A LEADING Midlands activist will be among the distinguished voices that feature on a new podcast sharing untold stories from the so-called Windrush Generation.

Wolverhampton-born Patrick Vernon OBE is among those speaking on the two-part podcast documentary series, Generation Windrush, hosted and produced by Jaja Muhammad.

The podcast takes a look into the fate and feelings of the Windrush Generation, then and now.

Fellow guest contributors will be historian/ author Colin Grant and retired midwife Allyson Williams MBE who also share their insights, stories and reflections on what can be learned from the so-called Windrush Generation, the impact of losing their identity and the systems that played their part in the subsequent scandal.

Activist

Vernon is a social commentator and political activist of Jamaican heritage and was the leading campaigner behind the call for a national Windrush Day for a decade.

He played a key role in campaigning for the Windrush Generation in helping to expose the scandal with over 180,000 people signing his petition for an amnesty for the children of the Windrush Generation in 2018.

Vernon also launched the Windrush Justice Fund with JCWI to support grass roots and community organisations help victims resolve their legal status and claim government compensation scheme.

Grant was born and raised in Luton to Jamaican parents. In his book Homecoming, he collected nearly 200 voices from the Windrush Generation to tell their essential life stories through first-hand interviews and testimonies.

He is also a Associate Fellow in the Centre for Caribbean Studies, and teaches creative non-fiction writing, for Arvon and Sierra Nevada College.

Williams, MBE, is originally from Trinidad and moved to Britain in the 1969, serving in the National Health Service for 35 years.

She received recognition for her services to the midwifery profession in London. Her late husband Vernon ‘Fellows’ Williams was a founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1964.

In 1948, the merchant vessel Windrush docked at Tilbury, Essex carrying almost 500 Caribbean men and women.

Responded

This heralded the arrival of thousands of men and women from the British West Indies to Britain. They had all responded to the call of the ‘Mother Country’ to help rebuild what was left of the nation, after the devastation of the Second World War.

In spring 2018 the Windrush Scandal broke, detailing the scores of Caribbean people, many who had contributed to rebuilding of UK’s infrastructure and public services, who were to be or had been deported from the country they called home.

Last month, the Windrush Lessons Learned Review found that the Home Office had “institutionally failed” the Windrush Generation.

The Generation Windrush podcast series will be available on www.broccolicontent.com and other podcast providers.