up...
0:01:51 > 0:01:56and on the white front door, someone had painted a swastika
0:01:56 > 0:02:00and they'd written "NF..." - National Front - "..won here",
0:02:00 > 0:02:02because it had been a victory.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04HE SNIFFS
0:02:05 > 0:02:06This...
0:02:06 > 0:02:10This victory had been driving me and my family out of our home.
0:02:20 > 0:02:27Something went really wrong in this country in the 1970s and the 1980s,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30and I know that my story and my experiences...
0:02:30 > 0:02:34that so many black people I know, they've got similar stories to tell.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42And it's part of this long history.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51For millions of people like me, that history began long before
0:02:51 > 0:02:55we were born, during the centuries in which Britain built the Empire.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Centuries in which people from Africa and the Caribbean
0:03:01 > 0:03:03were drawn to these shores.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09Over generations, they made Britain their home.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14APPLAUSE
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Eventually creating the multiracial nation we live in today.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25These are the people who made it possible to celebrate
0:03:25 > 0:03:27being black and British.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31CHEERING
0:03:31 > 0:03:33APPLAUSE ECHOES FAINTLY
0:03:54 > 0:03:59Today's multiracial Britain would have been unimaginable during
0:03:59 > 0:04:03the Victorian era when the Empire was nearing its height.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07An age in which skin colour divided the coloniser from the colonised,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09the rulers from the ruled.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14- ARCHIVE:- Not many men in history have had a country named after them.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Offhand I can think of Bolivar and Columbus and, of course,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19Cecil Rhodes.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Cecil Rhodes, what was he like?
0:04:24 > 0:04:28There are few places and few people who really capture the scale
0:04:28 > 0:04:32and the ambition and the avarice of the Empire at its peak
0:04:32 > 0:04:34than this railway and the man who built it.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39Cecil Rhodes was just a teenager in 1870 when his father sent him
0:04:39 > 0:04:41to Africa in the hope that the mild climate here
0:04:41 > 0:04:43would improve his health.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46By his mid-30s, he was the Premier of the Cape Colony
0:04:46 > 0:04:50and another territory, Rhodesia, had been named after him.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52He was also one of the richest men in the world.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Rhodes got rich in the rush for South African gold and diamonds,
0:05:07 > 0:05:10but he was driven by more than wealth alone.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14For Rhodes, the supposed superiority of the British made
0:05:14 > 0:05:17the expansion of the Empire the destiny of his race,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21and driving this railway across the entire length of Africa,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24from the Cape to Cairo, would help fulfil that destiny.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30TRAIN WHISTLE BLARES
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Rhodes had a vision of an Africa that could be crossed
0:05:35 > 0:05:37without ever leaving British territory.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44In 1894, five years after the first section of tracks had been laid,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49this town, Mafeking, lay literally at the end of the track.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Between here and Rhodesia lay Bechuanaland.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55So now Rhodes was busy lobbying the government
0:05:55 > 0:05:57to get control of Bechuanaland.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02That would allow him to unite South Africa with Rhodesia
0:06:02 > 0:06:04and extend the railway north.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08The Colonial Office was ready to support him,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10but there was a problem.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Bechuanaland was a protectorate, a territory claimed by the British
0:06:13 > 0:06:17but governed by local rulers.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Most prominent among them was
0:06:19 > 0:06:23the multilingual Christian convert King Khama III.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28And Khama could see exactly what Rhodes was up to.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35What Khama understood was that the coming of the railways was just
0:06:35 > 0:06:39the first stage in a process of colonisation.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42What Rhodes planned to do was to pay for this railway by selling
0:06:42 > 0:06:44the land on either side.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47That would be bought by white settlers who would
0:06:47 > 0:06:49flood into the area and become the new overlords.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53The Africans would end up as the landless labourers on white farms
0:06:53 > 0:06:55on their own tribal lands.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59The same process was happening across Africa and Khama knew that,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03while agreeing to the railway might sound harmless enough,
0:07:03 > 0:07:05it would be a disaster for his people.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11Khama came up with an ingenious way to fight back.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15What he decided to do, as he said in his own words,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18was to "Seek another way of approach by which I can speak
0:07:18 > 0:07:20"to the Queen and to the people of England."
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Along with two other Bechuanaland chiefs,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Khama set sail for the heart of Empire.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39BELL TOLLS
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The black African kings were coming to meet the great white Queen.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53But the Colonial Secretary blocked their request
0:07:53 > 0:07:56for an audience with the Queen.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00He fobbed them off while she took her summer vacation.
0:08:02 > 0:08:03DOOR SLAMS
0:08:05 > 0:08:08And so, with the help of the London Missionary Society,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11the kings embarked upon the other half of their plan,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14to meet the people of Britain.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20These books are the clippings that were
0:08:20 > 0:08:22produced for the tour of the three kings.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28All of the newspaper articles, all of the invitations,
0:08:28 > 0:08:31all of the ephemera of the tour.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33Straight away on their arrival in Britain,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36there is a flurry of newspaper articles.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39The Irish Independent, the Manchester Evening News.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41"King Khama, who has just reached England,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44"is one of the most interesting Africans of the century."
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Here's all three of the kings taking poses,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53looking every bit the educated, refined, Christian gentleman
0:08:53 > 0:08:57that they are portraying themselves in the press -
0:08:57 > 0:08:59which they are, of course.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Is that Khama working the plough with his top hat on in the fields?
0:09:03 > 0:09:05That is wonderful!
0:09:05 > 0:09:09And here's a snapshot of a dinner in honour of the three kings,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and they're at the end of the table, and the tables are lined with
0:09:13 > 0:09:19these earnest faces of these evangelical Victorian Christians
0:09:19 > 0:09:23with their starched suits and their buttoned up dresses.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26"Bechuanaland Protectorate. Chartered Landgrabbing."
0:09:26 > 0:09:31Three whole months they are here in Britain whipping up support
0:09:31 > 0:09:33and they're doing it brilliantly.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Mr John Tweed, Henry Thossen.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40These are the people who are won over by the campaign
0:09:40 > 0:09:41of the three kings.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45The Bechuana chiefs know that militarily on the ground in Africa
0:09:45 > 0:09:48they have no chance against Cecil Rhodes.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53They're trying to outmanoeuvre him by winning over the British public,
0:09:53 > 0:09:58and each one of these articles, each one of these calling cards,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02each one of these programmes for a speech or a reception at a town hall
0:10:02 > 0:10:04is evidence that it was working.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10What is this? Oh, my God!
0:10:10 > 0:10:18This is a new line of travel trunks named after the kings.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22The Bathoen trunk, the Sebele trunk and the Khama trunk.
0:10:22 > 0:10:23HE LAUGHS
0:10:23 > 0:10:28So they brought out a new line of travel luggage
0:10:28 > 0:10:29named after the kings.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31That is just amazing!
0:10:39 > 0:10:43The kings' direct appeal to the public undermined
0:10:43 > 0:10:47some of the prejudice against Africans that Britain used
0:10:47 > 0:10:49to justify colonisation.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53They were, finally, invited into the corridors of power.
0:10:55 > 0:10:56Towards the end of 1895,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Khama and his delegation were granted an audience here
0:11:00 > 0:11:01at the Colonial Office with
0:11:01 > 0:11:03the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07At that meeting, the Africans were granted most of the protection
0:11:07 > 0:11:10from Cecil Rhodes and his company that they'd been looking for.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13They were also granted an audience with Queen Victoria.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18It's very clear from this image what the power relationship is
0:11:18 > 0:11:21between the British and the Africans.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25But what it can't disguise is that these three kings had come
0:11:25 > 0:11:28to Britain, come to the heart of the Empire, and they had won.
0:11:32 > 0:11:37THEY SING
0:11:37 > 0:11:41ULULATION
0:11:41 > 0:11:45The kings helped save their homeland from the fate that befell
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Rhodesia and South Africa,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50where Rhodes was sowing the seeds of racial segregation.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01The deal struck was almost unique, because most of the people
0:12:01 > 0:12:04who were drawn into the British Empire didn't have any choice
0:12:04 > 0:12:07in the matter, they were forced into the Empire
0:12:07 > 0:12:09often at the point of a gun.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11But what Khama and the other kings had critically understood
0:12:11 > 0:12:16is that there were differences of opinion between the British people,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18the Colonial Office, Cecil Rhodes and the Queen,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22and they had exploited those differences brilliantly.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33In 1966, the colony of Bechuanaland became the country of Botswana,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35and in London, in 2016,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39they are celebrating 50 years of independence.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45It's a really great story.
0:12:45 > 0:12:4950 years of independence after, you know, our three chiefs
0:12:49 > 0:12:51came to ask for independence.
0:12:51 > 0:12:52So, yeah, really great.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59SINGING CONTINUES
0:12:59 > 0:13:00I think they were brave.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03I think they did very well for us and we're very proud.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11This is a very public celebration of an event that we've
0:13:11 > 0:13:13really forgotten about in Britain.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16But the tour of those three kings of Victorian Britain
0:13:16 > 0:13:18was the birth of this nation.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Everybody here can trace the story of Botswana back to that moment
0:13:22 > 0:13:27in the 1890s when three kings came here and kind of won over
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Victorian public opinion.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32This is the genesis story of Botswana.
0:13:43 > 0:13:49CHEERING AND ULULATION
0:13:52 > 0:13:55This event reminds us that the relationship between Britain
0:13:55 > 0:14:00and the people of Africa was, on rare occasions, negotiable.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17But, as more and more people of African origin made Britain
0:14:17 > 0:14:22their home, the limits of racial tolerance would be exposed.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32There's been a black community in Liverpool since the 1700s,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35due largely to the shipping industry and the slave trade.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43During the First World War, labour shortages swelled
0:14:43 > 0:14:47the black population from around 3,000 to around 5,000.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52But at the end of the war, racial tensions were exposed
0:14:52 > 0:14:55that would threaten the community's very existence.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00"White men appear determined to clear out the black people,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02"who have been advised to stay indoors."
0:15:03 > 0:15:08"The district was in an uproar and every coloured man seen
0:15:08 > 0:15:12"was followed by a large, hostile crowd."
0:15:16 > 0:15:19He was lynched, and there's no getting away from that.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32Liverpool's descent into racial violence has largely been forgotten,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36but the recent discovery of letters from the black community
0:15:36 > 0:15:39to the mayor has allowed a local history project
0:15:39 > 0:15:40to bring the past to life.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45"The coloured people of this city are daily insulted in the streets,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49"they are attacked and assaulted without the slightest provocation.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52"Hundreds of our men have been ejected from their employment
0:15:52 > 0:15:56"and left completely stranded in the city today."
0:15:56 > 0:15:58"My wife is in the house all day.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01"She hasn't any freedom to walk in the street.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05"She's been insulted by people as being a coloured woman.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09"I believe if there is no help for us
0:16:09 > 0:16:12"my wife will do something wrong to herself."
0:16:12 > 0:16:16So he's so worried at the level of racial abuse his wife is suffering,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18he's saying she's going to harm herself.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21She's going to harm herself, basically.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25- These are really eloquent... - They are.- ..pleas to officialdom.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29They are passionate declarations of the suffering they're going through.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38There's a letter here from the mayor to the Colonial Office.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41"Only the other night there was a fight between the two races
0:16:41 > 0:16:44"and matters are not likely to improve in this direction as
0:16:44 > 0:16:48"the position develops and probably grows worse."
0:16:48 > 0:16:51- So things are already getting out of control.- Yeah.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54This is the mayor of a British city saying, "This is going to explode."
0:16:54 > 0:16:55Yeah.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00SIREN WAILS
0:17:02 > 0:17:05Within days of the mayor writing this letter,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07the city would erupt in violence.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12On the night of the 5th June, 1919,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16a fight broke out in a pub here on Great George Square.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18It was between a bunch of black sailors
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and a bunch of Scandinavian sailors.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25When the police arrived on the scene,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27they decided to arrest the black men.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30So they came round the corner to Upper Pitt Street.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34But by this point, a mob several hundred strong had gathered.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Number 18 Upper Pitt Street was a boarding house
0:17:40 > 0:17:43where a young Bermudan sailor was staying.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45His name was Charles Wotten, and when the police tried to
0:17:45 > 0:17:49force the door to his boarding house, he escaped out the back.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51But he was quickly spotted.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01He was chased by the police and the mob through the city
0:18:01 > 0:18:03to a place he probably knew well.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10Charles Wooten was pursued all the way down here to the Queen's Dock.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13The eyewitness accounts tell us what happened next.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17"When the crowd was at its height,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21"there would be about 2,000 white people there."
0:18:23 > 0:18:27"The witness could not say whether the negro was thrown into the dock
0:18:27 > 0:18:30"or was swept in by the swaying crowd."
0:18:33 > 0:18:35"They shouted, 'Let him drown!' "
0:18:41 > 0:18:43"Had we arrived a few moments earlier we probably
0:18:43 > 0:18:44"could have saved him."
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Following Charles Wotten's death,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00there were three days of rioting against the black community.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05There was windows being smashed, there was fires being lit,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07there was gangs of men, jeering,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10shouting and screaming, children were crying.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Just hustled out of your house or, "We'd better take you to safety.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21"We'll take you to the police station for safety."
0:19:21 > 0:19:22They must have been bewildered.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30They must have been in a terrible state.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Do you think that your grandmother and your mother's house
0:19:32 > 0:19:34- had been attacked? - Yeah, I think it was.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38They were under attack, because my grandmother was a fiery woman
0:19:38 > 0:19:41and I don't thing she would have left the house
0:19:41 > 0:19:43unless it was absolutely necessary.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47So when you first read these documents and you read about
0:19:47 > 0:19:52the violence, the hunting of black people on the street,
0:19:52 > 0:19:54you must have linked that to your family history.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58- That must have been a shocking moment.- Yeah. It's...
0:19:58 > 0:20:02I'm so sorry that I didn't know the whole history of this years ago.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07- But this isn't history that's well-known.- Oh, no.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13The majority of people we've encountered with the project
0:20:13 > 0:20:16have all said, "Oh, we didn't know. We didn't know this happened."
0:20:16 > 0:20:22I mean, I barely knew anything about it myself before the project.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26It was not until we started going through the documents properly that,
0:20:26 > 0:20:31you know, you get to understand how bad the situation was really.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Almost a century later, and another crowd are gathering at Queen's Dock.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50This time, to remember Charles Wotten and the victims
0:20:50 > 0:20:52of the violence that followed.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00It's a tragic circumstance that we are gathered here today.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02This is one of our ancestors.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06It's a time for remembering our forefathers and mothers.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13He could have been my brother, he could have been your nephew,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15he could have been your son.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35I wanted to cry. You know, you look at the waters here...
0:21:35 > 0:21:38In my mind I was seeing this mob chasing this young, black boy
0:21:38 > 0:21:42and he's thinking, "Where do I go? What do I do?"
0:21:48 > 0:21:51He was lynched and there's no getting away from that.
0:21:51 > 0:21:52That story needs to be told
0:21:52 > 0:21:56and that degree of racism needs to be confronted.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04This was a violent rejection, but some were determined
0:22:04 > 0:22:08that Britain, as the centre of the Empire, was still home.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12One thing the British public does not realise adequately
0:22:12 > 0:22:13is that we are a coloured Empire.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16You cannot prevent the black man from coming here.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19You could no more tell him that he must not come to Liverpool,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22London or Cardiff than he has the right to tell you
0:22:22 > 0:22:25that you must not go to Lagos or Durban or Johannesburg.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30As we unveiled a plaque,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33it made me reflect on everybody that came before me.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35I'm in a very fortunate position
0:22:35 > 0:22:37to be a fifth generation black person
0:22:37 > 0:22:40of the city and I thought about what my grandparents
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and great-grandparents went through before I came along
0:22:43 > 0:22:47and they've really paved the way for everything that I am today.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56In the aftermath of war, there were similar outbreaks of violence
0:22:56 > 0:23:01in Glasgow, London, Newport, Cardiff and on Tyneside.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08They brought an underlying racism onto the streets of Britain.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17As the nation entered the 1920s,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20there was one man who carved out a home here.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26CABARET MUSIC PLAYS
0:23:31 > 0:23:35He became the era's acceptable face of blackness.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39His appeal was he was an extremely competent
0:23:39 > 0:23:41and very, very good artist.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44I mean, he had a voice which people would, quite literally, die for.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46I think a few people probably did.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53He was born on the British Caribbean island of Grenada
0:23:53 > 0:23:56and he performed in Paris and New York.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59But it was in London that he shot to fame,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02taking the exclusive cabaret scene by storm.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05# I should like you all to know
0:24:05 > 0:24:08# I'm a famous gigolo
0:24:08 > 0:24:13# And of lavender, my nature's got just a splash in it... #
0:24:13 > 0:24:17What he did, one of his things, he would sit at the piano
0:24:17 > 0:24:21and he would get his big, white handkerchief and mop his brow
0:24:21 > 0:24:26like this and, apparently, all the girls used to swoon.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29# ..you'll find me stretching my braces
0:24:29 > 0:24:32# Pushing ladies with lifted faces round the floor... #
0:24:32 > 0:24:37His name was Leslie Hutchinson, better known simply as "Hutch".
0:24:37 > 0:24:41# I'm a baby who has no mother but jazz
0:24:43 > 0:24:46# I'm a gigolo... #
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Good-looking, charismatic and bisexual,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52part of Hutch's appeal was an air of exotic mystery.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55# I'm a gigolo. #
0:24:55 > 0:24:57APPLAUSE
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Among his many lovers was the American Broadway composer
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Cole Porter and Hollywood stars Tallulah Bankhead and Merle Oberon.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09But it was among London's aristocratic elite,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12the bright young things, that he was in most demand,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15and by playing special after-hours private parties,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18he became part of London's in-crowd.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23How was it possible for this black man to be accepted into this world,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27or seemingly accepted into this world of the aristocratic elite?
0:25:27 > 0:25:31Because he had talent and he was admired for what he could do.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35And the seduction of money and lonely lives within the Royals,
0:25:35 > 0:25:40a lot of them, and society, a lot of unhappy marriages.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42He was an alternative pleasure.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48# I've got you under my skin... #
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Hutch was a star, but he could never escape racism.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55One of the times, he went up to Liverpool and he was at the top
0:25:55 > 0:25:59and the height of his fame and he had to go in at the back door.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02He wasn't allowed to go in the front, and yet he was on stage
0:26:02 > 0:26:05- and adored by thousands. - Through the back door?
0:26:05 > 0:26:08And he wasn't allowed to stay at the hotel where he was playing.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13# So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me... #
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Caught between desire and rejection,
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Hutch was forced to lead a double life.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23I think he was surviving against all the odds,
0:26:23 > 0:26:25against all the racism and so on, and he did it
0:26:25 > 0:26:29by protecting himself, by joining the enemy, as it were.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33Joining in with the aristocratic life that was there to have.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Sometimes his accent went from like American slang, jazzy, to...
0:26:36 > 0:26:38- POSH VOICE:- "Oh, where do you live?"
0:26:38 > 0:26:40He could become Oxford black.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43I know it's not a nice term, that, but that's what he would do.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48# I would sacrifice anything come what might
0:26:48 > 0:26:51# For the sake of having you near... #
0:26:51 > 0:26:56Eventually, Hutch's double life caught up with him.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00Since the 1930s, he'd been having an affair with
0:27:00 > 0:27:02the wealthy society heiress Edwina Mountbatten.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05She was closely connected to the Royal Family.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09Her husband Louis, the great-grandson of Queen Victoria.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12The story hit the gossip columns.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16Edwina Mountbatten was identified as the woman in question,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19but the papers wrongly named the black American performer
0:27:19 > 0:27:23and activist Paul Robeson as her lover.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27# And I want you under my skin. #
0:27:30 > 0:27:32APPLAUSE
0:27:32 > 0:27:34The newspapers had got the wrong man,
0:27:34 > 0:27:37but the story scandalised the palace,
0:27:37 > 0:27:39and Hutch would pay the price.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Perhaps naively, Hutch imagined that the British establishment
0:27:50 > 0:27:53would afford him the same sort of freedom from censure and criticism
0:27:53 > 0:27:56that they gave one another.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59It was at this moment in his life that Leslie Hutchinson
0:27:59 > 0:28:02discovered that he wasn't really part of the aristocratic elite
0:28:02 > 0:28:05that he spent his life surrounded by.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14He remained popular, but it would be decades before
0:28:14 > 0:28:18he would be brought back into the fold of the establishment.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22By the time of his comeback here at Quaglino's in the 1950s,
0:28:22 > 0:28:28musical tastes had moved on and Hutch faced a long downward spiral.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32He sort of went into a decline, to be honest with you.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35He had to sell his house in Hampstead which he loved.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Moved into a flat, and the days of the Rolls-Royce and, you know,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43endless parties and champagne, I'm afraid, came to a halt.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51When Hutch died aged 69,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55Lord Mountbatten offered to pay for his funeral,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57which was attended by only 42 people.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02But Hutch lives on in the memory.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Not least in his children, Gabrielle and Chris.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09The relationship between Hutch and your mother
0:29:09 > 0:29:11was a scandalous affair, wasn't it?
0:29:11 > 0:29:15As far as I know, she was probably here and she passed her card
0:29:15 > 0:29:19to take to his dressing room, so she went for him, as it were.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22And I don't know how long an affair it was,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25but this is what happened and I was the result.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28And, because it was an aristocratic family, a private midwife
0:29:28 > 0:29:33came in and I was delivered by her and, um, then I was removed.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37I've got letters written by my mother's husband saying,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40"Please remove this child."
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Gabrielle never met Hutch and she was unaware that he was her father
0:29:43 > 0:29:45until she was in her 40s.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Chris is Hutch's son by a different woman.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52He saw his father only occasionally.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54I'm torn between pride and anger.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57You know, I'm angry about the way he was treated.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00It's despicable, a lot of it.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04But also angry about sometimes the way he treated us. And...
0:30:04 > 0:30:08But proud of who he was and what he achieved.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18Today, Hutch's fans and members of his extended Grenadian family
0:30:18 > 0:30:20are gathering to honour his memory.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24It's wonderful to be here today on this very special occasion.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27Thank you, Quaglino's. He's home again.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30He was so worried he wouldn't be remembered.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33He's certainly remembered today. A ripping, roaring round of applause
0:30:33 > 0:30:36in memory of a wonderful entertainer,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39Leslie Arthur Julien Hutchinson, our father, Hutch.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING
0:30:57 > 0:30:59Well, I really, really had a lot of time for him.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03I still play his music and in a funny sort of way I miss him.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06And events like this, with his plaque going up, you know,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09just reminds one of what a great personality he was
0:31:09 > 0:31:11and how important he was.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14So there you are, that's Hutch.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19One of the last times I was with him, he said,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23"I'm just worried they won't remember me, Christopher," you know.
0:31:23 > 0:31:24I said, "They will, they will."
0:31:24 > 0:31:28So we left rather downhearted but we walked along Frith Street
0:31:28 > 0:31:30and taxis... "Hello, Hutch, how are you, mate?"
0:31:30 > 0:31:33And he's, "Oh, never been better, I've never been better."
0:31:33 > 0:31:35So he was top of the world again.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38All he wanted was to be loved and adored.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48Despite his fame, Hutch's life reveals that to be both black
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and British was still out of reach.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57But during the Second World War, the people of Britain would be
0:31:57 > 0:32:02confronted with the reality of a truly racial society.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05CHOIR SINGS
0:32:07 > 0:32:11This is Abersychan in the Welsh Valleys.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17The people here, and in towns and villages across Britain,
0:32:17 > 0:32:22became unknowing participants in a great social experiment.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26For all the years that we've been in Wales,
0:32:26 > 0:32:32people still can't accept the fact that we are black and Welsh.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Some would come out with new friendships
0:32:37 > 0:32:39and their lives enhanced.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43They took this young soldier into their home and they really
0:32:43 > 0:32:45loved him as their own.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51For others, the choices they would make would lead to years of
0:32:51 > 0:32:53shame and secrecy.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58People would say to me, "Where are you from?"
0:32:58 > 0:33:02And I couldn't answer because I knew that I lived in Blaenavon but
0:33:02 > 0:33:04I knew that I looked different.
0:33:13 > 0:33:19By 1944, over a million US soldiers had landed in Britain,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23and around 130,000 were black GIs.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37One spring day, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion arrived here.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40MAN CHUCKLES
0:33:41 > 0:33:43But there was a problem.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47Segregated America sent a segregated army to Britain.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Black and white troops lived in separate camps,
0:33:50 > 0:33:51they ate in separate canteens
0:33:51 > 0:33:54and spent their free time in separate clubs,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58just like they did back home under the so-called Jim Crow laws.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05The Americans also brought with them racial violence.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10White GIs would routinely attack black Allied soldiers.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17These official documents relate to one of many such incidents.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21It's from March 1942, and these documents tell the story of
0:34:21 > 0:34:26how one Corporal Samson Morris, who was a West Indian, was attacked by
0:34:26 > 0:34:30a group of US Marines at Lyons' Corner House in Marble Arch,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34and Morris tells us that while he's waiting in the queue to go
0:34:34 > 0:34:36into the restaurant, one of the Americans comes up to him and
0:34:36 > 0:34:39says, "You're not going in there to eat with us."
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Perhaps unwisely, Morris says,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45"I'm a British subject from the West Indies,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48"and you're not in America now, where you lynch us people."
0:34:48 > 0:34:52At this, one of the Americans threatens to stab him
0:34:52 > 0:34:54and six of them attack him and beat him up.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04Wartime Britain was getting to see close up what
0:35:04 > 0:35:07a racially segregated society was like.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12But would they fall in line with their American allies?
0:35:12 > 0:35:14Would British pubs refuse to serve black GIs
0:35:14 > 0:35:16because of the colour of their skin?
0:35:16 > 0:35:19Would British restaurants and dance halls refuse them entry?
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Would there be white-only carriages on British trains?
0:35:22 > 0:35:26And would the British people really accept the imposition of
0:35:26 > 0:35:31American Jim Crow-style segregation onto their communities?
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Across the nation there was a resounding response.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Its spirit is captured in a single letter from one Welsh mother
0:35:45 > 0:35:47to a black American mother.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53"Mrs Monk, you have a son to treasure and feel very proud of.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57"We love him very dearly and we'll do anything in the world for him.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02"We have told him he can look upon our home as his home while in
0:36:02 > 0:36:07"our country, and I will try to fill your place, if only in a small way.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10"We will look upon him now as our own.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14"Mother to mother, very sincerely, with loving thoughts,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17"Jessie Pryor, xxxx."
0:36:22 > 0:36:25The recipient of this motherly love
0:36:25 > 0:36:28was the 19-year-old Wilson Monk from New Jersey.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31He was taken into the home of Jessie and Godfrey Pryor,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35who handed down their wartime story to granddaughter Cheryl.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40- Your grandparents encounter this young African-American...- Yes.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43- ..and almost...adopt him. - Yes, they did.
0:36:43 > 0:36:44They really did,
0:36:44 > 0:36:49they took him in and they spoke a lot and they had great fun.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Do you think your grandparents had known or met any black people
0:36:52 > 0:36:55- before they met Wilson?- No, I don't think they would have, actually.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58And to my grandmother it wouldn't have made any difference.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02That's just how she was. And to her, that's what you did then.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13'Just as suddenly as the black GIs had arrived, in June 1944 they
0:37:13 > 0:37:16'were gone, to play their part in the liberation of Europe.'
0:37:16 > 0:37:19I think that was further down.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22'But they left a lasting legacy.'
0:37:24 > 0:37:27- This is a school one. - So this is you?- Yeah.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30- And you're not the only mixed-race child in this class.- No.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33There's David Phillips by there.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36His father was also a black GI?
0:37:36 > 0:37:37Must have been.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Were all the mixed-race children at school the products of
0:37:40 > 0:37:44- relationships between black GIs and local women?- Yeah, must have been.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48Cos, erm, you never seen any darker...you know, any black man,
0:37:48 > 0:37:50fathers or anything like that,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54it was only children that I can remember seeing.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59'Ann Johnson was born in 1945 and brought up by her grandmother.'
0:37:59 > 0:38:03- That was the one that reared me. - This is your grandmother?
0:38:03 > 0:38:05Yeah, and we used to call her Mam.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08So this is the woman you call your mother
0:38:08 > 0:38:11- but was really your grandmother? - That's right.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12She looks a tough woman.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15Yeah, she was strict, I can tell you.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18'Ann's grandmother was fiercely protective.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21'For most of Ann's childhood, she didn't know that the woman
0:38:21 > 0:38:25'she thought of as her sister, Molly, was really her mother.'
0:38:25 > 0:38:28But that was my rightful mother...
0:38:28 > 0:38:30- That's your mother?- Yeah.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32But you know that your father was a black American soldier?
0:38:32 > 0:38:34American, yeah.
0:38:34 > 0:38:39But by all accounts he used to send letters home to Molly
0:38:39 > 0:38:42and then our mam used to burn them.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45So... And then she was put in the doghouse, as they say,
0:38:45 > 0:38:47weren't it, in the workhouse.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51So other than that, it was all kept silent.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01In many communities like Abersychan, the secret history of
0:39:01 > 0:39:06the so-called "brown babies" is only now being uncovered.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11So your birth mother never told you who your father was?
0:39:11 > 0:39:13Can never remember that.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15And your grandmother who brought you up
0:39:15 > 0:39:17never said your father was a black GI?
0:39:17 > 0:39:18No.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23- So there was some sense of needing to keep this a family secret?- Yeah.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26- Yeah.- I think so.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33Ann's family history is now being passed on to her great-granddaughter
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and her daughter Claire, who reject the shame of the past.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41They wanted the silence.
0:39:41 > 0:39:46They wanted to block out everything that went on at those times.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49I think they wanted to forget all what went on.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52But now we look back, it's part of our history
0:39:52 > 0:39:56and who we are, so I've got an acceptance I think is...
0:39:57 > 0:40:00You know, I'm fine with it.
0:40:04 > 0:40:10I'd like to introduce Ann to join me here, because Ann is going to
0:40:10 > 0:40:14unveil the plaque which is commemorated to her father
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and all the African-American soldiers that were billeted here.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27APPLAUSE
0:40:41 > 0:40:43- 70 years ago.- I know.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45Never forget. You know?
0:40:45 > 0:40:49It's part of history, and my family history especially,
0:40:49 > 0:40:50and, no, you mustn't forget.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53I brought my granddaughter today and I thought, yes, because
0:40:53 > 0:40:57she does history in school, and you have to remember these things.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15The black GIs offered a glimpse of
0:41:15 > 0:41:18what a post-colonial Britain might look like.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29The aftermath of war would soon make that a reality.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36Across Africa, it gave fresh impetus to independence movements.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42In the Caribbean, many who had fought for Britain
0:41:42 > 0:41:46felt the bonds to the mother country become ever stronger.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48We were taught that we were British
0:41:48 > 0:41:51and we accepted that without question.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56And now they were coming home.
0:41:58 > 0:41:59- NEWSREEL:- Arrivals at Tilbury.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02The Empire Windrush brings to Britain 500 Jamaicans.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Many are ex-servicemen who know England.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07They served this country well. In Jamaica...
0:42:07 > 0:42:11The arrival of the Empire Windrush in June 1948 has come to
0:42:11 > 0:42:16symbolise the founding moment of modern black British history.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20We're hoping to collect lots of people's stories and memories
0:42:20 > 0:42:22about their journey to Britain.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24We can't just focus on the big names in history,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27we need to focus on the history makers that live amongst us.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30- NEWSREEL:- Citizens of the British Empire coming to the mother country
0:42:30 > 0:42:31with good intent.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Today in Brixton, members and descendants of
0:42:34 > 0:42:38the Windrush generation are celebrating their history.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42I've been here from, erm, 1944.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44The groundwork I did here in this country
0:42:44 > 0:42:45has stood me well all my life.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49So it has many of my fellow West Indians who are here today.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Many of the migrants arrived in Britain thanks to
0:42:51 > 0:42:53a new open-door policy.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57Introduced in 1948, it offered some 800 million
0:42:57 > 0:43:02citizens of the Empire the right to settle in the UK.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05My father was a member of that generation.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08He was born in Jamaica in 1925.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12His father was Chinese and his mother was black Jamaican.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17- NEWSREEL:- In 1954, about 10,000 West Indians came to Britain.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21In 1955, it is believed another 15,000 will make the long journey.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26This kind of mass migration wasn't creating the post-colonial Britain
0:43:26 > 0:43:29that the policymakers had had in mind.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34The people whom the Government imagined would make use of
0:43:34 > 0:43:38the rights of entry and residence enshrined within the 1948 act
0:43:38 > 0:43:41were white people, people who were said to be of British stock -
0:43:41 > 0:43:44Australians, Canadians, white South Africans.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48People who were coming home to the imperial mother country.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51And their rights of entry were seen as valuable bonds that were
0:43:51 > 0:43:55essential if Britain was to remain the lodestar around which
0:43:55 > 0:43:58the colonies and former colonies orbited.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Almost nobody imagined that black people,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04people from the Caribbean and Africa, would make use of
0:44:04 > 0:44:08their rights to enter and live in the United Kingdom.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11# London is the place for me
0:44:11 > 0:44:13# Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum
0:44:13 > 0:44:17# London, this lovely city... #
0:44:17 > 0:44:19And my mum was one of the first set of people
0:44:19 > 0:44:22to work in the hospitals, and she...
0:44:22 > 0:44:26You know, that generation made the most of it.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30Many people from the Commonwealth wanted to come to Britain,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33and post-war austerity Britain badly needed them.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37# I've been travelling the countries years ago
0:44:37 > 0:44:41# But this is the place I wanted to know, darling London
0:44:41 > 0:44:43# This is the place for me... #
0:44:43 > 0:44:45Nursing was calling me,
0:44:45 > 0:44:50so I came to England to pursue the career that I wanted so badly.
0:44:52 > 0:44:53- That's me.- That's you?
0:44:53 > 0:44:57That's Myrtle, and that's Greta Fitzthomas,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00and this is my book, for surgery.
0:45:00 > 0:45:07I came from St Catherine, Jamaica, in 1960, at the age of 20.
0:45:07 > 0:45:12This was the very first time I was leaving my parents.
0:45:15 > 0:45:21I came out of the plane and I just could not believe how cold it was.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26My first thought was, "How do these people live in this icebox?!"
0:45:28 > 0:45:29Right from the start,
0:45:29 > 0:45:34the new National Health Service recruited staff from the Caribbean.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37When you arrived in Britain,
0:45:37 > 0:45:40did you feel that people recognised that you were British?
0:45:40 > 0:45:42- WOMEN:- No.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46- That's... Everyone said no.- No! - No. That's all round the table, no.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50- They asked you what part of Africa you come from.- Yes, yes.
0:45:50 > 0:45:51Well, you see,
0:45:51 > 0:45:56I don't think that they learned history and geography like we did.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00The image of Britain that you got from
0:46:00 > 0:46:03a British education in the Caribbean,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06how did that differ from the reality of Britain when you arrived?
0:46:06 > 0:46:11When we came here and I saw the houses in England,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14I was shocked,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18because I've left better houses back home!
0:46:18 > 0:46:22And the poverty of the people, it did upset me.
0:46:22 > 0:46:27When they came into hospital, the state of the hygiene...
0:46:28 > 0:46:34Sometimes we used to have, like, a delousing trolley. I wonder why...
0:46:36 > 0:46:41..nobody never tell me that's what, you know, the country was like.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47As well as dealing with the harsh realities of post-war Britain,
0:46:47 > 0:46:52these young women were at times denied their British identity.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55I found it extremely hard,
0:46:55 > 0:47:01and when I was in my second year and this patient said...
0:47:01 > 0:47:06when I was going to wash her, she said, "Take your black hand off me."
0:47:06 > 0:47:08And she said it with so much venom
0:47:08 > 0:47:12that I just rushed to the toilet and cried.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18But that was so hurtful.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Found it extremely upsetting.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27If you knew what you know now about Britain and everything that's
0:47:27 > 0:47:29happened, would you still do the same thing?
0:47:29 > 0:47:32- ALL, EMPHATICALLY:- Yes.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37- That's everybody.- Yes.- You don't regret your choice at all?- No.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40In the end, this great experiment we've all been through
0:47:40 > 0:47:43in this country, with immigration and moving around the world,
0:47:43 > 0:47:45it worked out for you guys.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50Really and truly, Britain has given us what we didn't have,
0:47:50 > 0:47:53but we had to work very hard for it.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56And when you came, you were suddenly seen as West Indian
0:47:56 > 0:47:58rather than British.
0:47:58 > 0:48:00How do you see yourselves now?
0:48:00 > 0:48:05I am a bit confused. When I left home I was a Vincentian.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08When I came here I was a West Indian.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10Then I was a Caribbean.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14Now I'm an ethnic minority. I am so confused.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16THEY LAUGH
0:48:16 > 0:48:21- I say I am black British. - Mm-hm.- And that will do.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28The Windrush generation never let go of the British identity
0:48:28 > 0:48:31they'd grown up with in the Caribbean.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35But those who were born here and those who arrived here as children
0:48:35 > 0:48:37faced their own struggle to belong.
0:48:37 > 0:48:42It was only in the early '60s and late '60s and this growing
0:48:42 > 0:48:46pride in the '70s of belonging to a culture that was distinct,
0:48:46 > 0:48:49and this is the story that I tell.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59I was trying to capture strength and proudness.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06And I decided that I would never click the camera unless I
0:49:06 > 0:49:09see strength in that person's eyes and body.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17And if you look up my images, you almost know that that's one of mine,
0:49:17 > 0:49:22because the subject is always very sure of themself.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27Photographer Neil Kenlock captured
0:49:27 > 0:49:31the experiences of this new generation.
0:49:33 > 0:49:38Yes, that's me. That was in 1976.
0:49:38 > 0:49:43I entered that competition, and the prize was a trip to Jamaica.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47It was attractive to me to go back to see my grandmother,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51whom sadly I'd left, and was desperately missing her.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53I didn't win the first prize that year
0:49:53 > 0:49:56but I did enter the following year.
0:49:56 > 0:49:57Fortunately I did win the prize
0:49:57 > 0:49:59and I did go back to Jamaica to see Granny!
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Well done, well done!
0:50:01 > 0:50:05Well, they was enjoying themself. Later on, like in this photograph,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08they've realised now that the opportunities that they were
0:50:08 > 0:50:13promised were not available to the full extent that they should be,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17and this is a demonstration in Brixton against discrimination
0:50:17 > 0:50:20and the police treatment of our community.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23You were there to capture the politicisation
0:50:23 > 0:50:25- of this second generation. - Absolutely.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27- The children of the immigrants.- Yes.
0:50:27 > 0:50:33And here again, I used my camera to tell that story, erm,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36because there was nobody else taking photographs.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Yeah, a difficult image for us, because this is Desmond's Hip City,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44that's the name of the record shop in Brixton,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48and somebody drove a vehicle into the shop and smashed it up.
0:50:48 > 0:50:51And here you can see Neville here.
0:50:51 > 0:50:53- This is you, Neville?- It is, yes.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56- What year is this? - Probably about '72.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59And as you can see there, I was helping Desmond
0:50:59 > 0:51:01to clear up after the...incident.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03So this is an attack not just on a record shop...
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Oh, no, no, it's an attack of our society,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08the black society, so to speak.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Did you feel under...under assault, under attack?
0:51:11 > 0:51:12HE SCOFFS
0:51:12 > 0:51:14In those days, if you was in Brixton,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16you was always under attack... by the police...
0:51:16 > 0:51:20If not the police, it's the National Front or the skinheads.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23I think for some people now these images that were...normally
0:51:23 > 0:51:26- part of your lives...- Yes. - ..seem shocking.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29It is hard to believe that this happened half a mile down the road.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32It was a part of our lives, yes.
0:51:32 > 0:51:33And...
0:51:33 > 0:51:39- this image is the one I know of yours the best.- Yes. Mm-hm.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42But it's you in the photograph, Barbara, isn't it?
0:51:42 > 0:51:44Yes, it is me in this photograph.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47This photograph was taken
0:51:47 > 0:51:48about 1979, I'd say.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52I first saw this picture when I was I think in my late teens or
0:51:52 > 0:51:56early 20s, and I remember thinking, I wonder what it was like,
0:51:56 > 0:51:58I wonder what she was thinking.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01So it's amazing to meet you and to find out what you were
0:52:01 > 0:52:04feeling and what you were thinking.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Yeah, in terms of my expression, it was like, well, yeah,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10it's just another day in the life, erm, of somebody who's
0:52:10 > 0:52:13a black person living in Balham at the time.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16I think I interpreted your expression as one of hurt
0:52:16 > 0:52:18- when I first saw this photograph. - Yeah.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Well, I think maybe there's just a constant feeling of hurt
0:52:21 > 0:52:22that just went through our lives,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25because, I mean, you can't go through that kind of abuse
0:52:25 > 0:52:26sort of day in and day out -
0:52:26 > 0:52:29it's not even week in and week out, but day in and day out -
0:52:29 > 0:52:32and not have some kind of hurt, and, you know,
0:52:32 > 0:52:35you've got to survive, you know, as a child and as a young person.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38You know, I was born in London
0:52:38 > 0:52:42and, er, my mother had high aspirations for me
0:52:42 > 0:52:45in terms of school and I did everything I needed to do,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48did very well at school, and just thought, yeah,
0:52:48 > 0:52:52I can go out and get a job, and that just wasn't the case.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04Barbara's experience,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08like the attack that drove me and my family from our home, was the
0:53:08 > 0:53:13violent rejection of the idea that you could be black and British.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16- NEWSREEL:- Cars are overturned and used to barricade the streets
0:53:16 > 0:53:18into a nearly no-go area...
0:53:18 > 0:53:22Discrimination and deprivation were widespread, and an entire
0:53:22 > 0:53:26generation of black youth was hurt and alienated.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Stopped 101 times walking back to Willesden, and about ten times
0:53:30 > 0:53:32by the same officer...
0:53:32 > 0:53:34Systematic harassment by the police
0:53:34 > 0:53:37brought all these frustrations to a head.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Grab me up, right, chuck me in the corner, right,
0:53:40 > 0:53:43and say he wants to search me, got a warrant to search me, right...
0:53:43 > 0:53:48In the 1980s, the inner-city areas of Liverpool, London, Bristol,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Birmingham and Manchester all witnessed uprisings.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57And I can assure them that they will help in the cultural life in
0:53:57 > 0:54:02this country, and every attempt on their part is at social integration
0:54:02 > 0:54:06and being completely happy and cooperative with the British people.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09We don't want any special privileges or anything more than
0:54:09 > 0:54:12any other British worker has in this country.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19Britain was in a way haunted by its colonial past.
0:54:20 > 0:54:25A generation who had worked hard to make this nation a home for them
0:54:25 > 0:54:30and their children had been failed by the imperial mother country.
0:54:34 > 0:54:35More than 30 years later,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39and Britain is an enormously changed country.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41Black people still face many disadvantages -
0:54:41 > 0:54:44high levels of unemployment, high levels of homelessness
0:54:44 > 0:54:47and discrimination within the legal system -
0:54:47 > 0:54:50but there is one barrier that confronted the Windrush generation
0:54:50 > 0:54:53that we have largely overcome,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56and that's because there are few people these days who question
0:54:56 > 0:55:00the idea that it is possible to be both black and British.
0:55:05 > 0:55:12Now just a handful of those first post-war Caribbean pioneers remain.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18I'd love to pay tribute to that generation of people.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21Erm, so many of them now have passed away.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27Now is a fitting moment to celebrate
0:55:27 > 0:55:30their role in shaping modern Britain.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34APPLAUSE
0:55:56 > 0:56:00That this is where we would end up was never a foregone conclusion.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04Anybody looking at Britain as it was a century ago wouldn't have
0:56:04 > 0:56:07for a second concluded that we could or would become
0:56:07 > 0:56:11the multiracial society that we are today.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21Modern Britain looks and feels like a nation that was once
0:56:21 > 0:56:24at the heart of a vast multiracial empire.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27I'm British but my parents are from Nigeria.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31My parents are from Cameroon, I'm from north-west London.
0:56:31 > 0:56:32Born and raised in north-west London.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36I'm from Tanzania, originally born in Zanzibar.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Old imperial attachments have brought
0:56:43 > 0:56:46a new wave of Africans to these shores.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50My uncle fought in the world wars on Britain's behalf because
0:56:50 > 0:56:53then we were a British colony.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55Everything in Kenya is about British.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59We love the cup of tea at four o'clock, like the English people,
0:56:59 > 0:57:01so we feel sort of British.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06Like generations of black people before them,
0:57:06 > 0:57:09stretching back to Roman times,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13these people will help redefine what it means to be British.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17For me, home is here,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20largely because I am married here and I have children here.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25I would say home is London, I'm a Londoner now.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32I think that there's so much to black history, and everything
0:57:32 > 0:57:36about it is so rich, it actually makes me so happy.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39And makes me a proud African as well.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53If we look at the deeper, longer, more nuanced history,
0:57:53 > 0:57:57the story that begins 18 centuries ago with the Afro-Romans,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00there we find a history that shows we've always been global and
0:58:00 > 0:58:04the lives of black people and white people have often been entwined.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08- Peace to Africa! - APPLAUSE
0:58:10 > 0:58:14And that story suggests that perhaps we shouldn't be that surprised
0:58:14 > 0:58:17that this is where we find ourselves today.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24If you'd like to find out how to research black history in
0:58:24 > 0:58:30your area, there's an iWonder guide, with links to our partners, at...