East Staffordshire Borough Council is to offer its highest award possible to its local Windrush generation and its lineage, to mark both the 75th Windrush anniversary and National Windrush Day on 22 June. Preparations are underway to offer Freedom of Borough Status to local Windrush generation residents and the Afro-Caribbean community on Monday 2 October, kick-starting Black History Month celebrations.
Some of the Borough’s most prominent black community and sporting figures will gather with councillors, civic dignitaries and local members of the Windrush community and its lineage, so that they can receive the Freedom of the Borough Status.
This will be the 20th time the award has been granted since 1912; and only the 6th time in the last 25 years.
At an extraordinary meeting of East Staffordshire Borough Council, invitees will gather in the Main Hall of Burton Town Hall to hear and discuss stories of the Borough’s Windrush generation and its exceptional contribution to life in Burton upon Trent and beyond. The event will also be webcast with friends and family Zooming into the meeting from various Caribbean countries.
It is hoped this first–of-its-kind celebration will attract national interest from the wider Windrush community as well as from both TV and Radio.