ABSTRACT
In 2018, museums and libraries across Britain celebrated the 70th anniversary of the first Windrush migrants. However, in this year the Windrush scandal broke and exposed the implications of Theresa May's ‘hostile environment’. Invisible borders had been threaded through British society, turning institutions of all kinds into border posts and denying British citizens of the Windrush generation the rights to work, healthcare and shelter. This chapter argues that museums, as autonomous institutions with a professional ethical commitment to truth, play a critical role in sustaining a knowledge-based democracy. This chapter explores in detail the events and consequences of the Windrush scandal and the institutional racism politicians claimed it manifested. It lays the foundation for thinking about how museums can contribute to a state that knows and remembers well.
