[pages rustle] - I feel strange that I'm the one reading this, because I'm sure Churchill never expected me, or anyone like me to be perusing his...his records.

There's a lot of Whitehall back and forth about what to do with the black troops coming over with the Americans.

You're fighting the Nazi regime, which has already instituted this system of yellow stars and pink triangles.

And one of the suggestions put forward is to give black people [laughs] badges as a way of distinguishing themselves from the African Americans who are living by a different set of rules.

And that to me is is mad.

It's completely mad.

The idea that I would be handed a little Union Jack, everyone I know would be given a little Union Jack so that we are not, you know, forced out of places, insulted, segregated by the Americans on these shores.

[gentle music] The past is full of secrets, but you don't know what they are until you start to look.

I was investigating a hidden secret from World War II.

I travelled back to 1942.

[soldiers saluting] The Germans were on the march.

Britain was next.

Now America was coming to the rescue.

Almost 3 million Americans would land on our shores, joining the fight against the Nazis in the name of freedom and liberty for all.

But there was a side to our ally that's uncomfortable to remember.

The Nazis believed in white supremacy.

[electronic music] So did many Americans.

They called their official policy of racial discrimination ‘Jim Crow'.

We would call it apartheid today.

[electronic music continues] As an empire, we had our own fr away version of white supremac.

But now, in 1942, along with chewing gum, nylons and the jitterbug, the US Army was bringing its Jm Crow racial policy to Britain, whether we liked it or not.

I travelled the country, investigating what happened next, and uncovered a secret history about Britain and race that I never expected to find.

[electronic music continues] [soft music] I was in Cardiff, in a place called Tiger Bay.

I spent time here when I was writing a book about a black sailor framed for a murder in the 1950s.

I thought I knew a lot about the port's dark secrets.

Then, I heard rumours of a mysterious World War II incidet that I knew nothing about.

How four black American soldiers, or GIs as they were known, had died here, at the hands of fellow white soldiers.

Rebecca, a local historian, filled me in.

[soft music continues] - So we discovered four GIs were actually shot here, all along Bute Road.

- Wow.

- And we were shocked.

You know, with such a large community, you know, how could that be forgotten?

Nothing at all came up in the records whatsoever.

- At all?

- At all.

- So, um.

- For four men?

- For four men.

Four deaths.

- I thought I knew a lot about Tiger Bay, I've done a lot of research about what it was like in the 1940s and 50s.

So I was really shocked.

Do you know where it took place?

- We believe it was on Bute Street, at the bottom, going towards the docks which is by the Colonial Club, so we believe there was a checkpoint sort of in that area.

- That the military... American military police put up?

- Yes.

Yeah.

You know, maybe there's more that we don't know, maybe there's a reason we don't know it.

- [Nadifa] The story told locally was that the men had been shot by the American Army's own military police.

Beyond that, Rebecca had hit a dead end.

[mysterious music] How could the death of four men leave no record?

It didn't make sense.

The old Tiger Bay was long gon, torn down in the 1960s.

But I wanted to see where Rebecca thought the shootings had happened.

I think the Colonial Club was here.

There's nothing to mark it, but I think it was here.

It's strange to think that something so terrible happened here and you would never know.

[eerie music] That's the thing about the pas.

The further you get away from it, the more the truth fades.

[eerie music continues] What were these black guys doing in Tiger Bay?

Who were they?

[eerie music continues] And why were they shot at by their fellow soldiers?

[gun fires] [eerie music continues] I'm just not finding anything in the Welsh newspapers about the shootings in Tiger Bay.

It's possible that it's suppressed because of wartime censorship, but, something happened.

It's very strange, quite tantalizing for me, I think, as a writer.

A lot of my stories and novels emerge from real life historical experiences that have kind of just been forgotten or lost or intentionally suppressed.

And I want to and I feel like an obligation, actually, to find out more about what happened.

[uptempo music] When America entered the war in late 1941, the US Army enlisted large numbers of black soldiers for the first time.

But white and black troops would be kept apart in segregated units.

A hundred thousand African American GIs were to be sent to the UK, at a time when there were only about 8000 black Britons.

The plan did not go down well with the British government.

As I uncovered in a letter from Anthony Eden, Churchill's foreign minister.

[uptempo music continues] Anthony Eden makes clear that sending black troops to Britain is not something that the UK government wants.

So they're trying to think up different reasons why this is a bad idea.

And it's the climate, it's the damp British climate, Eden says, "The last war had shown that our climate was badly suited to Negroes.

We had, in consequence, limited our use of Negroes from the West Indies in this war."

I think, considering everything else that African Americans had lived through, I think they could live through the damp British climate.

And there's pushback from the Americans who think this is a bit ridiculous.

And they're bringing bringing these troops, whether the UK likes it or not.

[eerie music] Back in the states, African American recruits suffered violence from whites, outraged at the sight of them in uniform.

[eerie music continues] There were widespread reports of beatings, police shootings, even lynchings.

And these were the soldiers who were coming to Britain to fight against Nazism.

The British public were told that America's GIs were coming to the rescue.

[soldiers cheering] But when I met historian Dr Graham Cross at Churchill's old gentleman's club, I learned there was a price to be paid.

- Britain's been fighting the war since September 1939, and we're pretty much bankrupt by the time that the Americans join in.

So we are reliant on their, uh, finance and their supplies to keep going.

So Churchill's really in a tough spot.

And now he's got pressure from the Americans to accept African-American troops in the UK, accept the American, um, system of segregation.

- So what you're saying is that the price of having American troops here was to allow a kind of apartheid, segregation?

- Be in segregated units in segregated camps.

A Jim Crow segregation as it's known in the States.

- Wow.

- There is this alien system that we haven't got any experience of, that's likely to cause social disruption, how are we going to deal with this, uh, problem?

[gentle music] - [Nadifa] I went to the National Archives looking for an answer.

And I found one in files recording the once highly secret deliberations of Winston Churchill's War Cabinet in autumn 1942.

There's a lot of Whitehall back and forth about what to do with the black troops coming over with the Americans.

And there's a real split in attitudes between the Americans and their customary segregation of African Americans and the British, with their much more flexible segregation of people in their empire, and their desire to look very egalitarian in this country.

But British imperial racism is not so far from American racism.

They're working out the nuances rather than the bigger picture.

So we'll defer to you because you're, you're helping us in this big war effort.

"It is desirable to understand the American background on this matter as not to give cause for offense.

Misunderstandings or quarrels on this subject may well have serious results and may even affect the efficiency of the Allied fighting machine.

It is therefore, in my view, essential that we should follow the general lead given by the USA authorities."

[moody music] In the end, the War Cabinet landed on a classic British compromise.

We wouldn't directly enforce te US Army's extreme race policy, but wouldn't ask any awkward questions about it either.

This is a really interesting piece of history, a slice of history right here.

This is Winston Churchill's copy of the minutes of the War Cabinet meeting, and he's left a note saying "Share it with Eisenhower before it's circulated."

But one thing that grabs my attention is the fact that this decision is not to be disseminated openly.

So they'll let things happen through whispers and silence.

They're not confident in going out to the British public and saying, we are going to discriminate or turn a blind eye to the discrimination of African American troops.

[military music] As more GIs landed in Britain, Winston Churchill's plan to quietly submit to the Americans on race was about to be tested.

[tank rumbles] By spring 1943, Black GIs had been stationed in Britain for a year.

[eerie music] The US Army believed they weren't suited for battle.

[plane roars] So while the white troops prepared for combat, the black soldiers were confined to support roles such as labourers, truck drivers, and cooks.

The official US policy was to keep the races as separate as possible in order to limit clashes between them.

But it wasn't long before the Army's policy unraveled.

On June 22nd, 1943, white and black GIs faced off against each other in a night long gun battle on the streets of a quiet northern village.

[carnival music] - The Battle of Bamber Bridge is a significant piece of local history, and I'm thrilled to be asked to come and open this event today.

[crowd applauds] - [Nadifa] This unusual World War II remembrance was celebrating how the villagers had sided with the black soldiers against the white military police.

It was a forgotten story, rediscovered in large part thanks to Clinton Smith.

- So right at the heart of all this are a group of people called Briggers politely telling the Americans, and sometimes not quite as politely, that this is our backyard, you don't come in here and tell us Briggers what to do who to like, who to dislike, and I will always strive to make sure that this story is not forgotten.

- [Nadifa] Clinton took me to see how he had first stumbled acros the Battle of Bamber Bridge.

- So for me, the story began with a colleague.

I made a flippant comment about the size of the termite holes, only to be slapped down by my colleague, who then says to me, "They're not termite holes.

these are bullet holes from the war."

So he gave me a brief summary of what went on.

But right from that initial telling, the story resonated with me and I wanted to know more.

- When you started learning more about what happened here, how did the wider community react?

- There's a level of pride that the Briggers have about the stance that their foreparents took.

- Why?

- Because Bamber Bridge was a quiet little northern village.

These were just regular people who came into contact with black people that they've had virtually no contact with.

They'd probably seen the odd black person on film, - Yeah.

- but in terms of... - walking past one in the street, - From Hollywood - it's not gonna happen.

- Never.

What they say is that here are people who have the same issues that we have, and until they do something to cause offence or upset, they will be treated as one of us.

- They're on our side.

- But they're almost an adopted Brigger.

[gentle music] - [Nadifa] Like in Tiger Bay, this was a moment in history that was hidden and almost los.

It only survives thanks to locals like Clinton and the memories of those left from that time, like Valerie, whose family ran the village pub.

- The pubs had been warned not to serve the black soldiers.

- Really?

- And this black soldier went in and they said, "Sorry, we can't serve you, we've just called time", So my grandmother said, "Give him a bottle to take out."

There was a jeep on the front with MPs and they were prodding him with the batons.

and "What are you doing boy?"

My grandmother said, "If he was my son, away from home, I would want people to treat them well, So they're welcome here."

- Do you think it took a lot of guts for your grandparents to say that, or do you think it was the way everyone saw it?

- Well, I think it just seemed the right, right thing to do.

Why should we be against someone who was here to help us?

The colour of the skin wasn't an important.

[gentle music] - [Nadifa] I joined Clinton's history tour to find out what happened after the confrontation at the pub.

- And what we'd like to do this afternoon is take you back along the route that was taken by the soldiers on that fateful night in 1943.

- [Nadifa] Clinton explained how the military police began harassing the group of black GIs leaving the pub.

[eerie music] One thing led to another.

The military police opened fir.

[eerie music continues] Panic spread back at the base.

Fearing a massacre The black GIs fought back.

[eerie music continues] Locals came out to help the wounded.

[gunfire] The Battle of Bamber Bridge raged all night.

[gunfire] [eerie music continues] 32 GIs were convicted of mutiny and other related crimes following the battle.

All of them African American.

But all these years later, the people of this Lancashire village were still still on their side.

- I will always be proud of the stance that the Briggers took in 1943.

Sadly, there was one fatality, Private William Crossland.

If I can ask to have a minute's silence to pay reverence to the loss of this man's life.

[sombre music] - [Nadifa] The villagers refusal to accept the segregation allowed by Churchill's government had me questioning my own assumptions about the British during the war.

[people chatting indistinctly] Despite being the subjects of an empire which believed in white supremacy.

Were they more open-minded than I had ever imagined?

[gentle music] Or was Bamber Bridge just an exception?

[gentle music continues] I looked for answers in a 1943 questionnaire at the Mass Observation Archiv, asking the British public about their attitudes to what the survey called ‘coloured people'.

So this lady replies, "The war has had no effect upon my attitude, except to increase my consciousness of the extreme strength of feelings the Americans have about the colour bar.

It makes me feel sorry for the coloured folk and rather ashamed of the attitude of the whites.

There are obviously decent coloured folk and bad ones just the same as there are whites.

Taken by and large, I don't see any justification in putting them in a different category.

The US troops' attitude towards black people is revolting.

It is every bit as justifiable as Jew baiting."

So that person is clearly drawing a parallel between what the Americans are doing and what Nazi Germany is doing.

I think living in the heart of a massive colour, colour based empire like British people did, they were bound to be raised with racist attitudes.

But there was something different about seeing black American troops harassed, humiliated, degraded right there in front of you.

Clearly, it's not... it wasn't just Bamber Bridge, There was this movement happening amongst the British population of people having their eyes opened to what it means to be segregated by race.

[bright music] The Churchill government had hoped to quietly rub along with America's racial policy, but it seemed many British people had their own ideas.

[troops marching] [bright music continues] The US Army was worried about how its white troops arriving in Britain would reac.

So it turned to Hollywood to encourage soldiers to accept the new ways of this foreign land.

- Get a load of this.

[footsteps tapping] - Well, this looks like an interesting corner.

Hiya, babe.

I'll have a slug of bourbon.

Is this stuff any good?

- Well, it's supposed to be.

- I got a million of them, honey.

- That's bad, don't throw your money around like that.

[Train horn blares] - [Nadifa] But the key section of the film ‘Welcome to Britai'' tackled British attitudes towards race.

[soft music] - Well.

Goodbye, ma'am.

- Goodbye, it's been very nice meeting you both.

- [Soldier] Glad to have met you, I'm sure.

- [Woman] You come to (unclear) you must come to my home and have a cup of tea with me, both of you.

- Thank you, we will.

- Goodbye, and good luck.

- Goodbye.

- Bye bye.

- Well, where are you going?

- Well, I think I'll get some cigarettes.

- I'm short too.

- Well, I'll get some.

- Good.

- Now, look, man, you heard that conversation.

Now, let's be frank about it.

There are coloured soldiers as well as white here.

And there are less social restrictions in this country.

- This is quite a surprising film, I think because it seems a bit ashamed of the segregation of the US Army and the awkwardness of it being placed in a new environment, this small country of England.

They get out of the small carriage where they've had to share the space, while in the US most places would have had segregated carriages.

And the old English lady wants to shake their hands and invite them both to tea, which that's the thing that makes the American soldier look to camera and say, "We're not in Kansas anymore."

[Nadifa laughs] [orchestral music] But in the real world, most black and white soldiers weren't sharing cigarettes.

[tense music] In 1942, Winston Churchill had secretly acquiesced to American segregation in Britain.

Prioritising the war effort above everything.

But by spring 1944, racial tension inside the US Army was at an all-time high.

Often fueled by white GIs enraged by British women socialising with black men, something unthinkable back hom.

[tense music continues] These letters home from white GIs speak with a lot of contempt, I think, and some anger towards the casual openness that particularly British women have towards black GIs.

One here says, "English women don't draw the colour line.

It is not unusual to see an English girl walking down the street, arm in arm with a big buck ‘N word' in some cases they actually prefer ‘N words'" So he sounds mad mad.

[Laughs] He's really angry.

Another one writes, "It really is disgusting, and has lowered every American boy's ideas about the English people.

Before we came here, I thought of them as gallant people standing up against the rush of oppression.

But when they openly fraternize with the blacks, well, you know what I think of them now."

I think something at the back of the mind of the white guys must be, what will these black young men think and do when they go back to the US?

The wondering, fearing that their own sweethearts might end up running off with black...black men like the English girls are.

It feels as if the more time they spend in England, the more they are raging about this particular issue of race mixing.

And yeah, it's a very combustible situation.

[car engine rumbling] And some of the most combustibe incidents were in Leicester.

A series of riots that have ben almost completely forgotten.

[troops drill] At the time, a number of African American support units were based in villages surrounding Leicester and warmly welcomed by the locals.

[troops salute] Then, in February 1944, the all-white 82nd airborne arrived in Leicester.

They were shocked to see black GIs mixing with white women.

[tense music] Leicester born historian, Dr Liam McCarthy was determined to uncover the true hidden story of the riots that followed.

- This is where it all began in Leicester.

- The three cranes hotel?

- The three cranes hotel.

- Okay.

- And this was the first pub that black soldiers made their own.

So they used to bring white girls here.

- Okay.

And that probably would have annoyed the white GIs.

- Absolutely.

Uh, and as we go around the corner, you'll see how close it is to places frequented by the white GIs.

- Okay.

The white troops had taken over Leicester's main dance hall nearby, the Palais de Danse.

Then one liquor fueled Saturday night, they went to war against black GIs in the city center.

- So you've got largely black soldiers based there.

- Yeah.

- You've got the 82nd airborne base there.

Just here, on this corner, there was a huge fight with hundreds of soldiers.

- Hundreds?

- Hundreds.

- People being stabbed.

There's reports of shooting and what you end up with... - A brawl?

- A brawl.

- More than a brawl, a riot.

And what you end up is with the British police trying to stop local people getting involved, but be under no illusion, this was a war - Yeah.

Between Americans on British streets.

- [Nadifa] The 82nd and the Black American troops would be involved in two more clashes in Leicester over the coming months, leaving at least two GIs dead and many seriously injured.

But reports of these race riots would be suppressed by press censorship, known as ‘D Notices'.

Official instructions sent by the government to newspaper editors.

- So this is a newspaper report of that fight.

So what can you tell about that?

Where did that incident happen?

- It just says a Midlands town.

- Now you know it's Leicester, but would you know that, here?

- No, not at all.

I've just realised here they don't mention race.

- There was a specific D Notice which said, You mustn't talk about friction between black and white soldiers.

- So you wouldn't know the context of what happened.

- There we are, that's part of the D Notice.

[tense music] - [Nadifa] Churchill's government had secretly agreed that the American military coud practice segregation here, but they could not expect our police authorities to enforce it.

But for British police on the front line, in reality, it wasn't that simple.

As I discovered in a remarkable secret document.

- So I looked in the American archives.

- Okay.

- And this is part of a file that they've produced about relations between white and black soldiers.

[Nadifa giggles] And one of the papers in here is actually from a British police officer, a liaison officer between the Americans and the British police.

- Okay.

- If you read it, it's quite astonishing.

- "The question is being considered as to the advisability of white and coloured troops visiting Leicester for recreation purposes on the same nights.

An effort is also being made to place Leicester out of bounds to coloured troops", so the whole city would be out of bounds.

That's apartheid.

That's segregation.

- It is.

It is.

- So a whole city could be segregated.

- Whole cities could be.

The Americans called them ‘liberty towns' where white troops only could go.

- Liberty towns?

- Liberty towns, so... - Where did they use that?

- Near to Leicester is Kettering.

- Yeah - And that was a black town.

- And the idea was... - So what was the name for that?

- That was ‘Oppression town'.“ - Well, I don't know.

[they laugh] - So this British police liaison officer is trying to advise how to navigate a problem, that the Americans a race problem that the Americans have brought to this country.

- Yeah, exactly.

- [Nadifa] But it wasn't just the police or the British public getting caught up in America's race problems.

[tense music] Black soldiers from the empire stationed here were falling victim too.

[tense music continues] One was Sergeant Arthur Walron, an RAF tail gunner flying dangerous missions over Europe.

[tense music continues] Arthur Waldron, a volunteer in the RAF.

He's come over from Barbados.

He's 29 years old, married, and he's written to the Secretary of State for colonies about a night of violence that he suffered in Bury St Edmunds at a dance at the hands of Americans, he says, "Without provocation and quite suddenly", they attack him for inviting a local English girl to dance.

And he's humiliated, he's degraded by this.

"I came to this country from the British West Indies as a volunteer for aircrew duties under the protection of the British government, and I demand as far as humanly possible that I get its protection.

I therefore request strongly that the incident referred to be thoroughly investigated and taken up by the Colonial Office and the people concerned punished."

That is really powerful, because I think in America this behavior is unpunished.

The tragedy is the same night that he wrote this 29th of June, 1943, Sergeant Walrond went missing in a mission over Belgium [sombre music] and is presumed dead.

So this intelligent, incredible person is lost.

He's lost in the fight against Hitler.

Maybe in that moment, that same night when he finished signing his name, he was demoralized.

Maybe he was questioning why he'd even come to this country, why he was putting his life on the line for a country that was not protecting him.

And nothing happens.

The complaint goes nowhere.

I think the fact that he's missing in action and presumed dead is even more reason to get justice for him.

Um, that's what he wanted.

That's what the letter was demanding, and they refused to.

And that's the end of Walrond's story.

[sombre music continues] Over the past months, I had learned there were many ways for history to disappear.

Sometimes it was press censorship or government secrecy, and sometimes it was a fire like this one in 1973, that destroyed most of America's World War II military personnel records, including those of many black GIs.

But sometimes you get lucky.

I obtained one file that survived the fire.

An 80-year old Army document about the shooting in Tiger Ba, where my story began.

[tense music] I've got some information about what happened in Tiger Bay.

It's one of the few documents that survived the fire, and it outlines the formal investigation into the shooting in Bute Street.

And it wasn't four men that were shot.

It was one man, one African American man.

And he was shot in the back by his own military police.

[eerie music] A squad of black GIs were lost that night, returning to base, Hungry, they found a place to eat.

Outside, two military police were confronting a GI watching their truck.

[eerie music continues] The GI in charge showed them their passes.

What happened next isn't clear.

Except that the police started shooting at the truck.

[gun fires] And that a private named John L. Hendricks was dead.

John L. Hendricks dies as a result of a wound inflicted by a .45 calibre bullet.

The record of one of the African American soldiers involved that night.

It's a very grim account.

"I said, 'John L. is shot.

The Shore Patrol then made the remark, ‘That's all right, I'll take care of him later, What I should do is kill all of you black sons of bitches.'"

That's awful.

It's so awful.

[tense music] The authorities quickly closed ranks to cover up a police killing.

The recommendation is that no disciplinary action be taken against Stanley McKenna or Louis Hardie.

They get away with it.

They've shot a man in the back and they get away with it.

That's disgusting.

The public would never hear the story of how the killers of John L. Hendricks walked free.

[tense music] But just weeks later, the Churchill government would be unable to suppress news of another case involving a black GI and American military justice.

One that would outrage the British people.

I found this really interesting case.

This is from Somerset, small place called Combe Down, near Bath and an African American truck driver, Leroy Henry, from Saint Louis.

He's been accused of the rape of an English woman.

And he was arrested that very same night.

[tense music] Corporal Henry was interrogated for 15 hours throughout the night.

He was found guilty at a court martial, despite his claims of innocenc.

Leroy Henry waited to die on the gallows.

[tense music continues] But there's something remarkable that happens.

The local community somehow find out, and they decide that this is not going to happen on their watch.

Petition started in Combe Down, but it quickly spread to Bath, Bristol, across the west of England, and in the end, 33,000 people signed a petition saying that he should not be executed, that Leroy Henry should not be executed.

This document is actually from the US Army records, and their voices have now become part of that official record.

These housewives and teachers and milkmen, you know, ordinary people pushing back against the American military system.

And now they're part of that record.

And it's so, it's really moving.

[gentle music] Leroy Henry probably had no ida that people across Britain were fighting to save his life.

Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, busy with final preparations for D-Day, was drawn into what was becoming a national scandal.

I returned to see Graham Cross to understand the problems the scandal was causing for the allies.

- The whole south of England is packed with troops and equipment ready to go.

there's this really feverish atmosphere in England, Everybody's hearing rumours, "Is there gonna be an invasion?

Is it going to happen soon?

When's it going to happen?"

At the same time, the Americans are really concerned about racial tensions.

There's an Army Corps member in a US Army headquarters in London called Captain Susie Thurman, and she's doing a weekly report for American authorities on morale.

Literally 5 or 6 days before D-Day she says if the invasion doesn't happen, then it looks like there's going to be real trouble.

- What does she mean by that?

- Well, she means an explosion of racial tension.

I mean, the Americans are fearful.

They've seen it before in Britain.

They've seen Bamber Bridge.

They've just had the events at Leicester.

Could something like that happen again, only much, much bigger?

So Eisenhower is putting together this hugely complicated mission and Leroy Henry and the the tension surrounding that, threatens to derail it.

- And that's days before D-Day?

- And it's literally days before D-Day.

[tense music] - [Nadifa] As the allies were fighting their way off the Normandy beaches, General Eisenhower made a dramatic decision.

He overturned Leroy Henry's conviction.

[tense music continues] Corporal Henry returned to his unit to join the fight against the Nazis.

I think what's really surprising is the massive swell of support that he received.

I think there's genuine concern that he didn't get a fair trial.

And then I think there's also the underlying tensions going on between the British and the Americans where they're kind of tired of being pushed around.

Britain would lose its empire, the Americans would become the foremost power in the world.

But they could say no to this, on their own turf.

And they said no, and in doing that, the British people saved Leroy Henry's life.

[tense music] Leroy Henry made it home.

But one black GI who didn't was Private William Crosland who was killed at the Battle of Bamber Bridge, and has never been exonerated.

[car engine rumbling] His niece, Nancy, had heard about the village's commemoration and had come to England to find out more.

- I didn't know any of the circumstances surrounding his death.

My father's deceased, and all of my aunts and uncles are deceased, so of course, I couldn't.

I have all these questions, right, and I've no one to ask them, but of course, there's no one around to ask.

I wish I knew more.

It made me wonder, ‘So what what was my father told?

What was my grandparents told?'

- Exactly, how did they explain this?

- Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So I can imagine that my father or his parents were told that he was just killed in battle and then, of course - And buried here.

- And buried here.

- In the black culture, you just accept it, what was told to you, and especially from, from Caucasians, you know, because Caucasians were viewed as, they were right.

Right?

- Yeah, especially the military authorities.

- Especially.

- I've been wondering about a lot of those things as well, about who William was.

- Right.

Right.

- What he found when he came over to Britain.

- I can only imagine that my grandparents were probably so proud, you know, because ‘My boy... - He'd see the world.

- Right, he's gonna... - The first time maybe they'd left the US.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

A black boy in the 40s.

- Yeah.

- And then to be... brutally murdered.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- What would you like to know more about William?

- I wanna know why the villagers really, why his story?

Why did this group of villagers in England care about the black soldiers?

And took them in, basically, and why's he been celebrated all these years later?

You know, and I hear that, yeah, people go to his graveside and remember him, which is so touching, to me.

[gentle music] - [Nadifa] Nancy wanted to see where her uncle was buried.

It is the final resting place for almost 4,000 Americans who died during the war.

[gentle music continues] Here we are, here we are.

- Oh!

Wow!

My uncle.

Wow.

Woo.

Well, can I lay these here?

- Of course, yeah.

Put them down.

- Wow.

- What would you tell him if you could speak to him?

- That I'm proud of him.

That he... [sighs] left his family and came in a whole different land, you know, trying to do something right.

[birds singing] [gentle music] - [Nadifa] I took Nancy to Bamber Bridge, where her uncle .

There was a surprise waiting for her.

- Oh my goodness!

Oh wow!

[people applaud] Oh my goodness!

This is really something.

Hi, how are you?

Thank you.

- [Man] It's lovely to see you.

- [Nancy] Thank you so much.

- William Crosland died on the streets of Bamber Bridge at the hands of the American military police who tried to impose Jim Crow segregation in the towns of Britain.

The people of Bamber Bridge fought back against that.

- Thank you.

- And what we want to do is to support you in any way in fighting for a pardon for your uncle, and all the other troops.

- [Nancy] Yes.

[people applaud] [Nancy sighs] - [Nadifa] How was it?

- Oh my god.

I think there's a lot of mythology around what British people were like during the Second World War.

I've been to places really off the beaten path, and they had a black presence that they welcomed in the 1940s.

[gentle music] And that does surprise me.

I don't think that's how I understood the Britain of the past.

Knowing that you're an imperial power, that you have all of these subject races and nations beneath you is one thing but on a day-to-day basis, they would not have understood the violence the cruelty of Jim Crow.

To try and bring that over from the deep south to Britain, to Somerset, to Leicester, to Bamber Bridge, was a fool's errand.

I think the experience of African Americans was very specific.

They were here as soldiers, temporarily.

They had a good amount of cash in their pockets.

And they were quite different from the economic migrants that would come in the late 40s and 50s who were not treated very well by the majority of British people.

[gentle music continues] For some people, it had really raised this question of, ‘What do I believe in?

What does equality look like?

What does freedom look like?'

It didn't dismantle the idea of white supremacy in Britain, but it was one of the first things that challenged it in a meaningful way, and then the migrants that came in the 40s, 50s and beyond, including my father, including myself, have had to keep chipping away at that same structure.

[gentle music continues]