'I just wanted to be white'

'I just wanted to be white'

Up next

Civil rights swim-in

On 18 June 1964, black and white protesters jumped into a ‘whites only’ swimming pool at a motel in St Augustine, in Florida.Photos of the Monson Motor Lodge manager, James Brock, pouring cleaning acid into the pool to get them out, made global headlines.The following day, the Ci ...  Show more

Charleston church shooting

On 17 June 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof attended a bible group at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States. As it was ending, the 21-year-old started shooting and killed nine people.Polly Sheppard was one of the survivo ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

'I just wanted to be white'
Witness History

In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, thousands of children were born to white German women and black American soldiers who were stationed in Allied-occupied Germany. The mixed-race infants were viewed with contempt by many Germans and endured constant abuse and racism. Bl ...  Show more

Being black in Nazi Germany
Witness History

Theodor Wonja Michael was a child when Hitler came to power in Germany. The son of a German mother and a Cameroonian father he faced discrimination and danger under Nazi rule. He has been speaking to Caroline Wyatt about how working as a film actor helped him to survive World War ...  Show more

Britain's World War Two 'Brown Babies'
Witness History

During World War Two, tens of thousands of African-American US servicemen passed through the UK as part of the war effort. The black GIs stationed in Britain were forced by the American military to abide by the racial segregation laws that applied in the deep south of the US. But ...  Show more

BONUS: Black GIs and their "Brown Babies"
Bad Women Presents Stolen Sister

Unlike white GIs, it was made virtually impossible for African-American servicemen to marry the women they met and fell in love with in the UK during World War Two. If these couples had children, those so-called "Brown Babies" were stigmatized and scorned - with many ending up in ...  Show more