I recently found out that we didn’t have segregation then but the US did, which caused a lot of issues with White US soldiers who got upset with their fellow Black Americans being able to drink in the same establishment, including a shootout in one pub that lasted a full night.
Is there any accounts of black soldiers on what they thought about the UK? did they feel more welcomed or worse because of how the US troops treated them.
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Read up on the battle of bamber bridge
Look into the battle of Bamber Bridge for tensions between the white Americans and British due to attempts at installing segregation off US bases in the UK and for a similar situation when the US army station troops in Australia look Into the Battle of Brisbane.
Both Aussies and Brits tended to side with the black soldiers some of these incidents ended in brawls and even gun fights.
It’s worth noting that the Brits didn’t especially enjoy having a load of cocky over paid Americans living amongst them and the black soldiers money spent the same as white troops.
There was cases of signs being put up in pubs specifying black troopers were welcome but not white Americans lol
There were similar issues when the AEF got to France in world war 1
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/they-treated-us-royally-the-experiences-of-black-americans-in-britain-during-the-second-world-war
The Imperial War Museum quotes some Black American servicemen https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/they-treated-us-royally-the-experiences-of-black-americans-in-britain-during-the-second-world-war
One of the articles that was quoted is available in full here https://www.bulldozia.com/jim-crow/documents-1942-45/#6
My grandad’s sister got pregnant with twins to a black GI in Birkenhead during the war.
She put them up for adoption because her family and community would not accept mixed kids. The twins were adopted by a black family in the US after the war.
In the early 2000s, they found their mum and tried to build a relationship with her, but she refused right through to her death to even acknowledge them.
They found some people in the family, including my grandad, who were very open to them (even though my grandad was prone to racism) and they have maintained contact and built a relationship with some of my grandad’s sister’s family (who live in North Wales) but a lot of the family took my grandad’s sister’s side and it’s been pretty nasty over the years.
Make of that what you will.
We may not have had de jure segregation but we definitely had a lot of racism (still do) in our society.
Take a look at r/AskHistorians – there was a post recently about this. It has been suggested that it might have hastened the civil rights movement, as black soldiers found out what non-segregated society was like (not that there wasn’t still a lot of racism). You will find some properly researched answers in there though.
The case of Leroy Henry makes interesting reading, https://www.combedown.org/the-extraordinary-case-of-leroy-henry/
It’s a generalisation, but the black GIs seemed to have far better relations with the local UK population than their white comrades.
It’s telling that US tourists to this day think US law and their constitutional rights apply in other countries.
I can’t give you any opinions from US soldiers, but I can tell you my Grandad who fought in the war was welcoming towards them. He would purposefully befriend them over the white yanks, specifically because he absolutely despised the white yanks and their blatant racism. And I suspect also because he really, really loved jazz.
https://youtu.be/SyYSBBE1DFw?si=vhIIm47BrSrhZpo5
That’s a great info film that was made for the American troops stationd in the UK before dday.
Shows the difference between the American and UK culture of the time also covers the difference in the way each society dealt with race.
My Grandfather was disciplined twice and demoted in rank for fighting with White American MP’s who wanted to force segeration and have black soliders walk in the road and not on the pavement.
The story isn’t as black and white as some would have you believe.
Most Brits had never seen a black person in real life before the US Black troops arrived- they were seen as an exotic novelty. There are of course many stories of the warm welcome extended to the black servicemen and women who were stationed in the UK. a female unit were responsible for delivering mail to US troops- see the movie on NETFLIX.
There were of course those who did not welcome the black troops from the US and the British Empire and treated them badly.
On the whole the experience of black troops who served in the UK, France, Italy, Austria and Germany were positive and it opened their eyes to just how badly they were treated back home. It helped fuel the civil rights movement that would eventually lead to the 1965 Civil Rights Legislation passed by LBJ.
One thing I’ve not seen mentioned is that many of the Brits liked the Black American troops because they were polite and respectful. The problem is that the reason they are so polite and respectful is because where they were from they might get lynched if they weren’t.
The British public quite liked the African-Americans from what I understand, the white GIs were known for being rude, brash and loud (Orwell famously called them “Overpaid, oversexed and over here”) while the African-Americans were politer and fitted in better with British sensibilities. They were mostly treated well because they were guests and American style racism was a lot rarer in the UK than in the US. It’s believed by some that stories of the lack of segregation in the UK helped galvanise the early civil rights movement. Given that, I imagine the African-Americans quite like their time here.
The segregation in UK Army was for Indian troops. Blacks were alright, i’ve heard.
I can’t remember the name of it but saw a film about how some ended up playing in jazz bands in London on their time off. Getting on with the white men, getting off with the white women. Some decided to just move here or other parts of Europe after the end of the war because it was far better than living in the southern states of the US were the majority of them came from.
Why not ask them? This is /r/askUK not /r/askasoldier
I think it would also help that Britain had been at war for a long time at this point. Why would we abuse the people that are giving their lives for us?
My husband’s great uncle was alive when large numbers of US troops, including a couple of Black units were stationed in Devon. He was mad as hell, and still gets quite agitated about it, when the village was instructed to make sure the pubs adhered to segregation rules to avoid instances like that at Bamber Bridge. Each pub had to have a “blacks only” evening once a week.
He and all the other farmers made a point of going to the pub on each of those evenings.
I wrote a reply in r/AskHistorians around this the other day. Like you that then got me wondering about how the black GI’s must have been feeling when they made their first tentative trip out to the local, to find that they were welcomed. I couldn’t find any specific first hand accounts on this but with a bit of digging I did find some interesting accounts from the GI’s stationed in Hull with references to them being “treated royally” If I can find it I’ll post it on here for you.
As I mentioned in my original reply, it is poignant that a third of Civl Rights activists in America just a decade or so later served in England in the war.
EDIT for links to my post and first hand accounts from Black GI’s
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/LvUFGzIP3J
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/they-treated-us-royally-the-experiences-of-black-americans-in-britain-during-the-second-world-war
I saw a really interesting training video that the US was showing to their soldiers about how to behave in the UK. A portion of it was about racism and basically not to freak out if they see white Brit’s treating black soldiers with respect. It was a really interesting watch not just for the racism parts but in general.
Hull became a bit of a hotspot for black GIs which was significant because Hull is where William Wilberforce was from and there’s a statue to him there. Many black GIs would make an effort to go to the statue and offer a prayer or a kiss.
There is a photograph out there somewhere of a black GI holding a local’s white kid in his arms. He asked for the photo to be taken because he thought it was such an unbelievable thing that without the picture, nobody back home would believe him. The child belonged to a local woman who he’d became friends with. They would dance together at the halls and then he’d walk her home as any gentleman should.
From this story and others (there were a few repeats of Bamber Bridge throughout the country) I think it’s safe to say that most people of colour had good experiences of Britain and the Brits. I say people of colour because we also have Indian accounts that spoke highly of the Brits. There’s a story I heard about the dance halls of Liverpool docks. An Indian was dancing with a British woman which pissed off some white Americans who tried to segregate. A white Brit stepped in and the Americans were shocked when he took the side of the Indian. The Brit said something along the lines of “we both serve the same king”. A fight broke out and the Brit received a knife to his face but that’s a standard night out in Liverpool tbh. Another story is about a Sikh pilot. He flew in the RAF and wrote to his family back in India that found the Brits so kind and brave that he’d happily die for them.
Of course there will be some exceptions and some would’ve experienced racism but from my digging, the overwhelming experience was one of gratefulness from the Brits who did what they could to make their allies feel welcomed.
I think the most famous reaction was one of “huh it’s not quite as racist here”