Windrush Month 2024 'Celebrating the Caribbean pioneers of the 1940s & 1950s' - exploring the lives and stories of the the early Caribbean people who came to Britain after the 2WW.
As Windrush Day approaches, let us reflect on the immense achievements and inspiring stories of the early and pioneering Windrush generation of the 1940s and 1950s, who paved the way for all POC immigrants who followed in their footsteps. One such significant figure is David Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead, who committed his life to medicine and politics while battling vehemently against racism and discrimination.
Pitt was born in St David’s Parish, Grenada in 1913. He first visited the UK as a Grenada representative at the World Scout Jamboree in Northern England in 1929, when he was only 15. At his secondary school, the Grenada Boys Secondary School, where he won the Island Scholarship in 1932, and returned to the UK to study medicine at the University of Scotland. It was here that he developed his political perspectives and was an active member of the Edinburgh University Socialist Society.
Edinburgh was in the grips of the Depression when Pitt arrived. He witnessed the poverty of the working classes in the slums of Edinburgh and saw similarities to the poverty of the rural communities in Grenada. It profoundly shaped his worldview and he said it made him a socialist.
Nicholas Rea, in the British Medical Journal, summarised Pitt’s political development: “It was in the slums of Edinburgh as much as in the Caribbean that [Lord David Pitt] became convinced of the links between poverty, disadvantage, and ill health”. For Lord Pitt, access to medical support was inseparable from social and political factors – a view he maintained throughout his life.
In 1936, David Pitt joined the Labour Party, and as a member of the University of Edinburgh Socialist Society, became the First Junior President of the Students’ Representative Council, the co-founding body of what is now the Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA). He participated in Edinburgh University and UK national politics, both of which helped shape his views on Caribbean independence and politics.
In 1938 Pitt graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (ChB) and moved back to the Caribbean to begin his medical career. His first job was as a District Medical Officer in Saint Vincent, followed two years later by a position in Trinidad as a house physician at San Fernando Hospital. By the end of 1941, he had set up his own General Practice (GP) in San Fernando and was elected to serve on the local town council until 1947.
The 1940s were fundamental years for politics in Trinidad and Tobago. The 2WW had ended and the countries of the Caribbean wanted their independence and the right to rule their nation’s affairs. Pitt joined the struggle and in 1943, he co-founded and was the leader of the West Indian National Party (WINP) – a socialist party whose main aim was to deliver political autonomy across the Caribbean. He believed “the whole of the Caribbean, not just any one island, [to be] his home and his political responsibility.” Under Pitt, the party demanded self-government for Trinidad and Tobago, constitutional reform, and the nationalisation of commodities industries such as oil and sugar.
After decades of campaigning, to which Pitt contributed, Trinidad and Tobago were granted universal adult suffrage by the British Parliament in 1945. The following year, Trinidad and Tobago held its first public election. Pitt ran as a candidate for the United Front, made up of the WNIP and others, but was unsuccessful. Caribbean politicians and voters, unlike British Caribbean ones, did not uniformly envision a Federation of independent states like David Pitt’s party and many of the region’s trade unionists and intellectuals. (1)
Nonetheless, Pitt did not give up on his political activism and “in 1947 led a group of WINP members to Britain to lobby the Clement Attlee Government for Commonwealth status for a Federation of the West Indies.” Finally disillusioned with the trajectory of mainstream Caribbean politics, David Pitt ended up settling in North London, England, in November 1947 with his wife Dorothy Elaine Alleyne, whom he had married in 1943, and their children Bruce, Phyllis, and Amanda. (1)
After working as a medical assistant in Chiswick, London, to a Black doctor from Barbados who introduced him to the challenges of practicing as a medic of African descent, in 1950 David Pitt opened his surgery in Euston which treated both black and white patients. Through his medical practice, he made the political contacts that led him to a renewed involvement with the Labour Party.
Because the Second World War had created a workforce shortage in the United Kingdom, the British government encouraged people from its former colonies to come and work there. The British Nationality Act of 1948 allowed persons from the then-British Empire to become citizens and live in the United Kingdom. Many West Indians were drawn to what was thought of as the motherland in quest of better opportunities. As a result, African-Caribbean immigration to Britain increased, and because the British government lacked a formal integration policy for these newcomers, many were met with hostility from the local population, in the form of racial abuse and discrimination in housing, employment, and social activities. Groups like Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement and other far-right groups such as the White Defence League, fuelled tensions by using flyers and wall graffiti to promote a message to keep Britain white (KBW). This resulted in an increase in violent attacks on Black people (men and women), particularly during the summer of 1958, known as the Notting Hill Race Riots of 1958.
After delivering a brilliant speech at the 1957 Labour Party Conference, he was asked to run as a Labour Party candidate for the north London constituency of Hampstead in the 1959 General Election. He was the first person of African-Caribbean descent to stand as an MP. Right-wing media outlets accused him of not deserving the candidacy, merely justifiable for The Daily Mirror as an act of “fashionable liberalism” (i.e. political correctness in today’s language) (Arnold, 2014). This was, however, only the tip of the iceberg. But this was only the tip of the iceberg.
The extent of the racist discrimination David Pitt faced as a parliamentary candidate in 1959 general election reached dramatically higher levels. Over the course of the 1959 election, Oswald Mosley, a 1930s Member of Parliament known for founding and leading the British Union of Fascists, waged an aggressive campaign against Pitt, the first Black parliamentary candidate in Britain (Granger, 2007). Mosley supporters disrupted Pitt’s political hustings and heckled him with their slogan of ‘Keep Britain White.’ Fights broke out and Pitt was forced to seek police support after death threats and a barrage of abusive “go home N***r” phone calls were made to his home.
Mosley was standing for the London constituency of Kensington North and based his campaign on anti-immigration propaganda, calling for the immediate repatriation of Caribbean immigrants. David Pitt and his family became the target of death threats and anti-Black marches organised on Hampstead. The violence culminated in the firebombing of 200 Gower Street, which at the time housed the anti-apartheid and Caribbean independence movements, students of Africa House, and David and his wife Dorothy’s surgery (Arnold, 2014). (1)
Pitt believed that Parliament was the best route to achieve social change. He went toe to toe with Oswald Mosley and the “White Defence League” in 1950s Notting Hill, demanding that legislation be made to make “incitement to racial hatred illegal”. He espoused radical solutions to avert tensions – such as police forces recruiting more black officers.
He lost his seat to a Tory opponent, but his political career was far from done. Two years later, in 1961, he was elected to the London County Council (LCC), which was later replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC). He represented Hackney and became the GLC's first Black chairman in 1971.
After experiencing mistreatment during the 1959 general election, Pitt co-founded the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in 1964. He believed that change should often come from within the system, understanding that different situations required different approaches. In UK politics, he felt a peaceful, diplomatic strategy was necessary to address racist barriers, unlike the tactics needed in apartheid South Africa. (1)
However, after meeting Martin Luther King in December 1964, Pitt realized he could take more direct action to help Black and minority ethnic communities in the UK. In January 1965, he co-founded and chaired the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), which united the efforts of various groups, including the Federation of Pakistani Organisations, the Indian Workers Association, and the West Indian Standing Committee. (1)
Pitt’s second attempt to be elected as an MP came in 1970, when he was the Labour Party candidate for Clapham. This time around he decided to stick to “conventional Labour issues” such as poor transport and the health service. Fears of bloodshed were soon quashed as the Conservative candidate opted to avoid the issue of race and the National Front devoted its energy to other seats. The Times newspaper was confident that “his record lends support to the idea that he is being accepted in Clapham as a Labour man rather than a black man.” (2)
But this time, Pitt had to contend with the rhetoric of the then-Tory MP Enoch Powell, who dominated headlines with his call for a "halt to immigration." His divisive views gained traction in Clapham, with The Guardian newspaper reporting that a worker from Battersea power station claimed 65% of his colleagues "agree with Mr. Powell," adding, "Having fought for England, I think it should be a white man who does this job." Labour’s Tribune shared stories of activists facing chants of "Enoch, Enoch, Enoch" and noted that Labour voters were not turning up. (2)
Although Clapham was regarded as a safe Labour seat, Pitt faced a substantial 10.2% swing against him, more than doubling the rates recorded in surrounding areas and the national average. Labour's vote share fell by 11%, and the Conservatives won the seat. Racism was once again a major factor in his electoral failure.
Pitt went to the BBC election night studio, where Robin Day asked if he thought his defeat was due to racial prejudice. He responded amicably, suggesting that it was mainly because “people hadn’t had the chance to get to know me.” Later, he wrote, “Race played only a small part in my defeat, and it would be a disservice to the community to think otherwise.”(2)
Labour activists were less convinced. In the days after the election, the South London Press uncovered a leaflet sent to “electors with coloured families as neighbors” by an unknown protest group. The leaflet read, “If you want a coloured for a neighbour, vote Labour. If you’re already burdened with one, vote Conservative,” and urged support for the Tories to modernize the “Ministry of Repatriation.” (2)
The source of the leaflet and its impact on the campaign remain unclear. Ultimately, Labour decided not to investigate further, with Pitt insisting it was not an official Conservative leaflet. Many suspected it was linked to the National Front, but a spokesperson denied this, saying, “Our name is always proudly printed on our propaganda.” (2)
The loss meant that Pitt never stood in another general election.
In 1975, Prime Minister Harold Wilson recommended Pitt's appointment to the House of Lords as a life peer. He was officially made Baron Pitt of Hampstead, of Hampstead in Greater London and Hampstead in Grenada, on February 3, 1975, becoming the second peer of African-Caribbean heritage after Sir Learie Constantine. As a member of the House of Lords, he was instrumental in advocating for the Race Relations Act 1976 and was vocal on topics like immigration policy. During a debate on June 24, 1976, he remarked:
"...it is a myth, that the fewer the numbers [of black immigrants] the better the quality of race relations. That is a myth, and it is a myth that has inspired the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act, the Immigration White Paper of August 1965 and the Immigration Acts of 1968 and 1971. It is designed to placate the racialists, but it is a fallacy; for to the racialist or the anti-semite the only acceptable number is nought. The proof of what I am saying can be seen in the fact that the National Front admit that their major support lies in areas near to but not in areas of high coloured concentration. The reason for that is that ignorance leads to fear. Thus, when a person fears that his next door neighbour will in future be coloured he wants immigration stopped. However, you will find that the least hostility to coloured people is found among the whites who live next to, shop with, travel with, work with and play with coloured persons." (4)
Lord Pitt died in 1994. In his obituary, his friend Joan Lestor said that Pitt was described as a Black radical for suggesting that more ethnic minorities apply to become police officers; this, ironically, enraged many in the Black community who believed that the police were institutionally racist. Pitt is cited as saying: "Some Black people consider me an Uncle Tom, while some whites consider me a Black Power revolutionary. So, I think I got it about correct."
Pitt was never elected as an MP. But he had a successful career as chair of the GLC, president of the British Medical Association, and as Lord Pitt of Hampstead, but his name is now virtually forgotten. Instead, the names of Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott, and Paul Boateng - who achieved the historic electoral feat of becoming the first Black MPs seventeen years later – will live on over time.
As we commemorate Windrush Day and reflect on the stories of resilience and achievement within the Windrush generation, let us not forget the individuals like David Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead, whose contributions have significantly impacted the fabric of British society. Their stories deserve to be celebrated and remembered as we strive for a more inclusive and diverse future.
Sources:
Fifty years on: the battle to elect Britain’s first black MP | Anthony Broxton | The Critic Magazine (2)
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OpktAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1JwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4767,4023938&dq=david-pitt&hl=en (5)
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