One British landlord asked to segregate his pub agreed – then put up the sign: ‘Black GIs only’
War England. When one American soldier tried to force two black soldiers off their seats on a crowded London bus so he could sit down, the female conductor told him: “We won’t have it. Either you stand or off you go.”
And at a Southend hotel, when white American sailors attacked a black soldier for dancing with a girl and threw him out, all the British women present refused to partner white Americans and the dance was stopped.
In June 1943 in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, racial violence erupted spectacularly as US military police tried to arrest black soldiers who were drinking with off-duty British servicemen.
The British protested and a fistfight broke out. A black soldier was shot in the neck and, fearing for their lives, other black soldiers broke into an armoury and equipped themselves with guns. Running battles were fought throughout leaving one black serviceman several people injured.
At a subsequent court martial, 32 black servicemen were found guilty of mutiny and other charges. But an outcry by the British public resulted in their sentences being reduced. An American journalist wrote: “If something is not done by the US Army soon, I would not be surprised to see a major battle between negro and white American soldiers.”
Sadly, he was proved right by events in Launceston that September.
Black soldiers had been stationed in the town for some time and were extremely popular with locals. They handed out gum to children, gave old ladies lifts in their trucks and swept girls off their feet at dances. They were “lovely the town, dead and looking lads, big, strong and the girls loved them… and the whites didn’t like that,” recalled one local.
Townsfolk were appalled to see the black soldiers segregated in an inferior tented camp outside the town and confined to base while their white counterparts were allowed to go drinking and dancing.
On the night of Saturday, September 25, 1943, five black soldiers went into Launceston without permission to go to a dance.
But when they entered the dance hall, they were swiftly evicted by American military policemen.
Some British soldiers, infuriated by this discrimination, insisted they should stay, but the five went back to camp, muttering threats.
The following night, a contingent of black soldiers again entered the town without permission. A brawl broke out in a pub when some white soldiers ordered them to move to a different part of the pub.
The black soldiers went back to camp but not long afterwards at about 10.20pm they returned to the town, armed with Tommy guns, rifles and bayonets from the arms store.
Entering the market square, they surrounded the military policemen. One of the GIs asked: “Why can’t we come down here and get along?”
The policeman’s reply was inaudible, but clearly unsatisfactory as it was followed by a shot.A gun battle ensued in the dark and two military policemen were wounded, neither fatally. Miraculously, no civilians were hurt.
The following month a court-martial was held in Paignton, Devon.As there were British civilian witnesses, it had to be held in an open court, to the embarrassment of the American military, particularly the evidence given on the extent of harassment and discrimination the black GIs had suffered.
SEVERAL of the 14 accused had been made to sign statements admitting their guilt, even though they were unable to read. Newspapers all over Britain and in the US, where 34 people had died in race riots that June, reported on the case. Would they be found guilty of mutiny and attempted murder?Would they be sentenced to death?
But, anticipating an outcry if the men were found guilty, the American military succeeded in gagging the press.
The verdict, and sentences, remained secret, to the fury of the British public and press.
In fact, all 14 were quietly found guilty, dishonourably discharged from the military and given sentences of between 15 and 20 years’ hard labour.
In the aftermath of the trial, the treatment of black soldiers by their own military became a burning issue for the British public.
It was the single biggest complaint about the American presence in Britain. But rather than tackle its cause – embedded institutional racism – the American military censored the reporting of race-related violence, which continued to flare up.
There were riots in Bristol due to the behaviour of white American servicemen towards black soldiers and, in Berkshire, two American servicemen and a pub landlady were shot dead in a gunfight after American military police barred black soldiers from a pub.
In Devon, a black GI who dated a local girl was murdered by white American servicemen. All these incidents were all hushed up.
Today, the only lasting legacy of the Launceston mutiny is a bullet hole in a wall in the market square, a reminder of the injustices perpetrated when Jim Crow came to Britain.
●●An American Uprising In Second World War England: Mutiny in the Duchy by Kate Werran (Pen & Sword
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