Investigating the Investigators: Moral Panic, Mixed-Race Families and Their Vilification in Interwar Britain

This paper investigates the investigators behind the distinct ‘moral panic’ that targeted mixed-race families residing in Britain’s multiracial port communities during the interwar period. This period witnessed heightened social anxieties following the First World War, exacerbated by the economic downturn and the visible presence of multiracial populations, a consequence of wartime labour demands. The 1919–1920 ‘race riots’, erupting in various British port cities, served as a critical catalyst in the exposure of underlying racial prejudices and anxieties surrounding interracial relationships and mixed-race children. In our paper we explore how the ensuing ‘moral panic’ was not simply a spontaneous societal reaction fuelled by sensationalist and prejudiced reporting in the press, but was actively constructed and sustained through a confluence of official investigations and the actions of key individuals within government and society. These forces collectively contributed to a pathological legacy that profoundly impacted the treatment and perception of mixed-race families in Britain well beyond the interwar years. Our paper builds upon our collaborative work with Peter Aspinall, to whom this paper is dedicated as one of his last scholarly endeavours.