¹ Newry Journal, 2 Aug. 2005, available at www.newryjournal.co.uk/content/view/888/39, accessed 2 July 2011. The Orange Order is the larger and better known Loyal Order.

² There have been several good studies of the Americans in Northern Ireland during the war, but none deal with race in detail. The most interesting is McCormick's, Leanne “ ‘One Yank and They're Off’: Interaction between U.S. Troops and Northern Irish Women, 1942–1945,” Journal of the History of Sexuality, 15, 2 (May 2006), 228–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other useful sources include Carroll, Francis M., “United States Armed Forces in Northern Ireland during World War II,” New Hibernia Review, 12, 2 (Summer 2008), 15–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Barton, Brian, The Blitz: Belfast in the War Years (Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1989Google Scholar). Longmate's, NormanThe GI's: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (London: Hutchinson, 1975Google Scholar), includes a good chapter entitled “The Yanks in Ireland.”

³ Blake, J. W., Northern Ireland in the Second World War, new edn (Belfast: Blackstaff Press Ltd, 2000), 289Google Scholar.

⁴ John Campbell states that black sailors were not uncommon in pre-war Belfast. Campbell, to author, 3 Jan. 2012. Campbell is now a noted author.

⁵ Smith, Graham, When Jim Crow Met John Bull: Black American Soldiers in World War II Britain (London: Tauris, 1987), 61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ For violence between civilians and African Americans elsewhere in the UK see, for example, Regional Commissioner's Report, Region 10 (North Eastern), Feb. and March 1943, FO371/34124, National Archives (NA).

⁷ E. Gilfillan (RUC) to Secretary, Home Affairs, 5 Nov. 1944, HA/8/593, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). The implication from the police report was that the locals initiated the fracas.

⁸ Col. W. M. Lanagan, to Crawford McCullagh, 25 May 1943, LA/7/3A/115: Crawford McCullagh, PRONI.

⁹ Lord Mayor's Secretary to Lanagan, 27 May 1943, ibid.

¹⁰ John Campbell email to the author, 2 Jan. 2012.

¹¹ Oxford English Dictionary. A report lauding the the Tamlaght Niggers, a minstrel show, is an example of the casual racism in Northern Ireland, and the UK more generally, at the time. Fermanagh Times, 16 March 1944.

¹² New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary; Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1966.

¹³ For British exposure to scientific racism see Rose, Sonya O., Which People's War? National Identity and Citizenship in Wartime Britain, 1939–1945 (Oxford and London: Oxford University Press, 2003), 263–65Google Scholar; and Schaffer, Gavin, “Fighting Racism: Black Soldiers and Workers in Britain during the Second World War,” Immigrants and Minorities, 28, 2–3 (July–Nov. 2010), 142–61, 256Google Scholar.

¹⁴ For example, Stormont routinely discriminated against the Catholic minority in jobs and housing, Catholics and Protestants attended separate schools, housing was segregated and sectarian tensions often exploded into violence, with particularly serious rioting in Belfast during the early 1920s when Northern Ireland came into existence.

¹⁵ Schaffer, 250; Rose, 258. For further discussion of these debates see Smith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull, chapter 3; Reynolds, David, Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942–1945 (London: Phoenix Press, 2000), 216–37Google Scholar; and Longmate, The GI's, 117–28.

¹⁶ Allison J. Gough, “Messing up Another Country's Customs: The Exportation of American Racism during World War II,” World History Connected (Oct. 2007), available at www.historycooperative.org/journals/whc/5.1/gough.html, accessed 11 Jan. 2011.

¹⁷ Reynolds, at 193, however, notes that Stormont had a good deal of control over what was submitted to the MOI nationally.

¹⁸ Lambkin, Romie, My Time in the War: An Irishwoman's Diary (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1992), 42Google Scholar. The Ulster Hall was Belfast's main concert venue and would have hosted dances during the war.

¹⁹ Robert Fawcett, email to the author, 19 June 2009. Eamon McHale, whose grandmother owned a café in Omagh, says of the town, “I was told that they [black troops] were not allowed to mix with other troops in places like my granny's, the Rix Café, Nardone's, the one ballroom in the town, the Star, or in any of the two cinemas.” Eamon McHale to the author, Feb. 2011.

²⁰ People's Voice, 26 Sept. 1942.

²¹ Schaffer, 251–52.

²² Isobel Kennedy to Eleanor Roosevelt (ER), 10 Sept. 1942, RG107/ASW/McCloy/Box35, File ASW291.2 Negro Troops, 1942, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). ER hoped that white southerners could be educated on the matter. ER to Kennedy, 22 Sept. 1942, ibid. Underlining in original.

²³ ER wrote to the Secretary of State: “the young Southerners were very indignant to find that the Negro soldiers were not looked upon with terror by the girls in England and Ireland and Scotland.” ER to Secretary of State, 22 Sept. 1942, ibid. ER visited Northern Ireland in Nov. 1942, without meeting black troops.

²⁴ Campbell to author, 17 June 2009.

²⁵ Ibid., 18 June 2009. Campbell also recalls a woman being badly beaten by a black soldier.

²⁶ Ibid., 17 June 2009. This was Campbell's first encounter with African American troops. Ibid., 3 Jan. 2012.

²⁷ Robert Fawcett, email to author, 19 June 2009. Wynn reports similarly positive experiences in Bedminster, near Bristol. Wynn, Neil, “‘Race War’: Black American GIs and West Indians in Britain During the Second World War,” Immigrants and Minorities, 24, 3 (Nov. 2006), 324–46, 328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁸ Sam McAughtry, telephone interview, 22 June 2009. McAughtry served in the RAF during the war and has written a number of books about Belfast.

²⁹ See Dehra Parker, “Black and White” problem, 13 Dec. 1943, and Parker to Sir Robert Gransden, 3 Jan. 1944, CAB9CD/225/19, PRONI. Parker's reports and the attitude of the Northern Ireland government will be discussed in an article to appear in Historical Research in 2013. Similar attitudes were apparent elsewhere in the UK, with “Catholic” substituted for “working class.” See Rose, Sonya O., “Sex, Citizenship and the Nation in World War II Britain,” American Historical Review, 103, 4 (Oct. 1998), 1147–76, 1166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁰ “Great Britain” War Dept, Washington, DC, CAB9CD/225/1. See also Pocket Guide.

³¹ For de Valera's protest see Belfast Telegraph (BT), 28 Jan. 1942. For MacRory's protest see Newsletter, 28 Sept. 1942.

³² For attacks on US personnel see Buhrman to the Embassy, 8 Sept. 1942, RG84/CF/42/800, NARA. See also “Off-Limits Premises,” 6 Feb. 1942, CAB/9/CD/225/6, PRONI; and Reynolds, Rich Relations, 119.

³³ Bardon, Jonathan, A History of Ulster (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1992), 582Google Scholar.

³⁴ Pittsburgh Courier, 14 Feb. 1942.

³⁵ Many African American veterans, including Robert F. Williams and Medgar Evers, would become involved in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s; this movement, in turn, at least superficially inspired Northern Ireland's own civil rights movement of the mid- to late 1960s; Bob Purdie, for example, urges caution in the use of this analogy. Purdie, Bob, Politics in the Streets: The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1990)Google Scholar. For the role of veterans in civil rights see Parker, Christopher, Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Fight against White Supremacy in the Post-war South (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁶ Rose, Which People's War? 78.

³⁷ Ibid., 252. For attitudes to women dating Americans see Barton, The Blitz, 277. Campbell states that local men would get into fights with African American soldiers “on a daily basis.” Campbell to author, 3 Jan. 2012.

³⁸ Smith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull, 135.

³⁹ Down Recorder, 20 June 1942. Most black troops were in service roles as US generals did not trust them in combat.

⁴⁰ Mid-Ulster Mail, 25 July 1942.

⁴¹ Dungannon Observer, 25 July 1942.

⁴² Reports about violence, drunkenness and criminal damage by American forces did appear; reports of sex crimes, however, did not.

⁴³ For stories of this kind see Rose, “Sex, Citizenship and the Nation in World War II Britain,” 1151; and Rose, Which People's War?, 253.

⁴⁴ BT, 31 July 1942. Even the venerable New York Times quoted black soldiers in dialect. New York Times, 29 July 1942.

⁴⁵ BT, 31 July 1942. The Telegraph acknowledged that this part of the story was lifted from Life, 15 June 1942.

⁴⁶ BT, 5 Oct. 1942.

⁴⁷ Ibid.

⁴⁸ Ibid. Moves to station black members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAACs) in the UK in the summer of 1942 were abandoned due a perception that they were being sent to provide companionship for African American troops, which was viewed as insulting and patronizing to the WAACs. “WAAC's not Entertainers for Troops,” Baltimore Afro-American, 5 Sept. 1942. Some African American Women's Army Corp (WAC) units were eventually sent to England and some black nurses to Scotland late in the war. Amsterdam News, 26 Aug. 1944. No black female personnel were stationed in Northern Ireland. For the experience of African American WACs see Moore, Brenda L., To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race (New York and London: New York University Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ BT, 12 Oct. 1942.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Mid-Ulster Mail, 27 July 1942.

⁵² Pittsburgh Courier, 14 Feb. 1942.

⁵³ See Amsterdam News, “MacArthur Saves Five from Gallows,” 3 June 1944; Atlanta Daily World, “Jim Crow Flies Abroad,” 4 Oct. 1942; Pittsburgh Courier, “Color Bar Grows in Britain,” 26 Sept. 1942.

⁵⁴ Washington Tribune, 17 Oct. 1942. I will be dealing with Davis's report and the Antrim murder in detail in an article to appear in Historical Research in 2013.

⁵⁵ Amsterdam News, 8 Aug. 1942. See also Pittsburgh Courier, 29 Aug. 1942; and Chicago Defender, 8 Aug. 1942.

⁵⁶ The US military newspaper Stars and Stripes published a Northern Ireland edition, but it rarely featured African Americans or bad behaviour by GIs generally. See Stars and Stripes, 20 March 1944, 8 Feb. 1944, 4, and 15 May 1944.

⁵⁷ Morale Rpts (colored troops) 16–31 Aug. and 1–15 Sept. 1942, cited in Smith, When Jim Crow Met John Bull, 135. For similar quotations see McCormick, “One Yank and They're Off,” 244.

⁵⁸ “Morale Report (ColoredTroops) September 1–15, 1942,” NARA, RG498, File 291.2, Cited in Gough, “Messing up Another Country's Customs.”

⁵⁹ Extracts from letter from Base Censor Office No. 1, APO 813, US Army, Subject: Special Report (Negro Troops, Mar 1–15, 1944), RG498/HQETOUSA/HD/AF, Box 43, File 218, NARA.

⁶⁰ “Bangor, County Down to Gillingham, Kent 17.2.43.” Postal Censorship Report No. 38, 8 April 1943, FO371/34124, United States, File no 33, pps 1925–2651; A3468/33/45: “United States Troops in Northern Ireland,” NA.

⁶¹ A correspondent from Belfast reported in late 1943, “I hear that there are already one or two coloured kids in the town already.” Censorship Report No. 79, 11–25 Nov. 1943, 27, FO371/34126, NA. Estimates for the number of “brown babies” born in the UK vary dramatically, but the most realistic figure is about 550. Smith, 208. Around 600 children were born to American fathers in Northern Ireland during the war. Carroll, “United States Armed Forces in Northern Ireland during World War II,” 35. There is, however, no available record of those born in Northern Ireland of mixed race.

⁶² Schaffer, “Fighting Racism,” 253.

⁶³ Anonymous letter, 1942, CAB9CD/225/19, PRONI. It seems that most of the friction from the British population came from the working classes. Gough.

⁶⁴ Morale Report (Colored Troops), 1–15 Sept. 1942, RG498, File 291.2, NARA. Cited in Gough.

⁶⁵ Smith, 140.

⁶⁶ “A Negro Corporal” to Roland Hayes, n.d., quoted in Roland Hayes to Eleanor Roosevelt, 8 Nov. 1943, RG498/HQETOUSA/AG/GC, Box 32, File 291.2 – Race, NARA. Cited in Gough. Hayes, an internationally acclaimed African American tenor, had his own bitter experiences in America's caste system. Chicago Defender, 8 Aug. 1942. For segregation and morale see Gough.

⁶⁷ Capt. Susie Thurman to Col. Ganoe, 29 April 1944, “Negro Morale Report, 16–31 March 1944,” RG498/HQETOUSA/HD/AF, Box 43, File 218, NARA.

⁶⁸ Harold L. Stark to Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, 1 July 1942, cited in Reynolds, Rich Relations, 219.

⁶⁹ Rose, “Sex, Citizenship and the Nation in World War II Britain,” 1159, argues that interracial sex was regarded as a “as a kind of sexual perversion.”

⁷⁰ Smith, 140.

⁷¹ Longmate, The GI's, 63.

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ Extracts from letter from Base Censor Office No. 1, APO 813, US Army, Subject: Special Report (Negro Troops, Mar 1–15, 1944), RG498/HQETOUSA/HD/AF, Box 43, File 218, NARA.

⁷⁴ Ibid.

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷⁶ Smith, 198.

⁷⁷ Army Mail Censorship Report, No. 48, 12–26 April 1942. Cited in McCormick, “One Yank and They're Off.”

⁷⁸ Army Mail Censorship Report, 26 June–10 Aug. 1942, cited in McCormick, original emphasis. A number of black veterans were lynched after the war. Two couples, including George Dorsey, a decorated veteran of the Pacific and North Africa, were lynched in Georgia in the summer of 1946. Isaac Woodward, still in uniform, was blinded by police officers in South Carolina, while Corporal John C. Jones was “forced to endure a horrible death” in Louisiana. For further details of these attacks see Dray, Philip, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (New York: Modern Library, 2003), 369–76 and 378–83Google Scholar. See also White, Walter, A Man Called White: The Autobiography of Walter White (New York: Viking Press, 1948, reprinted as a Brown Thrasher Book, 1995), 322–28Google Scholar; and Zangrando, Robert, The NAACP Crusade against Lynching, 1909–1950 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980), 173–77Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ Smith, 140.

⁸⁰ General Devers to Commanding General, SOS, ETOUSA, 25 Oct. 1943, RG498/HQETOUSA/HD/AF, Box 43, File 218, NARA.

⁸¹ Memorandum, 4 Sept. 1942, from the Home Office to the Chief Constable, forwarded by Freer to Gransden, 5 Sept. 1942, ibid.

⁸² Meeting of Representatives of Hospitality Committees, Officers’ Club, Belfast, 25 Oct. 1943, CAB9CD/225/19, PRONI.

⁸³ After Martin's murder, Buhrman reported ruefully, “This is the fourth court martial of American soldiers in Northern Ireland for the murder of British subjects. This apparent lack of discipline … is creating a bad impression in this country.” Buhrman to Secretary of State, 21 Oct. 1942, RG84/CF/1942/823, NARA.

⁸⁴ Harrison, executed in 1945, has been referred to as black on a number of websites. No reference to his race is made in newspaper reports; moreover, he served with a white unit and was described by the Dungannon Observer, 11 Nov. 1944, as a “sandy-haired man.” My thanks to Pat Grimes for alerting me to this. Pat Grimes, email to the author, 3 Feb. 2011.

⁸⁵ After Clenaghan's murder, the police reported, “Considerable resentment … has now subsided owing to the vigorous action taken by the American authorities.” Gilfillan to Gransden, 10 Oct. 1942, CAB//9CD/225/18. Gilfillan made similar comments following the Wylie murder. Ibid., 6 Oct. 1944.

⁸⁶ The NAACP noted that 74.1% of 108 death sentences (and a third of life sentences) were carried out on African Americans. The figures, considering that approximately 10% of military personnel were black, tell their own damning story. Memorandum from Franklin H. Williams to Mr. White et al., 14 May 1946, NAACP Papers, Series 9, Reel 24, frame 1170.

⁸⁷ Court Martial Record of Trial of Private Wiley Harris, JR., 6924547, 626th Ordinance Ammunition Co., 10.

⁸⁸ Ibid.

⁸⁹ Ibid.

⁹⁰ Ibid.; see also Review of the Staff Judge Advocate, the United States v. Wiley Harris, Jr., by Captain H. R. Stadfield, JADG, Assistant Judge Advocate, 8 April 1944, 3.

⁹¹ Summary of Evidence in case of Harris, Wiley Jr., Expected Testimony, 2.

⁹² Ibid.

⁹³ Irish News (IN), 18 March 1944.

⁹⁴ On the day after the murder, for example, the Belfast Telegraph's sub-headline read: “Negro Soldiers Held.” BT, 7 March 1944. This was the only mention of race in a headline. Only one Irish News headline noted Harris's race. IN, 18 March 1944.

⁹⁵ Summary of Evidence in case of Harris, Wiley Jr., Statement by the Accused, 10 March 1944, 1.

⁹⁶ Northern Whig, 18 March 1944.

⁹⁷ IN, 18 March 1944.

⁹⁸ BT, 17 March 1944. The fact that Megaw was a prostitute, Coogan essentially a pimp and Harris willing to pay for sex were never made explicit.

⁹⁹ Record of Trial Proper, 17 March 1944. Cross examination of Eileen Megaw by 1st Lt. Dewitt D. Irwin Jr., Counsel for the Defense.

¹⁰⁰ Robert Lilly, J. and Michael Thomson, J., ‘Executing US Soldiers in England, World War II,’ British Journal of Criminology, 37, 2 (Spring 1997), 262–88, 265CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰¹ IN, 22 March 1944.

¹⁰² Ibid. The American Review Board pointedly disagreed with the coroner's findings. Review of the Staff Judge Advocate, the United States v. Wiley Harris, jr, by Colonel C. Robert Bard, JADG, 23 March 1944, 5.

¹⁰³ BT, 21 March, 1944. The Irish News did not mention the Coroner's view of Coogan's conduct.

¹⁰⁴ See, for example, telegram from Crawford McCullagh, the Lord Mayor of Belfast, to the Commanding General, US Troops, Northern Ireland, 25 May 1944, LA/7/3A/120, PRONI. The story reached the New York Times, 26 May 1944, 6.

¹⁰⁵ IN, 10 March 1944.

¹⁰⁶ S. S. Hopkins to Gransden, 5 May 1944, CAB/9/CD/225/18, PRONI. This would confirm John Campbell's assessment of relations between locals and black troops. Campbell to author, 17 June 2009.

¹⁰⁷ The Irish News reports the same organizations as the unionist press demanding clemency, confirming the ambivalence of Irish nationalists.

¹⁰⁸ Cabinet Meeting, 25 May 1944, CAB4/585, PRONI.

¹⁰⁹ “A Loyal and Law-Abiding Citizen” to Brooke, 25 May 1944, CAB9CD/225/2, PRONI.

¹¹⁰ Ibid. See also James Simmons to PM, 24 May 1944, ibid.

¹¹¹ See, for example, Gransden to R. Morrow, Belfast and District Trades' Union Council, 25 May 1944, ibid.

¹¹² IN, 27 May 1944. The place of execution, Shepton Mallet Prison in Somerset, was not disclosed.

¹¹³ General John C. H. Lee to the Duke of Abercorn, 10 June 1944, CAB9CD/225/2, PRONI. The Governor General was the monarch's representative in Northern Ireland.

¹¹⁴ See, for example, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 10 July 1943 and 4 Oct. 1943, cited in Rose, “Sex, Citizenship and the Nation in World War II Britain,” 1158.

¹¹⁵ Gardiner, Janet, Wartime Britain, 1939–1945 (London: Headline Book Publishing, 2004), 485Google Scholar.

¹¹⁶ Although one of the “whitest” parts of the UK, and largely untouched by Commonwealth immigration, Northern Ireland has grappled with racism. See, for example, Paul Connelly and Michaela Keenan, “Racial Attitudes and Prejudice in Northern Ireland,” Report published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, 2001.

¹¹⁷ Kelly, Mary Pat, Proudly We Served: The Men of the USS Mason (Annapolis, MD: Bluejacket Books, Naval Institute Press, 1995), 92Google Scholar. For similar quotations see ibid., 90–94.