Description
Windrush and the Black Pentecostal Church in Britain is a series of tales, recollections, and personal anecdotes in which I tell the story of the early Caribbean Christians who came to Britain in the 1950s and 60s. I give a glimpse of what life was like for them and in telling this story I draw on many years of experience as a first-generation Windrush child. Much of what I write about I personally saw including the difficulties many West Indians faced in finding somewhere to live, the difficulties of settling in, the weather, loneliness, keeping the faith and how as Christians they started their churches. I also explain the music they came with and show how it was
used in their worship, how it was a sustaining force and what happened to it when it came into contact with the songs of the Billy Graham Crusades, the music of Jim Reeves, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and later on, the effect that Edwin Hawkins and ‘Oh Happy Day’ had on it.
