Racism and discrimination

Many cases were reported regarding the racism and discrimination that some of these children had to endure, either because the colour of their skin was different, or because they could be a reminder of relationships during the war. Before these cases, the North had a regular care for coloured children, with regular surveys being made to check if they were quite settled in the community or in need of extra support.

Between 1943 and 1944, and when the impact of the WW2 was quite visible, Darlington, Newcastle and North/South Shields worked closely with the Colonial Office and the Society for the Cultural Advancement for Africa, as they were ‘greatly concerned with the educational and social welfare of the younger members of the colonial community in North Shields’, leading to the creation of a Joint Educational and Welfare Committee, in which White people and Black people worked together towards solutions. The initiative was led by a gentleman called Dr Cole, who was highly respected by the Colonial Office. Dr Cole was a West African that had studied medicine in Britain, having a successful practice in Newcastle an intervening regularly in matters related to the Colonial Office’s hostels in Tyneside.

The Society for the Cultural Advancement for Africa, in the North, included African and West Indian students, but also Black people from other countries and backgrounds. The Office reports that ‘the few coloured children mixed so well with the natives (North Shields) that we hardly noticed them.’ The reason they were worried was due to the high number of absences in school, but that, after a period of vigilance, was because ‘when the coloured father is at sea the mother just neglects to keep the progeny regularly at schools’.

In this period, South Shields had 144 ‘coloured children in the elementary school, ‘being most of them Arabs living in new housing estates mixed with White people, and [where] they also mix at schools without the slightest diffidence’. This was followed by a deep study into the matter of creating a centre just for ‘coloured children’, but they decided against as they had engaged in conversation with local Black people, and learning that they were quite incorporated in local communities, rendering the idea of segregating these children a foolish move.

Newspaper article source National Archives

Committees in Newcastle included White and Black people, with power to decide about grants and further support to Black groups, and consultations made to the wider public, including Tyneside, showed support towards these minority groups and not a ill feeling towards them.

So, what were the reasons behind aggressive behaviour towards the mixed-race children that had been abandoned by the American father, due to different reasons (death in service, forbidden of taking the child to America, no financial support), since it seems that the North contained Black people groups quite settled in? Black American troops had been supported by the British, even going against White American troops. They were well received and cherished in private houses, pubs, churches and council halls.

At the time, such pregnancies, out of the wedlock, were vehemently and publicly condemned, as the report ‘Illegitimate Children Born in Britain of English Mothers and Coloured Americans’ would indicate.

(Source for these reports, letters and surveys: National Archive)

Produced by Sylvia McNeill in November 1945, it includes statements that reflect the minds of the time:

• ‘you will no doubt agree that a good deal of the hindrance to any sort of peaceful relations or to the prospect of reciprocity between the husbands and wives is caused by the colour prejudice’
• ‘the report contain (…) letters from married women whose husbands were in the British Forces at the time when the adulterous actions were committed.’
• ‘the consideration of immorality reflected on the mothers’

Further communication from the League of Coloured People also includes references to the number of children, stating that ‘it is by no means as large as might have been expected in the circumstances’ and that ‘we are unable to estimate the number of such children’ as it ‘must deal as a “war casualty”, recognising that the best option for the children would be sending them to homes overseas, as they ‘should grow up in a more congenial racial atmosphere than they may find in this country’.

Ultimately, the Government stated that one of the many problems arisen from the WW2 was these mixed-race illegitimate children, saying that ‘few are more baffling than the problem of a child born of a White mother and a “coloured” service man’, furthermore positing that ‘when what public opinion regards as the “taint” of illegitimacy is added to the disadvantage of mixed race, chances of the child having a fair opportunity are much reduced’.

The report ‘Illegitimate Children Born in Britain of English Mothers and Coloured Americans’ from 1945 confirms that there were no records of mixed-race babies from Durham and Northumberland, despite the presence of the troops there (confirmed by contributors, but not records). It also states that ‘Everyone is in agreement with the fact that there are not nearly as many cases of illegitimacy as one has been led rather loosely to believe.’

On the other hand, the League of Coloured People states that ‘no questions as to race or colour are asked when registering a birth in Great Britain’, and the Children’s society as confirmed that they did not include ethnicity as-well.

There are no records for those babies that were found dead or those that could have been clandestinely sent to America, despite of prohibition.

Although it will not be possible to know exactly how many mixed-race babies were born, because there are no accurate records, only them, knowing their own background, could help finding the truth regarding numbers, and how life and society has treated them.

Was it a racism matter? Or was because people were not happy with breaking the wedlock?

Or was it both of them?