African Strength

 

In 1943 African American soldiers faced off with w.hite American Military police during World War II on British soil. Yes you read correctly Black American soldiers had to fight their own w.hite American soldiers, while in England, where they were fighting for the world.

Why? Because the English town of Bamber Bridge in Lancashire was not segregated so they treated the Black soldiers like all other races, aka Blacks were free to eat, drink anywhere, BUT back in America segregation of Blacks and w.hites still existed. So essentially the American army went to someone else’s country and demanded they adopted America’s r.acist practices.

The folks in Lancashire were like h.ell no we like the Black soldiers in fact during that time the American created Jitterbug dance was popular and the British women were eager to learn it from the Black soldiers. The fondness for the Black American soldiers was also supported by those famous essays written by George Orwell who stated that the Black American soldiers had the best manners of all the American troops.

So when the American Military police found out that their own Black American soldiers were drinking at the same pubs as w.hite people they went in to arrest them. The people in the town got mad about the treatment of the Black soldiers and decided to then turn their pubs into “BLACKS ONLY DRINKING PUBS” the very opposite of what was taking place in America with their W.HITES ONLY businesses.

Of course this pissed off the American military so guns went blazing, and when word spread back at camp that Black soldiers had been s.hot, scores of men formed a crowd, some carrying rifles and by midnight more American military police arrived with a machine gun-equipped vehicle, so the Black soldiers had no choice but to get rifles from British stores while others barricaded themselves back on base, so now it was American w.hite soldiers versus American Black soldiers. Several soldiers d.ied including 17 Black American soldiers.

Back in A.merica the battle was hushed up because they didn’t want the country to find out that they were fighting their own soldiers which would anger the black population and weaken the moral in the country.

Source: https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/events-global-african-history/the-riot-of-bamber-bridge-1943/

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