Leading authors, artists, politicians, and broadcasters, including David Olusoga, Bernardine Evaristo, and David Lammy, have selected 75 novels to commemorate the landing of HMT Empire Windrush, which occurred 75 years ago.
Black British literature did not begin with the Windrush generation’s arrival in the UK; however, the anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush’s arrival at Tilbury Docks on June 21, 1948, seems like a good time to honor 75 books that have contributed to the development of the Black British experience.
Our contributors, who have chosen works in the categories of fiction and nonfiction, poetry and politics, include historians, singers, educators, and publishers. The end result is an exciting variety of tales, ranging from the abolitionist and freedman Olaudah Equiano of the 18th century to the second world war’s pilots and stretcher-bearers; from early teachers to young partygoers at dancehall dub nights. Sam Selvon and Beryl Gilroy’s literature, as well as more recent works by Malorie Blackman, Nadifa Mohamed, and Roger Robinson, both feature early voices from the Windrush generation.
This choice, in my opinion, is a logical progression from the Black history timeline I put up for the Guardian in 2008 at the time of the Windrush 60th anniversary and the Black literary timeline I made for the British Library in 2021. You will hopefully be able to start your own literary trip through the variety of the Black experience in Britain after reading this.
Peter Fryer’s Sticking Power: The History of Black People in Britain
Staying Power was the book that had the biggest, most significant impact, despite not being the first comprehensive history of the Black presence in Britain. It was constantly a book you could discover on the shelves of your neighborhood bookstore rather than the university library since it was easily and affordably accessible. This enormous brick of a book, which was published in 1984 in the wake of the early 1980s riots, altered everything. The product of a British journalist who had covered the arrival of the HMT Windrush at Tilbury Docks in June 1948, it included a sizable appendix with important documents as well as a comprehensive index. The narrative includes the African warriors who manned the roman wall and all the way up to the embattled communities of the 1980s.
Sheila Patterson’s book Dark Strangers: A Study of West Indians in London
It serves more as a historical reference today than as a book to be read cover to cover. This sociological investigation of Brixton’s West Indian neighborhood in the 1960s illustrates how that neighborhood came to be almost unquestioningly associated with the postwar “colour problem.” The Brixton residents, who will find it difficult to recognize their neighborhood as it was fifty years ago, may be enticed to read it from book to cover today. Back in the 1990s, when I read Dark Strangers for the first time while still residing there, I was immediately shocked and engrossed by the book’s opening chapter, Color Shock and Strangeness.
Kathleen Paul’s Whitening Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era
This is the place to start if you want to delve deeply into the Windrush scandal’s origins and learn just how difficult the environment was for Black migrants after World War II. White Washing Britain deconstructs a century of immigration law in-depth and debunks two fallacies. The first is that immigration limits were enacted by Britain’s political class as a result of widespread bigotry. As Kathleen Paul demonstrates, British politicians resisted Black immigration from the beginning, frequently more so than those who coexisted with the burgeoning Black populations. The Windrush generation was invited to Britain to aid in the post-World War II reconstruction, according to the second myth busted here. They were undoubtedly invited, but it was by the NHS, London Transport, and a number of other sectors that were in dire need of motivated, educated people. According to the official records used by Dr. Paul, persons in positions of authority spent the decades following the arrival of the Windrush working to craft legislation that made it harder for Black people to settle in Britain rather than easier.
the Sam Selvon book The Lonely Londoners
How must it have felt to arrive at Tilbury Docks and begin the search for a job and a place to live in 1950s London? How did people from the Caribbean adjust to their first British winter’s dampness and darkness? How did they build relationships with one another and cope with all the discrimination while maintaining their communities? The closest we can come to their experiences is Sam Selvon’s Lonely Londoners. I’ve been trying to get friends and acquaintances to read this book for years. Sad and moving, but also happy and optimistic.
Gretchen Gerzina’s book Black England:
A Forgotten Georgian History
With amazing flair, Gerzina’s novel brings to life this particular period of British history. This isn’t a dull book; rather, it’s a vivid and colorful narrative of actual people—famous and unknown—who hum with life and energy, and where the past is alive and palpable. Books like this serve as a constant reminder that we are all deeply rooted in this nation until the black portions of British history are recognized as British history in their own right.
Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts’ “Home Is Not a Place”
This ground-breaking collection of images and poetry explores the modern black presence in Britain outside of the big cities. It is the outcome of a sort of pilgrimage, where two men travelled around country seeking black communities.