You’ll find a full list of Windrush Day 2022 events and activities around the UK on Black History Month’s website at www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/listings/ – bringing together community celebrations, music, poetry, prose, comedy, history and more, alongside thought-provoking events like a Windrush Awareness Workshop and Black Ancestry Masterclass.
Black History Month UK Magazine is the central point of focus for Black History, Arts and Culture in the UK and helps to lead the nationwide celebration of Black History Month and Windrush Day.
The Windrush Generation and their descendants have celebrated Windrush Day long before it became a national day in 2018, but since then, the 22 June has become an important opportunity for the whole of the UK to recognise the ongoing contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants to Britain. It is also an opportunity to keep fighting for justice and a better future.
Windrush Day was launched by the government in 2018 as an annual national celebration of the Windrush Generation, in the wake of the Windrush Scandal, which has seen members of the Windrush Generation unfairly detained, deported and denied NHS healthcare and state benefits.
The date, 22 June, was chosen as it marked the 70th anniversary of the SS Empire Windrush’s arrival at Tilbury Docks – the ship that brought the first of the pioneering Windrush Generation to the UK in 1948.
Windrush Day 2022 will shine a light on the continuing injustice experienced by many members of the Windrush Generation.
A recent report by an independent unnamed historian has found that institutional racism at the Home Office caused the Windrush scandal, with UK immigration laws from 1950 to 1981 purposely designed to “reduce the number of black or brown people.” The Home Office is refusing to make the report public, despite the fact they commissioned it following the official independent review of the Windrush Scandal in 2018.
The report aimed to educate Home Office staff in Britain’s colonial history, the history of migration and the history of Black Britons, to improve Home Office policy in the future. It is also an important part of acknowledging what happened to the Windrush Generation and their descendants, and learning lessons for the future, which is why we are calling on the Home Office and the government to publish the report and make it public.
Catherine Ross, Editor of Black History Month UK, who moved to the UK with her family from St Kitts in the 1950s, said:
“It’s important that we look back and celebrate the incredible impact of the Windrush Generation on 22 June, but part of honouring their legacy is to look forward and celebrate the lives of everyone in the diaspora and the different generations of Windrush descendants.
“Our shared stories and experiences are just as important now, as they have been in the decades since 1948. There’s still a long, long way to go, but Windrush Day is an important opportunity to show that Black History is part of British History and should be cherished and celebrated by all.
“As the report into the reasons behind the Windrush Scandal shows, understanding history plays a key role in tackling institutional racism, and we all continue to make history today.”
What are you doing to mark Windrush Day?
For a full list of Windrush Day events and activities around the UK throughout June visit www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/listings/
To find out more call Catherine Ross on 07469 189550 or email editor@blackhistorymonth.org.uk