'Black Yanks': Jo Durrant in conversation with Dr Kate Werran

Wartime Britain's Forgotten Civil Rights Victory

During the weeks of D-Day, while the world's attention was fixed on Normandy, an African American soldier named Leroy Henry sat on death row in the West Country — convicted in a British military court for a crime many believed he didn't commit. The campaign to free him became, as historian Dr Kate Werran argues, the first significant victory for the civil rights movement. Almost nobody knows it happened.

Dr Werran joins interviewer Jo Durrant to discuss her book Black Yanks: Defending Leroy Henry in D-Day Britain, which draws on decades of archival research — and a PhD from the University of Exeter — to reconstruct those six weeks in detail. Werran spent ten years producing history documentaries for TV before turning researcher; Durrant is a seasoned festival interviewer and BBC radio veteran. The conversation takes place in the Museum's Walled Garden Pavilion — a glass-fronted room tucked inside the secret walled garden at the heart of Stratford Park — with tea and coffee included.

A quiet Saturday afternoon with a genuinely startling story behind it. Tickets £5–£7.50, limited spaces.

Saturday 23 May 2026 · The Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF · Starts 2:00pm