Channel 4 has been branded a ‘disgrace’ over a new documentary suggesting Winston Churchill oversaw a ‘secret apartheid’ system in Britain.
Churchill: Britain’s Secret Apartheid aired on Saturday night, exploring the lives of American soldiers in the UK during the Second World War.
In the documentary, novelist Nadifa Mohamed delves into the lives of black GI soldiers stationed in the UK – and the conundrum facing ministers of how to deal with the US army’s segregation rules that came with them.
Historians have since slammed the show, claiming that its title shows a ‘disregard for historical accuracy’ due to the implication that the wartime Prime Minister oversaw a system of segregation.
Baron Roberts of Belgravia, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny, told the Telegraph: ‘It’s a total disgrace to give a headline to a show that is in direct contravention to the facts.
Novelist Nadifa Mohamed presents Churchill: Britain’s Secret Apartheid. Pictured with Nancy Adkins, whose uncle was killed during violence in Lancashire during the war
‘The person who chose the headline either knew that [it was false] and was being deliberately dishonest, or did not and was just assuming that Churchill must have been racist in this matter because that’s what the liberal zeitgeist says he would have been.
‘For Channel 4 to have chosen a novelist rather than an historian to present the show is just another example of their sneering disregard for historical accuracy.’
Mr Roberts noted that Churchill in a 1942 war cabinet meeting had concluded the US army would not be assisted in ‘enforcing a policy of segregation’.
He added on X/Twitter: ‘He chaired the War Cabinet meeting of 13 October 1942 that concluded about the US Army: “They must not expect our authorities, civil or military, to assist them in enforcing a policy of segregation.
‘It was clear that, so far as concerned admission to canteens, public houses, theatres, cinemas, and so forth, there would, and must, be no restriction of the facilities hitherto extended to coloured persons as a result of the arrival of United States troops in this country.”
‘Ie Churchill took the exact opposite stance to that implied by Channel 4, who chose a novelist to present the programme rather than an historian.’
Mohamed, author of The Fortune Men, does consult historians throughout the programme, as she travels the country to ‘uncover a secret history about Britain and race’.
The show itself, produced by Red Bicycle, explores the lives of black American GIs during their time in the UK, with little reference to Churchill himself.
It is not the first case of Churchill has been controversially linked to colonialism, racism and slavery
Black American GIs were stationed in Britain during the war – and the programme tells their story
Historians have since slammed the show, claiming that its title shows a ‘disregard for historical accuracy’
Andrew Roberts, historian and writer, poses during Cliveden Literary Festival 2021 at Cliveden House
Mohamed says, in an introduction to the programme: ‘There was a side to our ally that is uncomfortable to remember. The Nazis believed in white supremacy. So did many Americans.’
She adds: ‘Now, in 1942, along with chewing gym, nylons, and the jitterbug, the US army was bringing its Jim Crow racial policy to Britain, whether we liked it or not.’
During the show, she dives into the personal stories of black GIs, including Private William Crossland, who was shot at Bamber Bridge in Lancashire, and another who was shot in the back in Tiger Bay in Cardiff.
Since the rise in prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the former Prime Minister has been controversially linked to colonialism, racism and slavery.
In August, it was revealed a portrait of Churchill was to be hung alongside context of his links to ‘racism, slavery and colonialism’ after an artwork review by Tory-led Hertfordshire County Council.
The depiction of the wartime prime minister – painted in 1967 as a replica of a 1943 print – will remain in view at County Hall, in Hertford, as it awaits a suitable explanation of the ties, the Telegraph reported.
The National Trust faced backlash in 2021 when an audit of their properties resulted in information displays at Chartwell, his former home in Kent, noting that the politician served as Colonies Secretary in the 1920s and had opposed independence for India.
Mohamed does consult historians throughout the programme, as she travels the country to ‘uncover a secret history about Britain and race’
The statue of Churchill in Parliament Square, which has been vandalised on multiple occasions
Churchill’s reputation has come under increased scrutiny in the past years, particularly since the rise in prominence of Black Lives Matter
Though Churchill is regarded as one of the UK’s greatest Prime Ministers ever for his World War II triumph, many views and actions which would now be regarded as racist have drawn criticism, especially since the Black Lives Matter movement became more prominent in 2020.
Before WWII, in 1937, he said he had no sympathy for Native Americans or black people in Australia, who were enslaved and succeeded by white colonisers.
Churchill said: ‘I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.’
He took little action in 1943 when a famine in India, then still part of the British empire, killed three million. The prime minister of the day even appeared to blame Indians for the food shortage, claiming they ‘breed like rabbits’.
The famine was sparked by the Japanese occupation of Burma a year earlier, which affected rice supplies.
Earlier in his political career, Churchill advocated the use of chemical weapons against ‘uncivilised’ Kurds and Afghans.
In a 1919 war memo he wrote: ‘I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.’
A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: ‘There is clear evidence in War Cabinet papers that Churchill’s Government discussed this issue at length and chose not to object to the American Army‘s operation and enforcement of segregation of their black and white soldiers on British soil.
‘What is remarkable is that time and time again the British public chose to stand up for black soldiers against white GI aggression.’
FEMAIL has also contacted Red Bicycle for comment.
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