Lest we forget the children of the Windrush Pioneer Generation

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

The HMT Windrush Empire ship arrived at Tilbury Docks during a period of increased optimism in the UK. In the immediate post-war decade of the 1950s, the British social and cultural landscape underwent a transformation. The economy was booming, wages were soaring, and unemployment had virtually disappeared. The prime minister at the time, Harold Macmillan, said that the British had 'never had it so good'. Immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa would later tell their children that you could leave one job on Friday and start with a new employer on Monday.

The 1950s was a period when all things African Caribbean or African American were seen as the height of cool. Theatre, TV plays, contemporary dance, calypso music, rock 'n' roll, and jazz music were all celebrated by the British. Winifred Atwell, a ragtime, and boogie-woogie artist found success in the UK. She became the first African Caribbean person from Trinidad to reach the UK music charts with 'Let’s Have Another Party'.

WHITE RIOTS

There was a cross-party consensus behind the British Nationality Act of 1948, which created a new class of citizen within the British Empire. The "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" (CUKC) was granted the sole national citizenship of the United Kingdom and all its colonies. Some argue that it was an attempt by the British to pre-empt demands for decolonization. Additionally, it provided the "Mother Country," as some in the Caribbean referred to Britain, with access to cheap and abundant workers who could speak English and shared the same culture.

Young people across the Caribbean and Africa were struggling to find gainful employment. They heard that the UK was booming, with high demand for labour. The new nationality act was a lifeline for these young people, and thousands of them boarded ships bound for Britain.

Racial tensions escalated as an increasing number of young job seekers from the Caribbean and Africa arrived on the shores of Britain. Tensions reached a breaking point in Nottingham City in the north of England in 1958 and in London's Notting Hill.

The Trinidadian communist journalist, Claudia Jones, along with other community activists, decided to stage a carnival in Notting Hill to help heal the wounds left by the summer 1958 race riots.

The inaugural Notting Hill Carnival took place indoors at St Pancras Town Hall in January 1959.

However, with the shocking killing of the young carpenter from Antigua, Kelso Cochrane, on May 17, 1959, the beginning of the swinging sixties became a reality check for both young migrant workers from the Caribbean and Africa and the host country.

Almost overnight, young people began challenging everything and everyone from previous generations. They protested the Vietnam War, racial segregation, the oppression of women, the old establishment, and class hierarchies. In the UK, young people from the Caribbean, Africa, and increasingly from South Asia started families in the "Motherland" and began to fight for a better quality of life and a brighter future for their children.

As racial discrimination became increasingly visible, landlords would display signs with phrases like ‘No Irish, no blacks, no dogs’ in newsagents.

The BBC and ITV began to reflect the racial atmosphere of the time with programmes such as the ‘Black and White Minstrel Show’, where white performers would don blackface and sing and dance to traditional American minstrel and country songs while wearing elaborate costumes every Saturday.

One of the most racially charged and, at the time, one of the most popular sitcoms in British history was 'Till Death Us Do Part.' Although written as satire, the public perceived it as true to life. Warren Mitchell's character, Alf Garnett, known for his racist views, elicited both love and hatred in equal measure.

In 1959, the Labour Party selected Dr David Pitt, a Grenadian-born candidate, for the North London constituency of Hampstead. The campaign was marred by racial tension, and Pitt faced racist death threats for daring to stand as an African Caribbean candidate for parliament in the UK. However, the Conservative candidate emerged victorious, demonstrating how the use of racial undertones in British general elections could succeed and setting a blueprint for future elections.

Never mind the 'Swing Sixties,' the Windrush migrants were subjected to the 'Racist Sixties.' In 1965, the first bill to address racial discrimination was passed in Parliament. The Race Relations Act of 1965 aimed to make it a civil offense to mistreat people on the grounds of race. The Bristol Bus Boycott had exposed the establishment's shortcomings, as did the general election in the West Midlands constituency of Smethwick, where anti-immigrant tensions ran high. The local Conservative Party exploited these tensions with a leaflet stating, 'If you want a N-word for a neighbour, then vote Labour.' The black nationalist leader from America, Malcolm X, even visited Smethwick. The situation was dire.

The Sixties ended dramatically with the former government minister and senior Conservative politician, Enoch Powell, delivering his infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech in 1968. A year later, a troubled Nigerian man named David Oluwale was found dead in the River Aire in Leeds. The local police were suspected of involvement in his death, but they escaped consequences. Sadly, this wouldn't be the last time that the police would be implicated in the death of a child or grandchild from the Windrush Generation.

The children who had arrived with their parents in the 1950s and 1960s came of age in the 1970s. A new youthful militancy emerged in post-imperial Britain.

MILITANT 70s

If you thought the sixties were tense, you haven't seen anything yet. The 1970s kicked off with the Mangrove Nine Trial.

For years, the police had been harassing patrons and owners of establishments frequented by the Windrush Generation. Young civil rights activists organized a march to spotlight the constant harassment of the community by the Metropolitan Police. Fights broke out between the police and protesters, leading to the arrest of nine activists. The Mangrove Nine Trial became the talk of the town.

It was the first time that the mistreatment of ethnic minorities was being challenged in the highest circles of the British establishment since 1948. The Mangrove Nine's defiance and bravery demonstrated that justice could prevail in cases involving the Windrush community.

When all nine defendants were acquitted of the most serious charges after a lengthy 55-day trial, it was widely recognized as a moment of victory for Commonwealth citizens in the UK.

Militancy also found its way into the Trades Union Congress and the major trade unions that had previously failed to take racial discrimination in their ranks seriously.

As late as 1970, Vic Feather, the General Secretary of the TUC at the time, insisted that "The trade union movement is concerned with a person as a worker. The colour of a person's skin has no relevance whatsoever to their work."

Commonwealth migrants didn't wait for the overwhelmingly white leadership of the TUC and the major trade unions to get their act together.

Migrants began organizing across the country. The Black Peoples Alliance and the Indian Workers Association took a direct stand against racism in the UK.

By the beginning of the 1970s, evidence emerged that the children of the Windrush Generation were systematically facing discrimination. Bright children were often labelled as subnormal and placed in lower-stream classes.

The pioneering Caribbean-owned New Beacon Books published Bernard Coard's book 'How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System: The Scandal of the Black Child in Schools in Britain' in 1971, which came as no surprise to Windrush families.

The community took the issue into their own hands and launched a surge in supplementary Saturday schools across the UK. However, the issue of Caribbean children struggling in state schools would continue to be addressed in the future.

The launch of the Notting Hill Carnival inspired other Caribbean communities across England and Wales to organize local street parades in cities like Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Luton, and Birmingham.

Some of the most iconic pictures of the late 1960s and early 1970s were taken by a young Neil Kenlock. The young photographer would go on to found Choice FM in the 1990s. The owners of Capital Radio purchased Choice FM and rebranded it as the hip-hop radio station Capital XTRA.

Police harassment became a recurring feature in the lives of the children of the Windrush Generation. The first uprising against police harassment after the 1960s began in November 1975 in the Leeds district of Chapeltown. It didn't make national news, but it served as an omen of things to come.

In sports like football, migrants and their children confronted racism with their natural abilities on the pitch. Almost out of nowhere, a ray of sunshine emerged. The Three Degrees graced our TV screens every Saturday afternoon. No, not the all-female singing group called The Three Degrees from America, but Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham, and Brendon Batson, collectively known as the Three Degrees. They were the forward talents for West Bromwich Albion FC during the 1978/79 season, dazzling the entire country and silencing the racists in the stands and in English football.

It must be said that the 1970s, by any measure, was the most racist decade since the post-1945 migration into the UK. Racism permeated television, newspapers, was espoused by politicians, and even appeared in advertising. Who can forget the infamous Robinson's golliwog symbol on its jam jars in supermarkets?

With union strikes, a three-day working week, high inflation, electricity blackouts, and the rise of the anti-migrant National Front Party, it was tough times for everyone, especially ethnic minorities.

In the world of entertainment and the night-time economy, the children of the Windrush Pioneers faced the same challenges as their parents. Nightclubs refused them entry, and local pubs were hostile to ethnic minority young people.

Young people began attending house parties, often called 'blues parties,' where they were entertained by a new generation of sound systems and DJs. Out of this underground music scene emerged 'lovers’ rock,' the ska revival, and the reggae/punk crossover music genre that captured a generation of Britons. Lovers’ rock pioneer Janet Kay made history with the tune 'Silly Games,' which reached number one on the UK music charts in 1979. Her success was a victory for UK-born children of the Windrush Generation.

There was a growing awareness of race consciousness spreading throughout the land. Young people had their own Black Panther Party, Bob Marley and the Wailers were making African-inspired culture effortlessly cool, and even famous people like American actor Bo Derek sported an African braided hairstyle in the movie '10,' while Stevie Wonder embraced braids and reggae-inspired songs.

With the passing of the Race Relations Act of 1976 and the establishment of The Commission for Racial Equality, the future looked, if not bright, at least better than before.

The extremely young Dennis Morris was responsible for taking some of the earliest photographs of the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley during that time.

CULTURAL CONFIDENCE

By the turn of the 1980s, the children of the Windrush Generation had found their collective voice and were proud of their new cultural consciousness.

However, Mrs. Thatcher, the new female leader of the Tory Party, was about to set the clock back on racial progress. On January 30, 1978, remember that Mrs. Thatcher was the first female leader of a major political party in the UK, she gave an interview to Granada TV where she remarked that British people feared they might be 'rather swamped by people with a different culture,' referring to Commonwealth immigrants and their UK-born children. The Winter of Discontent, where rubbish bags piled up on the streets and bodies were left unburied, combined with Mrs. Thatcher's dog-whistle messages on race, led to a massive majority in the 1979 General Election.

The West Indies cricket team showed that the British could be beaten at their own game.

During the 1980 season, the West Indies cricket team toured England and won the 5-match series 1–0. Their electrifying style of play captivated the nation and filled the West Indian community in the UK with immense pride.

Later, one of Mrs. Thatcher's loyal supporters, Norman Tebbit, introduced the 'cricket test' to determine the loyalty of children of Commonwealth parents to either the motherland or the UK where they were born.

British television slowly became less homogeneous. The youngest of the Windrush Generation's children had Derek Griffiths and Floella Benjamin, both individuals of Caribbean origin, presenting the popular BBC children's program 'Play School.'

However, the older kids faced different challenges. Many left schools at 16 with no job prospects, as Mrs. Thatcher presided over a period of 3 million unemployed workers, primarily young people. At this point, these teenagers were also fed up with the stop-and-search tactics of the police.

The immediate trigger for the 1981 Brixton riots was 'Operation Swamp,' a 10-day operation during which 150 plainclothes officers made 1000 stops and 150 arrests, according to Jefferson and Grimshaw in 1984. Two nights of unrest followed, and its impact extended beyond the capital, with uprisings occurring in Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, and other places. An inquiry was initiated.

The Scarman Report, authored by Lord Scarman, identified years of discrimination faced by the children of the Windrush Generation in all aspects of society and called for change. While some of the report's recommendations were implemented, most were ignored.

Uprisings occurred again in 1985, but this time police officer Keith Blakelock was killed on the Broadwater Farm council estate in Tottenham, North London. Winston Silcott, of Montserrat parentage, was wrongfully convicted of Blakelock's murder in March 1987.

Beat poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, a rising star on the literary circuit in the 1970s, wrote a poem entitled 'Di Great Insohreckshan' about the Brixton Uprising of 1981. Before that, the highly influential Professor Stuart Hall of the Windrush Generation authored 'Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order' in 1978, addressing the crisis of capitalism in the UK that negatively impacted the wider community and migrant communities.

With limited job prospects and most avenues to the establishment closed to them, young people in the early 1980s began pursuing their own paths. Anti-racism campaigns were launched, and individuals produced fanzines, comics, limited 7-inch records, and wore second-hand and handmade clothes. Young people set up all-night and all-day jazz funk discos, inspired by the dance movie 'Fame.'

In 1981, Phoenix Dance Theatre was founded by three young individuals from the Windrush Community. These young men from the Chapeltown area of Leeds made contemporary dance respectable among young people.

The movie 'Babylon' was released in the 1980s, following a young reggae DJ's struggle to achieve fame while battling racism in society. It resonated with the times. 'Burning an Illusion,' which came out a year later, also explored racism from a romantic angle.

The new jazz funk-pop appeal of Junior Giscombe's 'Mama Used To Say' pointed to undiscovered possibilities. Although Lovers’ Rock, Ska, and UK reggae were sidelined by the music industry, this genre of homegrown music carried immense appeal. Bands like Imagination, Linx, Freeez, Brand New Heavies, and Incognito pioneered this new sound. An honourable mention goes to the Liverpool soul group The Real Thing, who broke through with their number one 1976 hit single 'You To Me Are Everything.' Sadly, according to Giscombe, the sound was repackaged and given to white artists like Heaven 17, leading to a sidelining of their careers.

Back to football, Nottingham-born Viv Anderson made his debut for England in 1978, and a few years later, Jamaican-born John Barnes made his debut for England in 1986.

Throughout the 1970s, political activists worked tirelessly, demanding political representation. The historic 1987 General Election saw Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng, and Keith Vaz become the first post-war Commonwealth-connected individuals to be elected as Labour Party MPs.

Like many aspects of the 1980s, radio remained inaccessible to the children of the Windrush Pioneers. However, with determination and imagination, unlicensed radio stations began springing up across the country. The community-focused Galaxy FM started in 1987, and the music-driven station Kiss FM was launched. Both continue to operate today in 2023, with one being a commercial station and the other still cherished by its community in South London.

The decade ended with the magical sound of Soul II Soul and the release of South African anti-apartheid prisoner Nelson Mandela, for whom many people in the UK had campaigned tirelessly.

TALENT WILL OUT

The creativity and confidence of the children of the 1980s gave way to frustration. To succeed in Thatcher's era, they had to go the extra mile.

Dotun Adebayo and Steve Pope launched Xpress book publishing company, publishing Victor Headley's grassroots champions ‘Baby Father’ and ‘Yardie’ novels.

Spike Lee's movie 'Malcolm X' opened people's eyes to injustice in America and highlighted how the Windrush community was being treated.

In 1993, Paul Ince became the first person of Caribbean origin to captain England’s football team, while Mike Tyson defeated Windrush boxing hero Frank Bruno for the second time.

The BBC2 comedy show 'The Real McCoy' was a community favourite. The children of the Windrush Generation were making progress, but a harsh reality check came when Stephen Lawrence was fatally stabbed in a racist attack while walking home through Eltham, Southeast London, on April 22, 1993. Instead of investigating the racist crime, authorities initially chose to investigate the family and missed key evidence.

Trevor McDonald became the sole presenter of ITV News at 10, and Bill Morris became the leader of one of the UK's largest trade unions, the Transport and General Workers' Union, in 1992.

To divert growing criticism over the mishandled investigation into Stephen Lawrence's murder, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon claimed that most muggers in London were ‘young black men.’

In April 1994, genocide occurred in Rwanda, while Nelson Mandela won the first democratic election in South Africa.

Labour MP Bernie Grant launched a campaign for the Benin Bronzes to be returned from UK museums to Africa, but museums did not respond positively.

In the 1997 General Election, Tony Blair's New Labour Party won by a landslide, and Paul Boateng, of Ghanaian and British parentage, became the first ethnic minority government minister in Blair's government.

The community continued to create innovative pop music, with songs like 'Feel So High' by Des'ree, 'Return of the Mack' by Mark Morrison, and '21 Seconds' by So Solid Crew. However, the music industry hesitated to fully embrace the creativity of the children of the Windrush Generation.

At the end of the 1990s, the UK mourned the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with widespread grief, including from the Windrush community.

The 1990s presented a mixed decade for the community. Despite concerns about the millennium bug, people remained optimistic about the new millennium.

Leeds United football club signed Ghanaian striker Tony Yeboah, whose short stint in the English football league opened the floodgates to other clubs signing African players.

Years after the killing of Stephen Lawrence, the Blair government initiated an inquiry into his death. Sir William MacPherson produced the MacPherson Report, which found the Metropolitan Police to be ‘institutionally racist’, negatively impacting the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation.

On a positive note, Grenadian heritage artist Steve McQueen won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1999.

NEW ERA, SAME OLD WINE

The new millennium witnessed the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 in the UK, extending race relations legislation to include the police. The Act was amended in 2001, imposing racial equality promotion duties on numerous public authorities.

In the United States, the world watched in horror as planes struck the twin towers in New York City on September 11, 2001.

Ainsley Harriott's charisma shone through the TV screen as he hosted the immensely popular BBC2 afternoon show 'Ready Steady Cook' starting in 2000.

Andrea Levy's novel 'Small Island,' exploring her father's Windrush experience in the UK, was groundbreaking and later adapted into a 2009 TV drama.

After significant campaigning, the BBC launched 1Xtra radio, focusing on hip-hop and rap music rather than community affairs as campaigners had desired.

Denise Lewis, a highly talented athlete, scored 6584 points, securing the Olympic heptathlon title at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Veteran left-wing politician Ken Livingstone defeated Labour candidate Frank Dobson to become Mayor of London in 2000, appointing political activist Lee Jasper as one of his deputies. Livingstone later defeated former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, in the 2004 London Mayoral election.

This wouldn't be the last we heard from Trevor Phillips, as he later criticized racial equality programmes.

Tragedy struck in November 2000 when two brothers aged 12 and 13 stabbed ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor in Peckham, severing an artery. He bled out in a Peckham council estate stairwell, bringing national attention to the ‘underclass’ in UK cities.

Dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah declined an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire), causing a momentary scandal, while other members of the Commonwealth migrant community continued to accept such honours.

In the United States, Hurricane Katrina exposed racial disparities as mainly African Americans were left to fend for themselves in New Orleans in 2005.

Around this time, MP Diana Abbott launched a campaign to improve educational outcomes for 'black boys,' hosting the first London Schools and the Black Child Conference at London City Hall in 2007. Critics argued it was an attempt to compensate for sending her only child to a private school.

In his debut year, Lewis Hamilton won the first of several Formula One World Championships titles for McLaren in 2008. 

Boris Johnson defeated Livingstone in the 2008 Mayoral Election, employing a smear campaign alleging wrongdoing by Lee Jasper and other ethnic minorities at City London. Lee Jasper resigned in ‘disgrace’.

When Johnson assumed office, he drastically reduced the annual budget for Black History Month by 90% and redirected the funds towards celebrating American Independence on July 4th in Trafalgar Square. London Mayor Khan refused to reinstate the funds and eventually scrapped Black History Month at City Hall altogether.

This decade saw the release of several notable films, including Blood Diamond, City of God, Hotel Rwanda, The Pursuit of Happyness, Training Day, and Crash in 2004.

The grandchildren of the Windrush Generation began to emerge, and Tim Campbell, the winner of the first-ever Apprentice in 2005, was undoubtedly a shining star. The community felt immense pride in his achievements.

In 2008, a group of women came together and erected a 10ft high statue of a Bronze Woman in Stockwell Memorial Garden, symbolizing the challenges faced by ethnic minority women, particularly those from Africa and the Caribbean.

The statue, standing at 10ft tall, was placed in Stockwell Memorial Garden.

In 2007, the UK marked the 200th anniversary of the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. On the day of a church service at Westminster Abbey attended by Queen Elizabeth II, community activist Toyin Agbetu staged a one-man demonstration in front of the Queen and TV cameras, demanding that she issue an apology for slavery. It was a moment never to be forgotten.

Hollywood started welcoming actors from the Windrush community as the UK film industry remained exclusive. David Harewood gained fame for his role as David Estes in the popular TV series Homeland, while other actors like Naomie Harris, Thandiwe Newton, Adrian Lester, and Chiwetel Ejiofor also made their mark.

Since David Oluwale's death in Leeds in 1969, the police had been involved in numerous killings of young men, mainly from African or African-Caribbean backgrounds. On August 4, 2011, Metropolitan police officer fatally shot Mark Duggan in Tottenham, leading to public protests that escalated into riots across London and other English cities.

WINDRUSH REALITY

In 2014, the young poet with Ugandan parents, George, released a poetry/rap combination album that garnered immense popularity and earned a BRIT Award nomination.

Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party was embraced with enthusiasm by the Windrush community. Corbyn had spent months volunteering in Jamaica and Latin America as a young man, and his constituency had a significant Windrush community presence. In the 2019 General Election, Commonwealth communities largely supported Corbyn, but other communities overlooked Boris Johnson's racist history and voted him into power.

Johnson's predecessor Thersea May’s Conservative government was embroiled in the Windrush Scandal, denying adults who had come to Britain with their parents in the 1960s and 1970s but lacked proper documentation access to work, NHS treatment, or housing due to changes in the law. The crisis led to the resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd, and while a compensation scheme was established, it proved inefficient and slow in settling claims, with some individuals passing away before receiving their payments.

The Windrush community disproportionately impacted from the pandemic, experiencing a higher death rate.

In the year Covid-19 gripped the world, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers sparked global street protests, including in the UK, with demonstrators emphasizing that "black lives matter."

Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford passionately advocated against child hunger during school holidays, pressuring Boris Johnson's government to provide meals for disadvantaged school children over breaks. He also took the knee to protest racism, which drew the ire of right-wing media.

The wedding of Prince Harry to mixed-race actor Meghan Markle in 2018 provoked controversy and negative media coverage for years, making the couple a target for tabloid criticism.

The term ‘woke’ was increasingly used by right-wing politicians and media to dismiss anything deemed ‘politically correct.’ Bernardine Evaristo from the Windrush community shared the prestigious Booker Prize in 2019, and Veronica Ryan won the Turner Prize in 2022 for her sculpture reflecting the Windrush community's experiences.

After the Black Lives Matter protests, Johnson's government sought to claim significant progress in racial equality. The conservative government's Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published the Tony Sewell Report in 2021, suggesting that other groups, like Asians and some African groups, were doing better than the Windrush Community and disputing accusations of institutional racism in key sectors. Critics questioned the report's data, and some commissioners resigned over its issuance.

Kwasi Kwarteng became the UK's first African Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2022, but his tenure lasted only 38 days as financial markets rejected his mini budget.

In December 2022, Ngozi Fulani, founder of the charity Sistah Space, garnered attention when she tweeted about feeling uncomfortable due to repeated inquiries about her origin from Buckingham Palace aide Lady Hussey.

In March 2023, the Baroness Casey Review Final Report declared the Metropolitan Police "institutionally racist." Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley rejected her finding, and Asian Home Secretary Suella Braverman did not support Casey's conclusions.

A Metropolitan police firearms officer was referred to prosecutors to consider potential murder charges in the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba, who was killed in September 2022 in south London. The Independent Office for Police Conduct initiated a homicide investigation into the officer, identified only as NX121, shortly after the incident. They have publicly stated that no non-police-issue firearm was found at the scene where Kaba encountered armed police. Kaba, aged 24, was shot and killed by a single gunshot on September 5, 2022, in Streatham, south London. He was in a dark Audi car that came to a stop and was surrounded by police. The IOPC has now referred a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service following the completion of their homicide investigation.

In June 2022, Prince William and the Princess of Wales unveiled the National Windrush Monument at London Waterloo Station in front of members of the Windrush generation.

In November 2022, a family from The Gambia residing in Nottingham tragically lost their lives due to a racist neighbour who poured petrol through the letterbox of Fatoumatta Hydara's first-floor property in the early hours of November 20, 2022, setting it alight and remaining on the scene as the fire engulfed the building. Hydara, 28, passed away two days after the incident. Her daughters, Fatimah Drammeh, three, and Naeemah Drammeh, one, also lost their lives in the fire at Fairisle Close in Clifton, Nottingham.

June 22, 2023, marked the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in Essex from Jamaica. To commemorate the occasion, King Charles II commissioned portrait paintings of the Windrush Generation. A comprehensive programme of events took place across the UK, and the Royal Mint issued a special coin to mark the significance of the day.

An underreported story was the announcement of the new co-owner and vice-chairman of Leeds United FC, Yorkshire giants, Rudy Cline-Thomas, whose Jamaican family originally hails from Leeds.

THE CONCLUSION

Looking over the past 75 years, there have been a few hardy perennials that have shaped the lives of the children, grandchildren, and now the great-grandchildren of the pioneering Windrush Generation. Policing of the Windrush Community can best be characterized as shocking, veering from absurd to lethal. Education has been a constant battle since the children of the Windrush Generation faced brutal discrimination in the state schooling system as far back as the 1950s, forcing Windrush families to set up supplementary schools across the country. Another theme has been the systematic disparagement and sidelining of new musical genres invented by the Windrush community. Genres like lovers’ rock, jazz-funk-pop, nu soul, jungle, drum 'n' bass, grime, and drill music have all been sidelined by the UK music industry and media. It must be noted that the Windrush Community has been thoroughly marginalized over the past 75 years, but still, the community seeks to advance despite these difficulties. The future for the Windrush Community appears precarious, as many of the institutions set up to protect and advance the community have faded away. It's up to new generations to have pride in past community achievements and build on them, or the Windrush Generation will just be a footnote in Britain’s post-World War II history.