ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the city where the study takes place, Birmingham. As the second largest city in the UK, with the largest mixed population outside of London, of which Mixed White and Black Caribbean people form a substantial part, I suggest that it provides a unique city-lens through which to study Black mixed-race identities in Britain. The chapter presents a comprehensive overview of Black (mixed-race) histories in the city. It begins by tracing Birmingham’s historical place as an industrial powerhouse during the height of the British Empire, highlighting its role as a global city of national significance that pre-dates the well-known post-1945 story of mass immigration to the city. Reflecting on the local post-war politics of racism, resistance, and ‘race relations’ in housing, I identify the social and political forces which shaped where the possibilities for racial mixing in Birmingham have occurred and highlight the city’s role in shaping national conversations about race and immigration. In the second half I foreground the spatial locations of Black mixed-race people and their families during the 1960s–1980s, to add to, and complicate, existing understandings about Black histories of migration, settlement, and community in Birmingham and contextualise contemporary demographics of mixedness in the city.
