Witness History: Black history - The Empire Windrush arrives

The Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in England on 22 June 1948 with 802 people on board from the Caribbean.

The former passenger liner's arrival on that misty June day is now regarded as the symbolic starting point of a wave of Caribbean migration between 1948 and 1971 known as the "Windrush generation".

Sam King was one of the passengers.

He describes to Alan Johnston the conditions on board and the concerns people had about finding jobs in England.

In this programme first broadcast in 2011, Sam also talks about what life was like in their adopted country once they arrived.

(Photo: Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in 1948. Credit: Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)

Published on Thursday, 22nd June 2023.

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