Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
During World War Two, tens of thousands of African-American US servicemen passed through the UK as part of the war effort. The black GIs stationed in Britain were forced by the American military to abide by the racial segregation laws that applied in the deep south of the US. But that didn't stop relationships developing between British women and the black soldiers, some of whom went on to have children. Babs Gibson-Ward was one those children. She spoke to Farhana Haider about the stigma of growing up as mixed raced child in post-war Britain.
(Photo: Hoinicote House children, c.1948. Boys and girls whose parents of mixed ancestry met during WWII. Credit: Lesley York)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:08.9 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.1 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by |
| 0:23.1 | their own light and that light is to be recognized by others. The long history of heroism |
| 0:27.8 | with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, |
| 0:43.3 | Frahanna Haither. |
| 0:44.6 | All this week we're marking Black History Month here in the UK. |
| 0:48.7 | And today I'm taking you back to World War II, when the first American troops started arriving in Britain in |
| 0:55.5 | in 1942. |
| 1:01.6 | The yanks are coming with a vengeance. |
| 1:05.0 | Among them were thousands of African American GIs. |
| 1:08.7 | I've been speaking to Babs Gibson Ward, one of the British children born as a |
| 1:13.4 | result of their mother's relationship with an African-American soldier. Within seven weeks of the USA |
| 1:18.7 | declaring war on Germany, picked American troops have followed Mr. Churchill quickly across the Atlantic. |
| 1:25.0 | When black American GIs arrived in Britain in 1942, the US Department of Defense produced a |
| 1:31.6 | film to educate the young men about what sort of welcome they might receive. |
| 1:36.3 | Well, goodbye, ma'am. |
| 1:37.8 | Goodbye. |
| 1:38.5 | It's been very nice meeting you. |
| 1:40.1 | Glad you've met you, I'm sure. |
| 1:41.4 | Funny you should come from Birmingham, too, isn't it? |
... |
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