Asquith Xavier

Asquith Xavier

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Asquith Camile Xavier was a West Indian-born Briton who ended a colour bar at British Railways in London by fighting to become the first non-white train guard at Euston railway station in 1966. Trevor Phillips, when chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said in 2006: "Asquith's stand against discrimination brought to light the inadequacy of early race discrimination laws and persistent widespread discrimination faced by ethnic minorities." A plaque at the station commemorates his achievement. Xavier was born on 18 July 1920 in Dominica, which was then a British colony. He was a member of the Windrush generation of British African-Caribbean people who migrated to the United Kingdom after the second world war to fill vacancies in service industries. Xavier joined British Railways. In 1966 he was working as a guard at Marylebone station in central London. He applied for a promotion and transfer to work at Euston, but was rejected. A letter from a staff committee at Euston—which was dominated by members of the National Union of Railwaymen—explained it was because of his colour. Unions and management had informally agreed in the 1950s to ban non-white people from jobs at Euston that involved contact with the public; they could be cleaners and labourers, but not guards or ticket collectors.

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