Before the Windrush

Long before the arrival of the Empire Windrush after the Second World War, Liverpool was widely known for its polyglot population, its boisterous sailortown and cosmopolitan profile of transients, sojourners and settlers. Regarding Britain as the mother country, coloured colonials arrived in Liverpool for what they thought to be internal migration into a common British world. What they encountered, however, was very different. Their legal status as British subjects notwithstanding, coloured colonials in Liverpool were the first to discover: There Aint No Black in the Union Jack. Despite the absence of significant new immigration, despite the high levels of mixed dating, marriages and parentage, and despite pioneer initiatives in race and community relations, black Liverpudlians encountered racial discrimination, were left marginalized and disadvantaged and, in the aftermath of the Toxteth riots of 1981, the once proud cosmopolitan Liverpool stood condemned for its uniquely horrific racism. Before the Windrush is a fascinating study that enriches our understanding of how the empire came home. By drawing attention to Liverpools mixed population in the first half of the twentieth century and its approach to race relations, this book seeks to provide historical context and perspective to debates about Britains experience of empire in the twentieth century.