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*Migration Histories > Caribbean > Settling
* Racist Discontent 
 
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The Daily Dispatch
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The Daily Dispatch, 8 August 1917. A report on parent protests to their daughters associating with Black men.
The increasing visibility of Black people in industrial areas and seaports led to some press hostility. The Daily Dispatch complained that the sizeable Black presence in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham was a 'menace to local women and moral standards'. The Salvation Army was so concerned about mixed-race relationships that it commissioned a study into what it called 'the coloured invasion'.

Some newspaper correspondents suggested that laws, similar to segregation legislation in South Africa, should be introduced to prevent Black men and white women forming relationships. Such articles were clearly calculated to stir up hatred towards men who had often risked their lives to serve the war effort.

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The Empire News
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The Empire News, 12 August 1917. Article about the need for manpower regardless of skin colour.
Other newspapers featured articles that were less hostile, but were still written in ways that would cause ill-feeling. As Britain faced increasing hardship and shortages, suggestions that Black men were well-paid and well-dressed were bound to cause resentment.

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Black men, both industrial workers and servicemen
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Black men, both industrial workers and servicemen, responded angrily to the negative press coverage, some even sending copies of the articles back to the West Indies to dissuade other potential volunteers and war workers.
The trades union movement, which had already campaigned against the use of Asian labour in the shipping industry, raised fresh concerns about the introduction of Black labour into Britain. Will Thorne, leader of the Municipal Workers' Union and a Labour MP, asked the Secretary of State for War to postpone the use of South African labourers on the Western Front.

In December 1916, the Miners' Federation, the National Union of Railwaymen, and the National Transport Workers' Federation passed a joint resolution opposing 'the sinister movement to import coloured labour into this country'.

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'In consequence of the infatuation of white girls for the Black men in the district some of the inhabitants are greatly incensed against Blacks.'
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Express 7 July 1917 'In consequence of the infatuation of white girls for the Black men in the district some of the inhabitants are greatly incensed against Blacks.'
In 1919 and 1920, racially motivated riots and attacks took place in many seaports, and the victims were usually Black seamen and ex-servicemen. Discontent over post-war unemployment may well have increased the antagonism towards the Black population, but, even before these major disturbances, there were instances in which Black people came under attack.

Canning Town was the centre of one such riot. A dock community in East London, it was home to one of the largest Black communities in Britain before it was dispersed by urban redevelopment in the late 1930s, and in July 1917 several Black seamen were attacked in their lodging houses and on the street.

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Creators: Richard Smith

 
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