Darcus Howe

Darcus Howe
Born
Leighton Rhett Radford Howe

26 February 1943 (1943-02-26)
Moruga, Trinidad, British West Indies
Died1 April 2017(2017-04-01) (aged 74)
Streatham, London, England
Other namesRadford Howe; Darcus Owusu
EducationQueen's Royal College
Occupation(s)Broadcaster, columnist, activist
Organization(s)British Black Panthers, Mangrove Nine
Known forRace Today, Black on Black, Bandung File
SpouseLeila Hassan
RelativesTamara Howe (daughter)
Darcus Beese (son)
Websitedarcushowe.org/darcus-howe/

Leighton Rhett Radford "Darcus" Howe (26 February 1943 – 1 April 2017)[1][2] was a British broadcaster, writer[3] and racial justice campaigner. Originally from Trinidad, Howe arrived in England as a teenager in 1961, intending to study law and settling in London. There he joined the British Black Panthers, a group named in sympathy with the US Black Panther Party.[4][5]

He came to public attention in 1970 as one of the nine protestors, known as the Mangrove Nine, arrested and tried on charges that included conspiracy to incite a riot, following a protest against repeated police raids of The Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, London. They were all acquitted of the most serious charges and the trial became the first judicial acknowledgement of behaviour (the repeated raids) motivated by racial hatred, rather than legitimate crime control, within the Metropolitan Police. In 1981, he organised a 20,000-strong "Black People's Day of Action" in protest at the handling of the investigation into the New Cross house fire, in which 13 black teenagers died.[6][7]

Howe was an editor of Race Today, and chairman of the Notting Hill Carnival. He was best known as a television broadcaster in the UK for his Black on Black series on Channel 4, his current affairs programme Devil's Advocate, and his work with Tariq Ali on Bandung File.[8][9] His television work also included White Tribe (2000), a look at modern Britain and its loss of "Englishness"; Slave Nation (2001); Who You Callin' a Nigger? (2004); and Is This My Country? (2006), a search for his West Indian identity.[10][11] He was a columnist for the New Statesman[12] and The Voice.[13]

  1. ^ "Civil rights activist Darcus Howe dies aged 74" Archived 15 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 2 April 2017.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Columbia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Howe, Darcus (16 August 2011). "Darcus Howe: 'My father curfewed me and I jumped through the window'". Socialist Worker. Archived from the original on 24 May 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Guardian obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "The Amazing Lost Legacy of the British Black Panthers" Archived 25 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Vice, 8 October 2013.
  6. ^ Darcus Howe profile page Archived 3 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  7. ^ Perry, Kennetta Hammond (2016). London is the Place for Me: Black Britons, Citizenship, and the Politics of Race. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190240202.
  8. ^ "Darcus Howe" Archived 3 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, IMDb.
  9. ^ Davies, Caroline, "Darcus Howe, writer, broadcaster and civil rights campaigner, dies aged 74" Archived 2 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 2 April 2017.
  10. ^ "Darcus Howe season" Archived 5 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Channel 4. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  11. ^ Vallely, Paul, "Darcus Howe: The bruiser" Archived 20 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 21 October 2005.
  12. ^ Wilby, Peter, "Remembering the great Darcus Howe, Gibraltar's phoney war, and cricket's brain freeze" Archived 21 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, New Statesman, 11 April 2017.
  13. ^ "Leading Activist Darcus Howe Dies Aged 74" Archived 21 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Voice, 2 April 2017.