A new book explores stories of African American soldiers in Dorset during Second World War A new book which explores stories of the African American GIs who came to Dorset to train for D-Day is now available to buy online. The book, entitled 1944 We Were Here: African American GIs in Dorset is part of a project run by Development Education in Dorset (DEED) in partnership with Walford Mill Crafts and the Priest House museum. It was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and JP Morgan. An exhibition containing some of the material included in the book was successfully launched last May at Walford Mill Crafts. The exhibition has been touring different venues in Dorset and has had a positive reception from the people who have seen it.
The aim of the project was to gather stories about the black servicemen’s time in Dorset to share with the community. It was also to celebrate their presence here, as well as their contribution to World War II, which has historically been largely ignored.
Louisa Adjoa Parker, a local writer and poet who is of British and Ghanaian heritage, carried out the research into this fascinating part of local history, which has been little explored so far. Louisa specialises in local black history and has written several books and exhibitions exploring the presence of black and minority ethnic people in Dorset including Dorset s Hidden Histories and All Different, All Dorset. She published her collection of poetry Salt-sweat and Tears in 2007, and co-edited the collection of local people’s prose and images Dorset Voices in 2012.
8,000 Black GIs Here
Louisa says, This local history has not been explored in great detail until recently, and is arguably an important part of Dorset’s heritage. It is highly likely that this is the only time in history that Dorset has had a large African Caribbean population. When other people from this ethnic background were here, including today, there would have been much smaller numbers. It is estimated that there were around 8,000 black GIs here in this period.
It was important to gather the stories now, as the GIs children and the local people who remembered the GIs are getting older. The African Americans presence here left behind a lasting legacy – cultural influences; memories and stories that have been passed down in families and become part of local folklore; and a number of their children as a result of relationships with local women. The book is a collection of stories about the young men, as told through the eyes of the local people who remember them, and the GIs descendants. There are first and second-hand accounts of local people, who were children at the time, seeing and spending time with the African American men.
The US Army, who were camped and billeted all over Dorset’s villages, towns and countryside, brought with it the segregation and racial prejudice that was part of the fabric of American society at that time. Local people, however, were generally welcoming to the black GIs, in spite of the fact that for the majority, this would have been the first time they had seen a black person.
Love, Friendship and Fear
This moving book tells stories of fights between the black and white soldiers, often over the fact that local girls were keen to spend time with the black men; murders that went unpunished; love; friendship; and the children the GIs left behind, most of whom never got to meet their fathers. For some, the fact of children being born not only out of wedlock but to a black father, remains a taboo subject seven decades later. Many of these men would have been killed on the beaches in France, and their last happy memories might have been of Dorset’s hills and landscape, and the local people who made them feel welcome.
To buy the book please visit: http://www.lulu.com/shop/louisa-adjoa-parker/1944-we-were-here-african-american-gis-in-dorset/paperback/product-21131792.html
We Were Here exhibition
The 1944 We Were Here exhibition which has recently been shown at the new Dorchester Library and Learning Centre, is available to book at a reduced cost until the end of October. To book the exhibition for your venue or for further information please contact DEED:
Email: info@deed.org.uk or Tel: 01202 875411 If you would like to book a talk on Dorset s black history, poetry readings or creative writing workshops please contact Louisa: louisaparker3@hotmail.com
