I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism

with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Alex Last.

As part of Black History Month here in the UK, this week we're looking at stories from Black British history,

and today we'll hear from Norwell Roberts, who in 1967 became the first black policeman to join London's

Metropolitan Police. They asked me, why do you want to join the police force? I said, well, I want

to help people, and it's a secure job. But I had a particularly rough time. Suppose if people

warned me, I may have thought I had second thoughts about it.

I don't know. But because no one warned me, I learnt on the job, should we say, and I came through it.

But nobody should be subject to that treatment, ever.

Norwell Roberts, born Norwell Gums, came to England as a boy from Anguilla in the Caribbean in the

1950s. He was the child of the windrush generation, citizens of the British Empire who came to

the UK from the Caribbean to work and rebuild the country after the Second World War, whose

arrival was met with hostility from many.

Probably true to say that any non-white person in Britain is liable to encounter discrimination

in finding a job or somewhere to live.

They're really horrible to work with.

They're horrible.

There's more and more of them coming to the country.

...