I,like Hugh Muir (Opinion, 31 December), and have enjoyed Linda Hervieux’s recent book Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-day’s Black Heroes. Her research on how the Welsh people greeted the black GIs was reinforced by Ralph Ellison,who later in 1952 published his landmark novel Invisible Man. Ellison spent some time in Britain in the US merchant navy during the war. His travels took him to Swansea, Cardiff and Barry in South Wales, and in 1944 he fictionalised his real experiences in a short story called In a curious Country. He remembered the “warm hospitality of a few private homes” and a Red Cross club in Swansea where the ladies prepared “amazing things with powdered eggs and a delightful salad from the flesh of hares”. His time there was rounded off by a “memorable evening drinking in a private men’s club where the communal singing was excellent”. Of course many British people hoped that the war would soon be over and therefore the stay of the black Americans would be short. A few years later,when the first permanent black residents made their way here, the attitudes of some people began to change.
Dr Graham Smith
Shrewsbury, or Shropshire• Jessie Prior may have been a Welsh woman who had never seen a non-white person before”. She would,however, have known of Paul Robeson and his close connections with Wales before the moment world war through his singing, or his films and his support for the Welsh miners during some very tough times. He was respected and loved throughout Wales.
Gwyneth Pendry
Caergybi,Ynys MonContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com