Black USAF Cultural Impact in Suffolk

Dizzy Gillespie On Jazz At The Maltings/David Redfern/Getty Images #blackhistoryculturecollection

Content warning: This article quotes outdated language from newspaper articles. To read our glossary, which includes an explanation of these terms, click here.

Of East Anglia’s counties, research into Suffolk reaped the richest source materials for tracing the impact of Black USAF personnel, particularly those stationed at Mildenhall and Lakenheath airbases. We experienced the most success in finding information about the cultural impact of USAF personnel in the British Newspaper Archives and the oral history recordings gathered for this project. The team at Suffolk Records Office were tremendously supportive of our research and ran searches for the project, which unfortunately didn’t reap much by way of useful material. 

Black USAF personnel were members of many bands and groups, which toured Suffolk throughout the Cold War. Their prevalence and impact can particularly be seen in Geno Washington and Charles Challenger’s recordings. Some of the popular bands that toured Suffolk include Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, The Continentals (lead vocalist was Black US Airmen Milton Ingram), and The Soul Committee (lead vocalist was Black US Airmen Andrew Fitzpatrick), and their names cropped up again and again whilst searching the British Newspaper Archive. Further information on these bands can be found in Kingsley Harris’s book The Anglian Beat: An Account of East Anglian Bands of 50s & 60s - Vol 1 (HannaH Publications)

Performances can be seen taking place across Suffolk, including towns like Haverhill, Felixstowe, and Lowestoft, and in a huge range of venues. Venue names that repeatedly occur in the British Newspaper Archive and oral histories are Cindy’s (Ipswich), Manor Ballroom (Ipswich), Carlton Ballroom (Newmarket), The Baths (Ipswich), Bigmore Hall (Haverhill), and Pier Pavillion (Felixstowe).

There are several newspaper articles about The Charlene Peyton Singers performing in churches in Suffolk. Charlene Peyton is described as the “coloured American gospel and blues singer” (p10, Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 12 June 1969) and wife of a Sergeant stationed at Lakenheath, with singers joining from Lakenheath and Mildenhall airbases (p3, Haverhill Echo, 17 September 1970).

An article in the Bury Free Press on 4 November 1988 lists groups playing in a fundraiser for the Ipswich Caribbean Association and includes Prophets of the Stage, describing them as a five piece American rap group based at USAF Bentwaters. Further searches using the British Newspaper Archive didn’t show results for any further performances by the group so we weren’t able to trace where else they might have performed . 

In 1988, Keith Floyd visited Mildenhall airbase where he recorded a segment for his television cooking show, where USAF personnel served him southern fried chicken, black-eyed peas, cornbread and okra (p1, Cambridge Daily News, 21 October 1988). The chef in the article’s accompanying photograph is Susan Luck, a white woman, and an additional chef named in the article is Gail Waller, from Tennessee/Alabama, isn’t photographed so we are unsure of her heritage. However, the menu is undoubtedly celebrating African American soul food and is a part of Black USAF personnel’s cultural impact. 

Although it is hard to make out the meaning with any certainty, we found an article for a hairdresser who describes herself as having worked “exclusively on the Lakenheath USAF base” and having “a wide knowledge of many types of hair” (p13, Bury Free Press, 24 August 1979). Whilst we’re not able to confirm, it is possible that she was referencing the styling hair of Black USAF personnel at Lakenheath by saying this.

If you grew up in Suffolk and were influenced by Black USAF personnel, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to get in touch and share your story with us.