Racism

Opposition to racism included organised protest. In Lewisham in 1977, around 500 National Front members marched through an area with established minority communities. About 4,000 opponents assembled to confront them.

Britain needed migrant workers, yet people recruited to hospitals or transport services could still encounter racism when looking for accommodation. Experiences also varied between groups and over time: neither a story of uninterrupted hostility nor one of steady acceptance explains the whole period.

Arguments about housing shortages, employment and public services became intertwined with racism. Some officials treated non-white immigration as a threat to British society, rather than judging migrants as individuals. This made immigration a debate about national identity as well as numbers: who was regarded as British, and whose presence was considered acceptable?

In Bristol, Princess Campbell became one of the city's first Black ward sisters, illustrating migrants' contribution to the NHS as well as their efforts to challenge racism within it.