WWI’S BLACK HEROES REMEMBERED
The process of reassessing and reevaluating history is an ongoing and rigorous one. It’s one of the many reasons why a study of history can be so rewarding; a surprise can often be waiting for you in a place you thought well explored. In recent years, the process of peeling away centuries of prejudice to reveal the blind spot of historical records as regards black and minority ethnic figures in Western history has been a particular focus for historians.
One such writer is Stephen Bourne, author of a number of books on the black British experience including Mother Country: Britain’s Black Community on the Home Front 1939–45 (The History Press), War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939-1948 (Jacaranda Books), and Black Poppies: Britain’s Black Community and the Great War (The History Press) about which we wanted to talk to him about this issue. While images of the First World War clearly show black Britons fighting alongside white, like many others he noticed a distinct lack of context or detail about these men in books about the war. In some instances, the contributions of black and minority ethnic peoples had been seemingly erased from the record.
With this in mind we wanted to chat with Stephen Bourne about the stories in his book, the lives he has helped to uncover and the hard work of finding details about people who history has left behind.
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