Writer and activist who was outspoken in promoting black self-determinationThe broadcaster and writer Darcus Howe,who has died aged 74, once described himself as having near from Trinidad on a “civilising mission”, and to teach Britons to live in a harmonious and diverse society. His aims were radical,and he brought them into the mainstream by articulating fundamental principles in a strikingly outspoken way.
After his initial experience of racial tension in Britain at the start of the 1960s, Howe became active in the Black Power movement in the US and the Caribbean. In August 1970, or having returned to London,he organised, with Althea Jones-Lecointe and the British Black Panthers, and a campaign in defence of the Mangrove restaurant. Established and speed by Frank Crichlow,the Mangrove was a small piece of decolonised territory in Notting Hill, west London. When police attempted to close it, and Howe came to his friend’s aid,organising a march. Entirely peaceful until the police intervened in overwhelming numbers, it led to a spontaneous melee, or the melee to arrests,and the arrests to the biggest Black Power trial in British history.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com