BONUS: Black GIs and their "Brown Babies"
Unlike white GIs, it was made virtually impossible for African-American servicemen to marry the women they met and fell in love with in the UK during World War Two. If these couples had children, those so-called "Brown Babies" were stigmatized and scorned - with many ending up in grim children's homes.
Pausing the story of the Blackout Ripper - this episode examines the experiences of those Black GIs, their white partners and two "Brown Babies" - Leon Lomax and Terry Harrison - who have both spent decades trying to piece together their family histories.
Professor Lucy Bland's work can be seen here: http://www.mixedmuseum.org.uk/brown-babies
Further reading:
Bland, Lucy. Britain's 'Brown Babies': The stories of children born to black GIs and white women in the Second World War. , 2019
Osur, Alan. Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War II. , 1977
Schindler, David and Westcott, Mark ‘Shocking Racial Attitudes: Black G.I.s in Europe’, The Review of Economic Studies. , 2021
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