Celebrating 75 years of the modern Black community
Next year, 2023, will be a significant milestone for Reach Society and for the Black community itself. It will mark the 75th year of the modern Black community, which began its historic journey in 1948 when new immigration legislation in the UK made it possible for people in the British Commonwealth to come to the UK to work and settle. They provided the manpower needed to help the UK to recover quickly from the severe damage inflicted by Nazi Germany during the second World War.
The year 2023 marks a period of three generations in which young people in the Black community today have grown from childhood into adulthood. For example, many of the leaders of Reach Society were children when their parents arrived in the UK; we now refer to the adult migrants as the Windrush generation. And over the last seven and half decades the vast majority of that generation has passed. Their children, like some of Reach Society’s leaders today, are in their late 50s and mid 60s and they are either retired or will be soon.
The year 2023 marks another milestone in the story of the Black community in the UK. Like all significant moments, it should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. Reach Society, like the many other organisations, will be celebrating this historic moment. One focus for our celebrations will be the National Windrush Monument, which was unveiled this year on the 22 June in Waterloo station. As we all know, it is the government’s tribute to the Windrush generation and their descendants for our contributions to the UK since 1948. Put simply, it is the government’s tribute to all of us in the modern Black community – past, present and future – for our ongoing contributions to the UK, which has also become our home.
To Reach Society, the National Windrush Monument will forever be regarded as a symbol of two things: enterprise and courage. It is the spirit of enterprise that drove the Windrush generation to make use of the opportunities that opened up in the UK back in 1948. And it is the spirit of courage that drove that generation to overcome the obstacles that were placed in their way when they arrived in the UK.
Members of the Black community are fully aware that these essential qualities are being applied by each generation today. At this moment in time, in 2022, we see a picture of a community in which there are large and increasing numbers of achievers and contributors in virtually every aspect of UK life, such as in the Houses of Parliament; in all parts of the public sector and academia; in the private sector; as entrepreneurs; and as leaders and volunteers in the third sector. Without doubt today’s picture is very different from the one at the start of the Windrush generation of new migrants whose priorities were no more than to seek work, seek shelter and to help their children to join them.
The year 2023 will be the 75th anniversary of a modern Black community that has made the UK its home over the last three generations. In that time it has grown to a population of more than 3 million. At Reach Society we believe that the modern Black community has the critical mass and the mindset to distinguish itself for several more generations in the UK.
Dr Dwain Neil OBE, Chairman, Reach Society