58. Black GIs: Brown Babies and Broken Hearts (Ep 5)

Journey Through Time

Goalhanger

History

4.3 • 595 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does the hysteria around white women sleeping with Black GIs tell us about race and class in wartime Britain? Why were Black GIs banned from marrying their British sweethearts? What was the sad fate of many of the mixed raced babies left behind as a result of this encounter? Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga tell the final chapter in the story of Black GIs in the UK. Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden Assistant Producers: Alfie Rowe, Alfie Norris Producer: Alice Horrell Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:00.0	Do you know what you want for Christmas?
0:02.0	A cute toy.
0:04.0	No, I just want my family back.
0:06.0	That's what I want for Christmas.
0:08.0	We'll see what Santa can do, okay?
0:10.0	It's Christmas, so dear good share.
0:12.0	Merry Christmas.
0:14.0	Tis the season to watch Tully on Channel 4.
0:16.0	Stream now.
0:21.3	This episode is brought to you by Google's Notebook LM.
0:25.5	David, we all know what it's like to be buried under a mountain of information.
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0:48.9	Understand anything with NotebookLM. Try it at Notebooklm.com.com.com.com.com. Available in select countries and languages to users
0:59.2	over the age of 18. Welcome to Journey Through Time. I'm Sarah Churchwell. And I'm David Olushooga.
1:12.7	And this is the final in our series on the largely forgotten history of the 130,000 African-American servicemen who were deployed in Britain in the Second World War.
1:24.1	So we've been talking in our previous episodes about the outbreaks of violence that were
1:29.6	created by American military segregation, the racial segregation in the American Army. We talked about
1:35.8	the Battle of Bamber Bridge in Lancashire in 1943, and then last time about the Park Street
	...

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