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Though black communities have existed in the British Isles for centuries, after the First and Second World Wars when people started to settle in higher numbers, a new, distinctly Black British generation emerged. This was accelerated by the introduction of the British Nationality Act in 1948, which granted British citizenship to those residing in previously Commonwealth nations – including Caribbean island-nations. At around the same time, the United States, which until the 1950s had been the natural outlet for Caribbean migration, instituted the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, limiting the amount of people who were allowed to move to the US from each Caribbean territory. This flow of people was reverted from the US to the UK, laying the foundation for the strong British Afro-Caribbean communities we have today.RECIPE: Guinness PunchThough not the first, arguably the most famous of the many transatlantic voyages to Britain was the Empire Windrush of June 1948. Costing £24 for a one-way ticket (in today's money, around £700), it arrived into Tilbury Docks carrying 492 passengers to a frenzy of front page newspaper headlines. Many were from Jamaica but a small number came from other Caribbean islands, tempted by advertised employment opportunities in Britain. Other vessels followed, bringing highly skilled workers – mainly younger men – who took up employment in London and in the towns and cities across England's industrial heartland. By the 1960s, the British Afro-Caribbean population had ballooned from a few thousand to nearly a quarter of a million.Read more on Munchies.
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