British Black 1950-2000 Timeline

Marcus Garvey travels around South and Central America and visits London, England.

After the end of the World War I, with the numbers of black people in the country vastly increased, with the black people feeling angered by the way they were treated during and after the war, with white people angered by the amount of black people still in the country “taking their jobs'' fights broke out at coastal ports such as Glasgow and Liverpool between blacks and whites. The police targeted the black people, laws were put in place that targeted the black, south Asain and East Asain communities leading to further fights and riots.

The start of World War II. The government agreed that black people from their colonies could serve in the forces and become officers. 12,000 black people arrived to fight from the Caribbean and 370,000 Africans who would also serve for the British forces.

Over two years 900 foresters from British Honduras (Belize) travelled to Scotland to help with the war effort (World War II)

In Britain, in 1944, it was determined that there were as many as 150,000 black people in Britain compared to 20,000 after World War I. These numbers were due, partly, to the African Americans that had arrived to fight in World War II.

The Displaced Persons - Britain brought in displaced people from Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Poland to work at rebuilding the country. Workers also came from Ireland, but African, Caribbeans and South Asians were not welcome and those who fought in the war were transported back to where they came from.

Empire Windrush docked in London with 492 black West Indians who came to a place they respected. The government didn’t want them and during the voyage PM Clement Attlee tried to have them sent to East Africa as they had expected the white people of the Caribbean to answer the call.