The black British soldiers of the First World War have often been forgotten. People from across the British Empire signed up eagerly to play their part in the First World War, but black recruits were not given the same opportunities as everyone else. Black units were barred from fighting on the Western Front because, it was feared, allowing colonial soldiers to fight alongside and against white Europeans would undermine British colonial rule. In Africa and the Middle East black units did fight only because their enemy on those fronts was also non-white.
Though black units played a vital role in Allied victory, after the war their contribution was deliberately forgotten in an attempt to protect the British Empire. In this episode of IWM Stories, Alan Wakefield looks at who these men were, what they did, and why they've been forgotten.
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Photographs of William Robinson Clarke courtesy of the Royal Aero Club.
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0:00 Introduction
1:48 Beginning of the war
2:55 British reservations
4:00 The Western Front
6:47 Africa and the Middle East
8:24 Black Britons
10:59 After the war
13:31 Conclusion
#history #ww1 #westindies
