Lower Dock Street

Roy Mackpenfield Grant, the youngest black Caribbean to migrate to Newport, explains why Newport is worth envying.

My name is Roy Grant, Roy Mackpenfield Grant.

I was born in Jamaica and at the age of 19 and a half my parents sent me to the United Kingdom. At first I came to Birmingham. People did not like the idea of too many black faces contaminating, especially engineering, because at that time engineering was the Rolls Royce of the poor man's trade. Newport was much more relaxed, and in many cases the integration had already started taking place in a big way. What I can tell you is no matter what anyone said or their beliefs, immigrations 'av done Newport a tremendous amount of good because immigration 'av bought Newport almost side-by-side with a lot of other cities and of course, I'm not saying the indigenous people wouldn't have made Newport the place it is now, but it wouldn't be as quick. And the practices, the multicultural practices that 'av taken place in Newport are envied in many places. For me there's a consensus whereby tolerance exists and within tolerance, people learn to live with their neighbours.