Where to Start with Big Questions
- Elma Glasgow
- Apr 19
- 5 min read
Before we get stuck into the what, where, why, and most importantly who, we’d like to introduce ourselves.
Izzy Keith has a background in collections management and building relationships with communities. A highlight of her career was collaborating with MARVEL Studios to bring costumes from their Black Panther film to Ipswich for the award-winning Power of Stories project in 2021, when she worked at Ipswich Museums. Izzy studied social archaeology at University of Southampton.
Elle Root’s work focuses on working with historically excluded and underserved communities to make the cultural sector more welcoming and relevant to more people. She’s particularly proud of her award-winning work bringing creative joy to Jobcentres - how many people can say they’re responsible for bringing a petting zoo to Ipswich Jobcentre? Elle studied early modern history at the University of Essex.
You can read a bit more about us on the Team page of this website - https://www.blackusaf.org/team
We met Elma Glasgow, the Black USAF project lead, during our shared work on the Power of Stories project at Ipswich Museums and we were keen to support Black USAF knowing how poorly represented Black histories are within the heritage sector.
We plan to share what we’ve uncovered researching the cultural impact of Black USAF personnel in East Anglia during the Cold War through a series of blog posts but wanted to share the process, thoughts, concerns, and biases that we’ve experienced through this research as a preface and to provide context.
It’s important to note that we’re both white women and British, never having lived or stayed in America for an extended period of time. This has shaped our lives and experiences in ways of which we are both aware and unaware and means we’re coming at this research question without lived experience that we know can provide a vital bedrock of context and understanding. We are deeply grateful for the support of Black colleagues and peers who supported and shaped the approach we took to our research.
We welcome questions and criticism of the approach we’ve undertaken and know that our lack of cultural knowledge has likely led to misguided decisions. If you have thoughts and feedback, please email us at projectblackusaf@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
We shaped our research questions as follows: “What was the cultural impact of Black USAF personnel on East Anglia during the Cold War?” Phew. Big question. Like good researchers, we followed this with a small existential crisis about what the word ‘culture’ means. Answers on a postcard, please.
We have used the word ‘Black’ in the question rather than, for example, African American, as we felt this term offered the broadest inclusion of the range of Black Americans rather than just those who identified as of African heritage. You can read more about the terms we’ve used in the language guide on this website - https://www.blackusaf.org/post/glossary
We started by conducting a web search of broad terms we thought might throw up useful articles, websites, and books, and emailing people who might be able to point us in the right direction.
The results were disheartening - whilst some research had been undertaken it was more often than not about the impact of Black American servicemen during World War II who were stationed in East Anglia. Whilst their presence in England would have paved the way for Black American culture to come to East Anglia in the 1950s onwards, it’s not what this project was exploring.
After this, we contacted many East Anglian museums who replied to express their support for the project and help spreading the word via their social media accounts, but regretfully replied that this part of our heritage wasn’t yet represented in their collections. As previous museum employees, we have empathy for their situation - museums were created to further white European supremacist narratives and stories of Black heritage have been intentionally excluded for much, if not all, of their existence. Whilst many museums are working to unpick this past and collect diverse stories this vital work will take decades to make significant inroads.
It’s worth noting that the US airbase historians that we contacted were legally prohibited from supporting this project due to the current American administration.
The main issue that we have found ourselves running into with this project is how do we know if the impact we’re seeing is specifically due to Black USAF personnel in East Anglia? Whilst Black USAF personnel were absolutely contributing to the general cultural milieu of American tastes travelling to Britain, how do we identify an event or cultural shift as undoubtedly the influence of Black USAF personnel?
For example, Geno Washington played gigs around East Anglia during the 1960s, he was a Black USAF Airmen, and his music is described as ‘Soul’ which is music of Black origin. Geno absolutely fits our definition of a Black USAF personnel having a cultural impact on East Anglia during the Cold War, and if you haven’t yet, we encourage you to listen to his warm, humorous and informative interview - https://www.blackusaf.org/genowashington.
However, what if a Black USAF service member was travelling as part of the USAF European Band, playing a range of music from a range of cultures - does that count as cultural impact? On the flipside, soul food is rooted in African American culture but enjoyed by diverse groups. So if a white member of USAF personnel was cooking and sharing soul food with East Anglian friends, does this count?
As white British women, deciding what ‘counts’ as Black culture is not for us to do, so we have opted to include everything that felt related to the research question when searching through books and archives.
We were often concerned that this research was forcing us into using stereotypes of Black American culture to try and find relevant information, and this limits and undermines our work. This meant that the terms we were using to search through archives limit Black culture to headlines of music, food and sports, and we did not have the expertise or scope to explore every aspect of Black culture - indeed, no project does.
We had by far the most success proving the tangible cultural impact of Black USAF personnel when looking at music given the popularity of bands which were led by, or included, Black USAF personnel. This is because we were more able to find records of performances, look at photos, and check names. We are grateful to Kingsley Harris for his vital work in this area and recommend his book The Anglian Beat to anyone wishing to further explore.
We’ve listed the bibliography/webography that we’ve used to inform this research below, and know that this only represents skimming the surface of what’s out there.
If you have stories to share - with an emphasis on music - we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch - https://www.blackusaf.org/contact
Bibliography
Harris, Kingsley (2023) The Anglian Beat: An Account of East Anglian Bands of 50s & 60s - Vol 1 (HannaH Publications)
Page, Anya (2023) ‘We Prepare The Way: From Eglin Field to Eschborn: The Story of the 923rd Engineer Aviation Regiment during the Second World War’ (Suffolk Archives)
Spinks, Christopher Kenneth (2018) ‘Hand Clappin' Foot Stompin' Funky-Butt ...Live! “Growing up with the sound of Rhythm and Blues, and Soul and their impact upon Norwich 1963 -1968"’ (dissertation)
Comments