{"id":58117,"date":"2019-05-20T19:32:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T19:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=58117"},"modified":"2019-05-22T15:04:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:04:28","slug":"interracial-relationships-and-the-brown-baby-question-black-gis-white-british-women-and-their-mixed-race-offspring-in-world-war-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=58117","title":{"rendered":"Interracial Relationships and the \u201cBrown Baby Question\u201d: Black GIs, White British Women, and Their Mixed-Race Offspring in World War II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interracial Relationships and the \u201cBrown Baby Question\u201d: Black GIs, White British Women, and Their Mixed-Race Offspring in World War IIInterracial Relationships and the \u201cBrown Baby Question\u201d: Black GIs, White British Women, and Their Mixed-Race Offspring in World War II<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Journal of the History of Sexuality<\/a>
\nVolume 26, Number 3, September 2017<\/a>
\npages 424-453<\/p>\n

Lucy Bland<\/strong><\/a>, Professor of Social and Cultural History
\nAnglia Ruskin University, Cambridge<\/em><\/p>\n

Sergeant Lomax, an African American soldier, arrived back in Ohio at the end of the Second World War<\/a>; he had been stationed in England<\/a> for much of his time away. He had a confession to make to his wife, Betty. In February 1949 she recounted their exchange to the Pittsburgh Courier<\/em>, a leading black American newspaper: \u201cHe said: \u2018I\u2019ve been gone a long time . . . about three years . . . that\u2019s a long time for a fellow to be away from his wife. In the meantime I met a girl. She was nice, she was friendly, and Betty, I was very lonesome, so . . . what I\u2019m trying to say is that there\u2019s to be a child. Betty, you don\u2019t have to answer right away, but would you agree to take this child?\u2019\u201d1<\/sup> The boy had been born in December 1945 and was given the same name as his father: Leon Lomax. He was put into a children\u2019s home in Britain by his single mother. With great difficulty, Leon senior eventually managed to have his son flown out to the United States<\/a>, arriving in January 1949. The Pittsburgh Courier<\/em> called his arrival \u201cthe story of the year! . . . The first \u2018Brown Baby<\/a>\u2019 adopted by an American couple to reach America.\u201d2<\/sup> \u201cBrown babies\u201d was the name that the African American press of the time gave to mixed-race children born to black American soldiers and British and European women (the vast majority of whom were white) during or soon after the Second World War.3<\/sup> One African American paper, the Chicago Defender<\/em>, sometimes also referred to them as \u201ctan-yank babies.\u201d4<\/sup> To the Pittsburgh Courier<\/em> \u201cthe entire \u2018Brown Baby\u2019 question is one of the most controversial subjects in this country today. It is a question that involves two great nations\u2014the United States of America and Great Britain<\/a>.\u201d5<\/sup> The nature of this \u201ccontroversial subject\u201d\u2014the \u201c\u2018Brown Baby\u2019 question\u201d\u2014is the focus of this article.<\/p>\n

The British \u201cbrown babies\u201d were the result of relationships formed between British women and African American troops stationed in Britain from 1942 in preparation for an invasion of France<\/a>. From the beginning there was concern in official circles about the consequences of the presence of black GIs<\/a>. Home Secretary Herbert Morrison<\/a>, for example, was anxious that \u201cthe procreation of half-caste children\u201d would create \u201ca difficult social problem.\u201d6<\/sup> He and others in the War Cabinet would have preferred that no black GIs be sent at all. However, black troops did indeed arrive, following the Pentagon<\/a>\u2019s policy that the percentage of black American troops in every theater of war should reflect their percentage in the United States as a whole, namely, 10 percent of the population.7<\/sup> By the end of the war, of the nearly three million US soldiers who had passed through Britain, up to three hundred thousand were African American.8<\/sup><\/p>\n

Unlike the British government, British civilians largely reacted positively to the presence of black GIs. A report from the Home Intelligence Unit<\/a> (an organization set up in 1940 to monitor morale) noted the numerous references to \u201cthe extremely pleasing manners of the coloured troops.\u201d9<\/sup> Many may have agreed with the response of a West Country<\/a> farmer when asked about the GIs: \u201cI love the Americans, but I don\u2019t like these white ones they\u2019ve brought with them.\u201d10<\/sup> Historian Graham Smith suggests that one of the reasons the black GIs were seen as better mannered was that while the white GIs constantly complained about Britain\u2019s lack of modern conveniences\u2014no refrigerators, no central heating, few cars\u2014most of the black GIs were not used to such luxuries at home and thus did not have reason to find fault.11<\/sup> However, British attitudes were frequently condescending and informed by negative stereotypes. For example, the June 1943 Home Intelligence report \u201cBritish Public Feeling about America,\u201d which drew together some of the remarks people had made over the past year and a half, noted (without…<\/p>\n

Read or purchase the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interracial Relationships and the \u201cBrown Baby Question\u201d: Black GIs, White British Women, and Their Mixed-Race Offspring in World War IIInterracial Relationships and the \u201cBrown Baby Question\u201d: Black GIs, White British Women, and Their Mixed-Race Offspring in World War II Journal of the History of Sexuality Volume 26, Number 3, September 2017 pages 424-453 Lucy Bland, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,8,4481,10,20,25],"tags":[8844,3470],"class_list":["post-58117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-media-archive","category-social-work","category-uk","category-usa","category-women","tag-journal-of-the-history-of-sexuality","tag-lucy-bland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58137,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58117\/revisions\/58137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}