The little-known story of how US segregation was allowed on British soil during the second world war is to be explored in a new Channel 4 documentary.
Churchill: Britain’s Secret Apartheid marks the second commission for Paul Berczeller’s Red Bicycle. The one-hour film delves into the dilemma faced by Winston Churchill as Britain fought alongside the US to defeat Hitler. As the American military arrived on British shores with the ‘Jim Crow’ racial discrimination system, Churchill had to balance condoning racial segregation on British soil while at the same time claiming to fight for freedom and equality.
The doc reveals how Churchill’s government turned a blind eye to this injustice. This allowed US military segregation to take root, from racial conflicts between black and white American GIs to efforts to suppress these events from the British public. The film uncovers the lengths the British government went to in order to preserve its alliance with the US, at a devastating cost to its moral standing.
The doc will feature previously classified documents, court records and family archives to reveal a series of violent conflicts between segregated troops in Britain, as well looking at as how British civilians largely rejected the US’ extreme segregationist policy. It will also feature first hand accounts from the descendents of Black GIs and British locals, including telling how the latter defied the segregation laws.
Churchill: Britain’s Secret Apartheid will be presented by Nadifa Mohamed, who also fronted Red Bicycle’s previous C4 commission Britain’s Human Zoos. The film will be co-produced with GroupM Motion Entertainment through its Diverse Indies Fund with C4. It was commissioned for C4 by Emily Shields, commissioning editor for specialist factual and will be produced by Yasmin Hai, directed by Berczeller and exec produced by GroupM’s Deep Sehgal. Sphere Abacus will handle international sales.
Shields said: “This film is a vital re-examination of the myths we tell ourselves about Britain’s role in WWII. By shining a light on this history, we’re not only exposing the uncomfortable truths about our past but also reflecting on how these dynamics echo in the present.”
Berczeller said: “Working with Channel 4 and Nadifa Mohamed again to give voices to people in the past who have been forgotten and overlooked has been a real privilege. It feels like we know what happened during WWII having seen it in so many dramas and documentaries, but the more our research dug up these forgotten stories, the more we wanted to tell them.”
