Britain's 'brown babies': the stories of children born to black GIs and white women in Second World War

This book recounts a little-known history of an estimated 2,000 children born to black GIs and white British women in World War II. Stories from over 50 of these children, alongside many photographs, reveal the racism and stigma of growing up in what was then a very white country. This book reveals the little-known history of the mixed-race children born to black American servicemen and white British women during the Second World War. Of the three million American soldiers stationed in Britain in 1942–45, about 240,000 were African-American. Their relationships with British women resulted in the birth of an estimated 2,000 children, which the African-American press named ‘brown babies’; the British called them ‘half-castes’. The American army was racially segregated and Black GIs were forbidden to marry their pregnant white girlfriends. Up to half of these mothers, faced with the stigma of illegitimacy and a mixed-race child, gave up their children for adoption. Often, they ended up in children’s homes, sometimes followed by fostering and occasionally adoption, but adoption societies frequently would not take on ‘coloured’ children, thought ‘too hard to place’. Based on extensive interviews and including over fifty photographs, Britain’s ‘brown babies’ presents the stories of more than fifty of these children against the backdrop of shifting government policy and attitudes of the time. Lucy Bland brings to light the struggles they faced, including racism in a (then) very white Britain, and a lack of family or a clear identity. While some of the accounts of early childhood are heart-breaking, there are also many uplifting narratives of finding American fathers and gaining a sense of self and of heritage. This book recounts a little-known history of the estimated 2,000 babies born to black GIs and white British women in the second world war. The African-American press named these children ‘brown babies’; the British called them ‘half-castes’. Black GIs, in this segregated army, were forbidden to marry their white girl-friends. Nearly half of the children were given up to children’s homes but few were adopted, thought ‘too hard to place’. There has been minimal study of these children and the difficulties they faced, such as racism in a (then) very white Britain, lack of family or a clear identity. The book will present the stories of over fifty of these children, their stories contextualised in terms of government policy and attitudes of the time. Accessibly written, with stories both heart-breaking and uplifting, the book is illustrated throughout with photographs.