I am one of the many volunteers who support the Colour of Love Project.
I just want to say a few words about why I got involved.
The story of my parents differs little from many of my peers in this group, in that they, too, encountered resistance and unjust treatment, from all sources. Sadly my parents are no longer here and they were unable to participate directly in the project. However, in the past they contributed to several media programmes on subjects related to inter-racial relationships.
My Dad was born in Jamaica and was one of the many young West Indians who joined the RAF in Jamaica in 1944, to support the war effort. He came to the UK that year on the SS Cuba. My Mum was originally from Yorkshire but moved with her family when she was very young to a town on the Nottinghamshire border. My Mum and Dad met at a local dance hall, fell in love and later married in 1949. They were together for over 60 years. I feel they would agree to me sharing some of their story and, despite their not being here.
I have some idea of what they experienced. I discovered photographs and letters from my father to his sister in the US describing his life in the UK, and these covered 60 years from the 1940s up to the ‘noughties’. He discussed his favourite topics, politics, organisations he had helped to set up to support the local diaspora of West Indians who now called the UK ‘home’. More importantly, he talked about us and his family and how very important my Mum was, in the background, supporting him with different community projects he was involved with I’ve included their wedding photo in this exhibition – a photograph which wouldn’t have existed if inter-racial relationships weren’t such a rarity in the 1940s. It was taken, I understand, by a photographer who worked for a local media outlet. He’d heard that huge crowds had gathered outside the Registry Office because someone had seen a white woman and a black man going inside. When my parents emerged, they were met by crowds of people, just staring in silence. My Dad said, and I quote ‘I thought they were going to lynch me.’ But there was no violence, no shouting or ‘disturbance of the peace’. It still must have been very intimidating for both of them and their guests.
I couldn’t help but contrast the scene at their wedding to that of my nephew’s, almost 70 years later, whose bride was, like my Mum, white. There were no crowds who came to stare and the word ‘lynch’ was, I’m sure, not in my nephew’s mind.
So, why is this project important to me?
We have come a long way from that wedding in 1949, but I’m in no doubt that there are still pockets of society where mixed race relationships are still met with some hostility. However, I feel it’s important that current and future generations, who now might view inter-racial relationships as nothing unusual, are made aware that it wasn’t always like this.
To remember the courage of my parents and others like them who were pioneers, risk takers, and who were prepared to love who they wanted to, despite the opposition and daily struggles they faced.
This project allows those couples who followed, to document their own stories and to ensure that those stories are heard.
Cheryl Nae
Project Volunteer
