Black Poppies Black Poppies

Black Poppies

Britain's Black Community and the Great War

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Publisher Description

'A powerful, revelatory counterbalance to the whitewashing of British history' - Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other

In this updated edition of his acclaimed study of the black presence in Britain during the First World War, Stephen Bourne illuminates fascinating stories of black servicemen of African heritage. These accounts of the fights for their 'Mother Country' are charted from the outbreak of war in 1914 to the conflict's aftermath in 1919, when black communities up and down Great Britain were faced with anti-black 'race riots' despite their dedicated services to their country at home and abroad.

With unprecedented access to the wartime personal correspondence of the Jamaican siblings Vera, Norman and Douglas Manley, Bourne helps bring to light the day-to-day trials, tribulations and tragedies of life on the battlefield. The stories of servicemen like Arthur Roberts - Scotland's Black Tommy - and Trinidadian soldier and campaigner George A. Roberts sit alongside the experiences of people of African descent at home during the First World War.

These include a black police officer, munitions factory workers and even stars of the stage like Cassie Walmer. Informative and accessible, with first-hand accounts and original photographs, Black Poppies is the essential guide to the military and civilian wartime experiences of black men and women, from the trenches to the music halls.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2014
1 August
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
128
Pages
PUBLISHER
The History Press
SIZE
11.4
MB

More Books by Stephen Bourne

Fighting Proud Fighting Proud
2017
Mother Country Mother Country
2010
The Motherland Calls The Motherland Calls
2012
Playing Gay in the Golden Age of British TV Playing Gay in the Golden Age of British TV
2019
Black Poppies Black Poppies
2014
Under Fire Under Fire
2020