Making a new life in 1960s Britain

OBV intern Natalie Simmons writes about her grandmother experience of 1960s Britain after arriving from the Caribbean island of Grenada.

Ministers such as Enoch Powell encouraged Caribbean people to leave their home countries and to take up the British Government’s offer to migrate to what many saw as their “Mother country”. An irresistible offer to my grandmother as Grenada at the time suffered from high unemployment and providing for her immediate family of six was tough, as she was a housewife and her husband was a farmer.

Grenada, at the time, was a British colony; so she believed that Grenadians would be welcomed with open arms. Similar to many others from the former British colonies, my grandmother in 1961, decided to pack her suitcase and made that heart breaking choice to leave her children behind, in search of a better life.

On arrival into Britain, ‘shock’ and ‘dismay’ were the words my grandmother used to describe her experience at seeing the racial discrimination; albeit the fact that my grandmother responded to a warm invitation to come to rebuild Britain, she claims it was ironic that the reception from some of the white British people was opposite. Signs on buildings read “No Blacks, No Irish, No dogs” she said that this blatant racism made her feel like returning to Grenada.

My grandmother was conscious of the previous violent tensions between some black and white people which led to events such as, the Notting Hill race riots of 1958; however, her perceptions were that racial relations had improved due to all the publicity it received; government intervention and the fact that she actually arrived a few years after these high tensions.

Like many other Caribbean people, my grandmother struggled to find housing due to the colour bar in addition to the housing shortages throughout impoverished London. Signs on houses for rent said ‘no blacks’ and ‘no children’. This may indeed be why many Caribbean people like my grandmother ended up taking whatever accommodation they could find, even if it meant accepting to live in rough, crime ridden and slum like conditions which was where she eventually found housing. My grandmother had a perception that Britain’s streets were paved with gold and homes were like Buckingham Palace. The problem of suitable housing and dubious landlords willing to exploit, was not in particular an issue faced by West Indian people, but white working class as well.

Possessing no qualifications and having never worked for a salary before, my grandmother was pleased at successfully finding employment as a tea lady at one of London’s hospitals. She talked about racial tensions of White workers not wanting to work alongside black people and at the time racism to her was very overt. Nanny, as I so fondly called my grandmother, told me about disappointed qualified black people taking up low paid and unskilled jobs, which many of the white British people were reluctant to do.

Furthermore, white British people believed that their jobs, women and houses, were being stolen by the Caribbean people. Sayings like “Why don’t you go back to your country” were the norm.

Trying to assimilate into British society was difficult and lonely at times; the Caribbean community knew they had to unite. They were made to feel particularly unwelcome in white pubs and clubs so, The Caribbean people held their own house parties and dances. In addition to creating Community organisations as a way of keeping the Caribbean peoples spirits up.

The good memories

However, it was not all doom and gloom for my grandmother; as she in fact had forged friendly relations with a few of her white neighbours, who on occasions would give her possessions such as clothing. She was eventually reunited with her four children, whom she missed dearly.

A considerable amount can be learnt from my grandmother’s experience in 1960’s Britain. Although she had witnessed racial discrimination, she chose how to endure and counteract it in a positive way, just remembering the reasons for the sacrifice in the first place.

I imagine that many of the white British people may have been insecure to some extent; I don’t assume it’s entirely down to ignorance, apart from behaviours from people such as the teddy boys, whom many deem racist. I believe the British Government had not really considered the issues such as housing shortages and had done very little to help the Caribbean people assimilate easily into British society. This can be reasons why the Caribbean people had to create their own self help organisations.

I think it’s so ironic that Enoch Powell a Tory Health Minister, who had previously welcomed the Caribbean people to Britain; would later give his racist anti-immigration ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. His dismissal could not have come sooner.

I believe that people’s mind-set is changing towards black migration into Britain, as laws have been put in place to tackle these issues of overt discrimination. Today, Britain is very much a multicultural country.

Natalie Simmons