75 years after the arrival of The Empire Windrush, Trevor Philips explores the experience of a younger generation of descendants and asks what the future of black Britain will look like in a new documentary - Windrush and Us.
West Indian immigrants, many of them poor and unemployed answered the call from the mother country to rebuild after the war.Latterly some of the first wave have been subject to cruel and humiliating treatment by the Home Office.
They were then and are now mostly at the bottom of society's pile, and whilst some of the Windrush descendants shine in the worlds of music and entertainment, they are, by and large, excluded from the elite.Windrush passenger on 75th anniversary Most of this is true, but it's far from the whole story, and in our documentary"Windrush and Us" we've filled in some of the gaps.
To start with, the Windrush voyagers arrived long before the government in London sought out talent in the colonies; hundreds had made their way here in the war years as willing volunteers to fight Hitler. Many had died in combat, but others who returned home itched for the taste of adventure, so were ready to beg and borrow the £28 10s it took to buy a passage back to the bright lights.Most of the Windrush descendants faced hardship and hostility. But they were also resilient and shared much with the natives.They changed Britain.
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