What was behind the Bristol bus boycott ?
Fifty years have passed since campaigners overturned a ban on ethnic minorities working on Bristol's buses. Today the boycott is largely forgotten - but it was a milestone in achieving equality.
A spring afternoon in 1963. Eighteen-year-old Guy Bailey arrived on time for his job interview. Bailey was well qualified for the post, but he would not be taken on. Because he was black.
He strolled up to the front desk. He told the receptionist why he was there. She looked up at him. "I don't think so," she said.
Bailey thought she must be mistaken. "The name is Mr Bailey," he told her.
The receptionist stood and went to the manager's office. Bailey heard her call through his door: "Your two o'clock appointment is here, and he's black."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23795655
I'm astounded to learn this. Was this so anywhere else in the country outside of London ? I say London because I've no recollection of London Transport doing this in the '50s at the time of the assisted passage scheme from the Caribbean. Many of those immigrants went to work for LT, British Rail the GPO and hospitals that being the background to the assisted passage scheme - labour shortage.