Culture And Memory

The Forgotten Generations: Lest We Forget- Commemorating the public service of black RAF veterans from the West Midlands

Black servicemen and women have served in the Royal Air Force since it was founded in 1918. Their contribution has been valuable, consistent and essential even when the prejudice against them was institutional and deliberately offensive. This project seeks to tell the stories of those men and women from the Second World War to the present. Through interviews and research we will produce films, an exhibition and digital resources to save their individual stories and share them with others now and for posterity. This project will be aimed specifically at the communities of the West Midlands, but the important online component of the project will have a wide-reaching educational heritage legacy for across the UK and beyond. It will achieve recognition for those who have served, inspire existing generations, preserve stories and items of material culture and educate all communities of this heritage.