“It’s a sense of pride that there was no bigotry towards (the soldiers),” said Valerie Fell, who was just 2 in 1943 but whose family ran Ye Olde Hob Inn, the 400-year-old thatched-roof pub where the conflict started. The community has chosen to focus on its stand against segregation as it commemorates the 80th anniversary of what’s now known as the Battle of Bamber Bridge and America reassesses its past treatment of Black men and women in the armed forces. When Crossland’s niece learned about the circumstances of her uncle’s death, she called for a new investigation to uncover how he died. Private William Crossland was killed and dozens of soldiers from the truck regiment faced court martial. Ignoring pressure from British and American authorities, pubs welcomed the GIs, local women chatted and danced with them, and English soldiers drank alongside men they saw as allies in the war.īut simmering tensions between Black soldiers and white military police exploded on June 24, 1943, when a dispute outside a pub escalated into a night of gunfire. When an all-Black truck regiment was stationed there, residents refused to accept the segregation ingrained in the U.S. BAMBER BRIDGE, England (AP) - The village of Bamber Bridge in northwestern England is proud of the blow it struck against racism in the U.S.
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