ABSTRACT
In many of the standard texts on the history of race relations in modern Britain, the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948 is seen as a symbol of the escalation of West Indian immigration and of ‘race problems’. However, by detailed analysis of official records and local studies, it can be shown that the process whereby ‘race’ became a major political issue was a more uneven and complex one than the standard historiography often suggests. There was an ambiguity of attitudes, national and local, not strong enough to challenge the mainstream of racism, but sufficient to create a far more involved debate about the ultimate significance of the Empire Windrush’s voyage.
