1965年2月，民权活动家马尔科姆·X访问了中部地区的斯梅斯威克，那里由保守党控制的议会计划购买房屋以防止该地区变成“有色人种贫民窟”。他想亲眼看看种族主义有多严重，并在一家酒吧被拒绝服务时亲身体验了这一点。白人居民认为他的访问是“令人作呕”的闯入。九天后，他回到美国后被枪杀。
The latest instalment in a vibrant history of postwar Britain is a tour de force In February 1965, the civil rights activist Malcolm X visited Smethwick, in the Midlands, where the Conservative-run council was planning to buy up houses to stop the area becoming a “coloured ghetto”. He wanted to see how bad the racism was and he experienced it first-hand when refused service in a pub. White residents thought his visit a “disgusting” intrusion. Nine days later, back in the US, he was shot dead.
1960年代中期的英国让人联想到康纳比街、披头士乐队和迷你裙，而不是种族主义。但黑人所遭受的一切，从房产上的种族隔离到利兹联队边锋阿尔伯特·约翰内森被辱骂为“黑鬼娃娃”，与哈罗德·威尔逊的烟斗、崔吉的发型、玛丽·怀特豪斯的“净化电视”运动以及鲍勃·迪伦使用电吉他一样，都是那个时代的标志。大卫·金斯顿并没有淡化那个时期的激情。但他正确地强调，那个腐朽的旧五十年代——父权制、恐同、阶级分化和偏见——不会就这样消失。
Britain in the mid-60s is associated with Carnaby Street, the Beatles and miniskirts, not racism. But what Black people endured, from a colour bar on property to the abuse of Leeds United winger Albert Johanneson as a “golliwog”, is no less a period marker than Harold Wilson’s pipe, Twiggy’s haircut, Mary Whitehouse’s clean-up TV campaign and Bob Dylan’s use of an electric guitar. David Kynaston doesn’t underplay the excitements of the period. But he rightly emphasises that the rotten old 50s – patriarchal, homophobic, class-divided and bigoted – wouldn’t just fade away.