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Lifestyle
Nicholas Boston, Associate Professor of Media Sociology, Lehman College, CUNY

Ivor Cummings: the forgotten gay mentor of the Windrush generation

Windrush Caribbean

The most familiar version of the story of the Windrush generation excludes LGBTQ+ people. It describes how (presumed) heterosexual men from the Caribbean, seeking economic opportunity, arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush and later spawned – literally and figuratively – the generation of black Britons to follow.

But, that narrative leaves out an important figure: Ivor Gustavus Cummings. His influence and dedication made him the true spawner of the Windrush generation. And Cummings was an openly gay man.

Whitehall was informed of the imminent arrival of several hundred settlers aboard the Empire Windrush via a telegram from the governor of Jamaica, 13 days before the ship set sail.

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