<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDARCUS HOWE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/iframe> <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j5mxLgHl-m0?rel=0&controls=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>____________________<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_176471309\" style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176471309\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-176471309\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg\" alt=\"Monday 3 April 2017\" width=\"349\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg 349w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN-300x64.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176471309\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monday 3 April 2017<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div class=\"hide-on-mobile\">\n<header class=\"content__head tonal__head tonal__head--tone-feature\n\n \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"content__header tonal__header\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column u-cf\">\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>Darcus Howe: <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>\u2018He translated <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>the anger of <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>street protests into<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong> political action\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tonal__standfirst u-cf\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column\">\n<div class=\"content__standfirst\" data-link-name=\"standfirst\" data-component=\"standfirst\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Journalist, activist and publisher<br \/>\nDarcus Howe, who has died aged 74,<br \/>\nspent his life working for justice<br \/>\nfor black British people \u2013 and<br \/>\nthe struggle is far from over<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content__main tonal__main tonal__main--tone-feature\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column content__main-column--article js-content-main-column \">\n<div class=\"js-score\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"js-sport-tabs football-tabs content__mobile-full-width\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"js-sport-tabs football-tabs content__mobile-full-width\">\n<div id=\"attachment_176472514\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176472514\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-176472514\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\" Darcus Howe addresses a rally for the Mangrove Nine in Notting Hill in 1971. Photograph: Horace Ove\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-920x552.jpg 920w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176472514\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Darcus Howe addresses a rally for the Mangrove Nine in Notting Hill in 1971. Photograph: Horace Ove<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"img-1\" class=\"media-primary media-content() \" data-component=\"image\" data-media-id=\"2b68a77d379aa44fc3032aee4c62c22c00817dac\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2b68a77d379aa44fc3032aee4c62c22c00817dac\/0_0_3600_2160\/master\/3600.jpg?w=620&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3992646d66ea16ae56ca3fe7a4bbbc38 1240w\" media=\"(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"620px\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"content__meta-container js-content-meta js-football-meta u-cf\n\n content__meta-container--twitter\n \"><\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\" data-link-name=\"byline\" data-component=\"meta-byline\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">By\u00a0<a class=\"tone-colour\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/kehinde-andrews\" rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\">Kehinde Andrews<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body\" data-test-id=\"article-review-body\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span class=\"drop-cap\"><span class=\"drop-cap__inner\">W<\/span><\/span>hen I heard the news of <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/apr\/02\/darcus-howe-writer-broadcaster-and-civil-rights-campaigner-dies-aged-74\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Darcus Howe<\/a>\u2019s passing, it reminded me that one of the worst-told stories in Britain is the history of black struggle on these shores. It is almost impossible to trace the impact of his work, because we so poorly understand the context in which he laboured. I managed to go through 20 years of formal education without ever being told a single fact about black resistance movements in the nation. The closest we ever got was learning about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks time and again during black history month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1943, was an instrumental force for change in the black British struggle for equal rights and justice over five decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">He migrated to the UK in 1961, a pivotal time for black activism in Britain. It had become clear that the movement of people from the former British colonies would not be temporary, with people going back to \u201c<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/comment\/3643826\/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">whence they came<\/a>\u201d, as Conservative politician Enoch Powell had hoped. As subjects of the British crown, who fought and died for king and country in the world wars, Caribbean migrants had expected their children to get the best of the British schools system. Those dreams could not have been dashed more abruptly; by the mid-1960s, Caribbean communities were <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk\/making-education-a-priority\/resources\/Supplementary%20School\/Resisting%20racism%20-%20The%20Black%20supplementary%20school%20movement.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">setting up supplementary schools<\/a> in order to teach children the basics of maths and English, which the system was failing to provide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It was not only in the schools that discrimination was rife. For young black people, the police were \u2013 and continue to be \u2013 the boots on the ground, the public face of state racism. Police harassment was rife, and the notorious sus laws \u2013 where you could be arrested merely on an officer\u2019s suspicion \u2013 were routinely abused and often ended in violence towards young black men. This treatment sparked mass reaction from black communities, who organised and protested and took to the streets. Howe is such an important figure because he managed to bridge the divide between the grassroots social movements, in which he participated, and the state-led campaigns to address inequality, which he influenced.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline1\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline1\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline1\" data-name=\"inline1\" data-mobile=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|fluid\" data-desktop=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|620,1|620,350|fluid\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">His key skill, as one of the main figures in the anti-racist, anti-police brutality movement, was to translate the energy and anger of street protests into government action. He had a major impact on Lord Scarman, who was commissioned to investigate the causes of the 1981 riots. The <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brixtonblog.com\/remembering-brixton-1981-uprisings\/37029\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">rebellions in Brixton and elsewhere against the sus laws<\/a> had shaken the nation; <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.runnymedetrust.org\/histories\/index.php?mact=OralHistories,cntnt01,default,0&amp;cntnt01qid=60&amp;cntnt01returnid=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the Scarman Report <\/a>was the first in Britain to take the police force to task for racial bias. As limited as Scarman was in his condemnation of police (he spoke of \u201ca few bad apples\u201d rather than systemic racism), it was a landmark moment in opening up the forces to criticism it laid the foundations for the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/1999\/feb\/24\/lawrence.ukcrime12\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Macpherson Report<\/a> in 1999, which investigated the police\u2019s response to the racist murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and propelled an understanding of institutional racism into public discourse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe was the nephew of Caribbean intellectual giant CLR James, who among many other works wrote The Black Jacobins, the definitive history of the 1804 Haitian revolution, when enslaved Africans rose up to overthrow their colonial French masters and formed the world\u2019s first black republic. Howe continued this intellectual tradition, giving a wider, more political voice to the street protests.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_176472515\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176472515\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-176472515\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\"Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the Race Today office on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979 Photograph: Adrian Boot\/Adrian Boot \/ urbanimage.tv\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-920x552.jpg 920w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176472515\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the Race Today office on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979 Photograph: Adrian Boot\/Adrian Boot \/ urbanimage.tv<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The radical journal Race Today, on which he worked on as editor, was hugely influential in black political movements in the 1970s. Dr Denise Noble, a US-based professor of African American and African Studies, says it was especially powerful to have a \u201cserious black British journal that was both politically and theoretically nuanced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline2\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline2\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline2\" data-name=\"inline2\" data-mobile=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|fluid\" data-desktop=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|620,1|620,350|fluid\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Reclaiming this history is important for me not only politically, but also personally. My father, Maurice Andrews, migrated from Jamaica at a similar time to Howe and was engaged in grassroots activism for decades. He was part of the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.voice-online.co.uk\/article\/community-organisation-celebrates-50-years-activism\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">African Caribbean Self-Help Organisation,<\/a> which is still running after 50 years in Birmingham; he also founded <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blackunity.org.uk\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the Harambee Organisation<\/a>, with which he is still involved. My mother, Carole Andrews, was also prominently involved in anti-racist campaigning, working for years at the organisation formerly known as the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">For both of my parents, Howe was a figure who could not be ignored and who made a major commitment to the struggle of the times. He was a central figure in many of the key activist movements over the past 40 years. He was a member of <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_se\/article\/neil-kenlocks-photos-give-the-british-black-panthers-the-legacy-they-deserve\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the British Black Panthers<\/a>, along with key figures such as Althea Jones-Lecointe, Eddie Chambers and Olive Morris. Guerrilla, which airs this week on Sky Atlantic, dramatises that period; Howe was a consultant on the show. The series centres on the so-called \u201cblack power\u201d desk at the London Metropolitan police, which was set up to counter the perceived threat posed by black activism over 40 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In March 1981, the Black People\u2019s Day of Action drew 20,000 people on to the streets of London to protest the police investigation in the New Cross massacre. In May 1981, 13 teenagers had died in a fire at a house party in south-east London, in suspicious circumstances. Howe was a key figure in organising the demonstration, where one of the leading chants was \u201c13 dead, nothing said\u201d. But we would be wrong to memorialise events such as these as history. Over 30 years later, the Interim National African People\u2019s Parliament still organise annual marches because we still have no answers. Justice is too often suspended for black people; the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.inquest.org.uk\/issues\/home\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">long list of families waiting for justice<\/a> for their kin who have died after police contact is chilling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/2010\/nov\/29\/mangrove-nine-40th-anniversary\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Mangrove Nine trial<\/a> in 1971 was a pivotal event in the black British struggle, and another in which Howe played a key role. Howe was arrested and charged after protesting against repeated police raids on the Caribbean restaurant Mangrove in Notting Hill in 1970. He and Jones-Lecointe insisted on representing themselves against the false charges brought against them and seven other defendants. After 55 days at the Old Bailey, the Mangrove Nine were acquitted and\u2013 for the first time \u2013 judges declared that there was \u201cevidence of racial hatred\u201d in the Met.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe also served as chairman for the Notting Hill carnival in 1977 and resisted attempts to move the celebration from the streets of west London where it originated. <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2011\/aug\/25\/importance-notting-hill-carnival-riots\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">The political nature of carnival is often overlooked<\/a>, but it emerged from efforts to provide legal assistance to the black youth who were caught up in the racist riots in the area in 1958. The very concept of carnival is a political act that comes from the history of African enslavement. Enslaved people were given one day off a year and used this to celebrate and reconnect to their African past, which the slaveholders tried in vain to destroy. Attempts to stop carnival, which has happened successfully in Birmingham, and which are still hinted at in Notting Hill, can only be seen as an attempt to suppress political expression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">As we remember and celebrate his life and influence and mourn his death, the best way to remember Howe is as someone who gave voice to a politics and community that was often overlooked. He made a lot of noise and he drew a lot of attention to the struggle for equal rights and justice \u2013 and since these battles are far from over, it\u2019s exactly what we should continue to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>>via:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2017\/apr\/03\/darcus-howe-race-britain-black-politics-tribute\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2017\/apr\/03\/darcus-howe-race-britain-black-politics-tribute<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> DARCUS HOWE ____________________ Darcus Howe: \u2018He translated the anger of street protests into political action\u2019 Journalist, activist and publisher Darcus Howe, who has died aged 74, spent his life working for justice for black British people \u2013 and the struggle is far from over By\u00a0Kehinde Andrews When I heard the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176472513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176472552,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513\/revisions\/176472552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176472513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176472513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176472513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
DARCUS HOWE<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/iframe> <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j5mxLgHl-m0?rel=0&controls=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>____________________<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_176471309\" style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176471309\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-176471309\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg\" alt=\"Monday 3 April 2017\" width=\"349\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg 349w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN-300x64.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176471309\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monday 3 April 2017<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div class=\"hide-on-mobile\">\n<header class=\"content__head tonal__head tonal__head--tone-feature\n\n \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"content__header tonal__header\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column u-cf\">\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>Darcus Howe: <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>\u2018He translated <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>the anger of <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>street protests into<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong> political action\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tonal__standfirst u-cf\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column\">\n<div class=\"content__standfirst\" data-link-name=\"standfirst\" data-component=\"standfirst\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Journalist, activist and publisher<br \/>\nDarcus Howe, who has died aged 74,<br \/>\nspent his life working for justice<br \/>\nfor black British people \u2013 and<br \/>\nthe struggle is far from over<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content__main tonal__main tonal__main--tone-feature\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column content__main-column--article js-content-main-column \">\n<div class=\"js-score\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"js-sport-tabs football-tabs content__mobile-full-width\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"js-sport-tabs football-tabs content__mobile-full-width\">\n<div id=\"attachment_176472514\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176472514\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-176472514\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\" Darcus Howe addresses a rally for the Mangrove Nine in Notting Hill in 1971. Photograph: Horace Ove\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-920x552.jpg 920w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176472514\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Darcus Howe addresses a rally for the Mangrove Nine in Notting Hill in 1971. Photograph: Horace Ove<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"img-1\" class=\"media-primary media-content() \" data-component=\"image\" data-media-id=\"2b68a77d379aa44fc3032aee4c62c22c00817dac\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2b68a77d379aa44fc3032aee4c62c22c00817dac\/0_0_3600_2160\/master\/3600.jpg?w=620&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3992646d66ea16ae56ca3fe7a4bbbc38 1240w\" media=\"(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"620px\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"content__meta-container js-content-meta js-football-meta u-cf\n\n content__meta-container--twitter\n \"><\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\" data-link-name=\"byline\" data-component=\"meta-byline\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">By\u00a0<a class=\"tone-colour\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/kehinde-andrews\" rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\">Kehinde Andrews<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body\" data-test-id=\"article-review-body\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span class=\"drop-cap\"><span class=\"drop-cap__inner\">W<\/span><\/span>hen I heard the news of <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/apr\/02\/darcus-howe-writer-broadcaster-and-civil-rights-campaigner-dies-aged-74\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Darcus Howe<\/a>\u2019s passing, it reminded me that one of the worst-told stories in Britain is the history of black struggle on these shores. It is almost impossible to trace the impact of his work, because we so poorly understand the context in which he laboured. I managed to go through 20 years of formal education without ever being told a single fact about black resistance movements in the nation. The closest we ever got was learning about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks time and again during black history month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1943, was an instrumental force for change in the black British struggle for equal rights and justice over five decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">He migrated to the UK in 1961, a pivotal time for black activism in Britain. It had become clear that the movement of people from the former British colonies would not be temporary, with people going back to \u201c<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/comment\/3643826\/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">whence they came<\/a>\u201d, as Conservative politician Enoch Powell had hoped. As subjects of the British crown, who fought and died for king and country in the world wars, Caribbean migrants had expected their children to get the best of the British schools system. Those dreams could not have been dashed more abruptly; by the mid-1960s, Caribbean communities were <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk\/making-education-a-priority\/resources\/Supplementary%20School\/Resisting%20racism%20-%20The%20Black%20supplementary%20school%20movement.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">setting up supplementary schools<\/a> in order to teach children the basics of maths and English, which the system was failing to provide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It was not only in the schools that discrimination was rife. For young black people, the police were \u2013 and continue to be \u2013 the boots on the ground, the public face of state racism. Police harassment was rife, and the notorious sus laws \u2013 where you could be arrested merely on an officer\u2019s suspicion \u2013 were routinely abused and often ended in violence towards young black men. This treatment sparked mass reaction from black communities, who organised and protested and took to the streets. Howe is such an important figure because he managed to bridge the divide between the grassroots social movements, in which he participated, and the state-led campaigns to address inequality, which he influenced.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline1\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline1\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline1\" data-name=\"inline1\" data-mobile=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|fluid\" data-desktop=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|620,1|620,350|fluid\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">His key skill, as one of the main figures in the anti-racist, anti-police brutality movement, was to translate the energy and anger of street protests into government action. He had a major impact on Lord Scarman, who was commissioned to investigate the causes of the 1981 riots. The <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brixtonblog.com\/remembering-brixton-1981-uprisings\/37029\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">rebellions in Brixton and elsewhere against the sus laws<\/a> had shaken the nation; <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.runnymedetrust.org\/histories\/index.php?mact=OralHistories,cntnt01,default,0&amp;cntnt01qid=60&amp;cntnt01returnid=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the Scarman Report <\/a>was the first in Britain to take the police force to task for racial bias. As limited as Scarman was in his condemnation of police (he spoke of \u201ca few bad apples\u201d rather than systemic racism), it was a landmark moment in opening up the forces to criticism it laid the foundations for the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/1999\/feb\/24\/lawrence.ukcrime12\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Macpherson Report<\/a> in 1999, which investigated the police\u2019s response to the racist murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and propelled an understanding of institutional racism into public discourse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe was the nephew of Caribbean intellectual giant CLR James, who among many other works wrote The Black Jacobins, the definitive history of the 1804 Haitian revolution, when enslaved Africans rose up to overthrow their colonial French masters and formed the world\u2019s first black republic. Howe continued this intellectual tradition, giving a wider, more political voice to the street protests.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_176472515\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176472515\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-176472515\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\"Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the Race Today office on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979 Photograph: Adrian Boot\/Adrian Boot \/ urbanimage.tv\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-920x552.jpg 920w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176472515\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the Race Today office on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979 Photograph: Adrian Boot\/Adrian Boot \/ urbanimage.tv<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The radical journal Race Today, on which he worked on as editor, was hugely influential in black political movements in the 1970s. Dr Denise Noble, a US-based professor of African American and African Studies, says it was especially powerful to have a \u201cserious black British journal that was both politically and theoretically nuanced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline2\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline2\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline2\" data-name=\"inline2\" data-mobile=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|fluid\" data-desktop=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|620,1|620,350|fluid\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Reclaiming this history is important for me not only politically, but also personally. My father, Maurice Andrews, migrated from Jamaica at a similar time to Howe and was engaged in grassroots activism for decades. He was part of the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.voice-online.co.uk\/article\/community-organisation-celebrates-50-years-activism\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">African Caribbean Self-Help Organisation,<\/a> which is still running after 50 years in Birmingham; he also founded <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blackunity.org.uk\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the Harambee Organisation<\/a>, with which he is still involved. My mother, Carole Andrews, was also prominently involved in anti-racist campaigning, working for years at the organisation formerly known as the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">For both of my parents, Howe was a figure who could not be ignored and who made a major commitment to the struggle of the times. He was a central figure in many of the key activist movements over the past 40 years. He was a member of <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_se\/article\/neil-kenlocks-photos-give-the-british-black-panthers-the-legacy-they-deserve\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the British Black Panthers<\/a>, along with key figures such as Althea Jones-Lecointe, Eddie Chambers and Olive Morris. Guerrilla, which airs this week on Sky Atlantic, dramatises that period; Howe was a consultant on the show. The series centres on the so-called \u201cblack power\u201d desk at the London Metropolitan police, which was set up to counter the perceived threat posed by black activism over 40 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In March 1981, the Black People\u2019s Day of Action drew 20,000 people on to the streets of London to protest the police investigation in the New Cross massacre. In May 1981, 13 teenagers had died in a fire at a house party in south-east London, in suspicious circumstances. Howe was a key figure in organising the demonstration, where one of the leading chants was \u201c13 dead, nothing said\u201d. But we would be wrong to memorialise events such as these as history. Over 30 years later, the Interim National African People\u2019s Parliament still organise annual marches because we still have no answers. Justice is too often suspended for black people; the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.inquest.org.uk\/issues\/home\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">long list of families waiting for justice<\/a> for their kin who have died after police contact is chilling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/2010\/nov\/29\/mangrove-nine-40th-anniversary\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Mangrove Nine trial<\/a> in 1971 was a pivotal event in the black British struggle, and another in which Howe played a key role. Howe was arrested and charged after protesting against repeated police raids on the Caribbean restaurant Mangrove in Notting Hill in 1970. He and Jones-Lecointe insisted on representing themselves against the false charges brought against them and seven other defendants. After 55 days at the Old Bailey, the Mangrove Nine were acquitted and\u2013 for the first time \u2013 judges declared that there was \u201cevidence of racial hatred\u201d in the Met.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe also served as chairman for the Notting Hill carnival in 1977 and resisted attempts to move the celebration from the streets of west London where it originated. <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2011\/aug\/25\/importance-notting-hill-carnival-riots\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">The political nature of carnival is often overlooked<\/a>, but it emerged from efforts to provide legal assistance to the black youth who were caught up in the racist riots in the area in 1958. The very concept of carnival is a political act that comes from the history of African enslavement. Enslaved people were given one day off a year and used this to celebrate and reconnect to their African past, which the slaveholders tried in vain to destroy. Attempts to stop carnival, which has happened successfully in Birmingham, and which are still hinted at in Notting Hill, can only be seen as an attempt to suppress political expression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">As we remember and celebrate his life and influence and mourn his death, the best way to remember Howe is as someone who gave voice to a politics and community that was often overlooked. He made a lot of noise and he drew a lot of attention to the struggle for equal rights and justice \u2013 and since these battles are far from over, it\u2019s exactly what we should continue to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>>via:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2017\/apr\/03\/darcus-howe-race-britain-black-politics-tribute\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2017\/apr\/03\/darcus-howe-race-britain-black-politics-tribute<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> DARCUS HOWE ____________________ Darcus Howe: \u2018He translated the anger of street protests into political action\u2019 Journalist, activist and publisher Darcus Howe, who has died aged 74, spent his life working for justice for black British people \u2013 and the struggle is far from over By\u00a0Kehinde Andrews When I heard the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176472513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176472552,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513\/revisions\/176472552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176472513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176472513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176472513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe> <\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j5mxLgHl-m0?rel=0&controls=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>____________________<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_176471309\" style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176471309\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-176471309\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg\" alt=\"Monday 3 April 2017\" width=\"349\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN.jpg 349w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/GUARDIAN-300x64.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176471309\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monday 3 April 2017<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<div class=\"hide-on-mobile\">\n<header class=\"content__head tonal__head tonal__head--tone-feature\n\n \"><\/p>\n<div class=\"content__header tonal__header\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column u-cf\">\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>Darcus Howe: <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>\u2018He translated <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>the anger of <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong>street protests into<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"content__headline\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 36pt;\"><strong> political action\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tonal__standfirst u-cf\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column\">\n<div class=\"content__standfirst\" data-link-name=\"standfirst\" data-component=\"standfirst\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Journalist, activist and publisher<br \/>\nDarcus Howe, who has died aged 74,<br \/>\nspent his life working for justice<br \/>\nfor black British people \u2013 and<br \/>\nthe struggle is far from over<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content__main tonal__main tonal__main--tone-feature\">\n<div class=\"gs-container\">\n<div class=\"content__main-column content__main-column--article js-content-main-column \">\n<div class=\"js-score\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"js-sport-tabs football-tabs content__mobile-full-width\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"js-sport-tabs football-tabs content__mobile-full-width\">\n<div id=\"attachment_176472514\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176472514\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-176472514\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\" Darcus Howe addresses a rally for the Mangrove Nine in Notting Hill in 1971. Photograph: Horace Ove\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01-920x552.jpg 920w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-01.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176472514\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Darcus Howe addresses a rally for the Mangrove Nine in Notting Hill in 1971. Photograph: Horace Ove<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure id=\"img-1\" class=\"media-primary media-content() \" data-component=\"image\" data-media-id=\"2b68a77d379aa44fc3032aee4c62c22c00817dac\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2b68a77d379aa44fc3032aee4c62c22c00817dac\/0_0_3600_2160\/master\/3600.jpg?w=620&q=20&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3992646d66ea16ae56ca3fe7a4bbbc38 1240w\" media=\"(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"620px\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"content__meta-container js-content-meta js-football-meta u-cf\n\n content__meta-container--twitter\n \"><\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\" data-link-name=\"byline\" data-component=\"meta-byline\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">By\u00a0<a class=\"tone-colour\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/kehinde-andrews\" rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\">Kehinde Andrews<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body\" data-test-id=\"article-review-body\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span class=\"drop-cap\"><span class=\"drop-cap__inner\">W<\/span><\/span>hen I heard the news of <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/apr\/02\/darcus-howe-writer-broadcaster-and-civil-rights-campaigner-dies-aged-74\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Darcus Howe<\/a>\u2019s passing, it reminded me that one of the worst-told stories in Britain is the history of black struggle on these shores. It is almost impossible to trace the impact of his work, because we so poorly understand the context in which he laboured. I managed to go through 20 years of formal education without ever being told a single fact about black resistance movements in the nation. The closest we ever got was learning about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks time and again during black history month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1943, was an instrumental force for change in the black British struggle for equal rights and justice over five decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">He migrated to the UK in 1961, a pivotal time for black activism in Britain. It had become clear that the movement of people from the former British colonies would not be temporary, with people going back to \u201c<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/comment\/3643826\/Enoch-Powells-Rivers-of-Blood-speech.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">whence they came<\/a>\u201d, as Conservative politician Enoch Powell had hoped. As subjects of the British crown, who fought and died for king and country in the world wars, Caribbean migrants had expected their children to get the best of the British schools system. Those dreams could not have been dashed more abruptly; by the mid-1960s, Caribbean communities were <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk\/making-education-a-priority\/resources\/Supplementary%20School\/Resisting%20racism%20-%20The%20Black%20supplementary%20school%20movement.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">setting up supplementary schools<\/a> in order to teach children the basics of maths and English, which the system was failing to provide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It was not only in the schools that discrimination was rife. For young black people, the police were \u2013 and continue to be \u2013 the boots on the ground, the public face of state racism. Police harassment was rife, and the notorious sus laws \u2013 where you could be arrested merely on an officer\u2019s suspicion \u2013 were routinely abused and often ended in violence towards young black men. This treatment sparked mass reaction from black communities, who organised and protested and took to the streets. Howe is such an important figure because he managed to bridge the divide between the grassroots social movements, in which he participated, and the state-led campaigns to address inequality, which he influenced.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline1\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline1\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline1\" data-name=\"inline1\" data-mobile=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|fluid\" data-desktop=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|620,1|620,350|fluid\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">His key skill, as one of the main figures in the anti-racist, anti-police brutality movement, was to translate the energy and anger of street protests into government action. He had a major impact on Lord Scarman, who was commissioned to investigate the causes of the 1981 riots. The <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brixtonblog.com\/remembering-brixton-1981-uprisings\/37029\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">rebellions in Brixton and elsewhere against the sus laws<\/a> had shaken the nation; <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.runnymedetrust.org\/histories\/index.php?mact=OralHistories,cntnt01,default,0&amp;cntnt01qid=60&amp;cntnt01returnid=20\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the Scarman Report <\/a>was the first in Britain to take the police force to task for racial bias. As limited as Scarman was in his condemnation of police (he spoke of \u201ca few bad apples\u201d rather than systemic racism), it was a landmark moment in opening up the forces to criticism it laid the foundations for the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/1999\/feb\/24\/lawrence.ukcrime12\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Macpherson Report<\/a> in 1999, which investigated the police\u2019s response to the racist murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and propelled an understanding of institutional racism into public discourse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe was the nephew of Caribbean intellectual giant CLR James, who among many other works wrote The Black Jacobins, the definitive history of the 1804 Haitian revolution, when enslaved Africans rose up to overthrow their colonial French masters and formed the world\u2019s first black republic. Howe continued this intellectual tradition, giving a wider, more political voice to the street protests.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_176472515\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176472515\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-176472515\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\"Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the Race Today office on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979 Photograph: Adrian Boot\/Adrian Boot \/ urbanimage.tv\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02-920x552.jpg 920w, https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-02.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-176472515\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the Race Today office on Railton Road, Brixton, 1979 Photograph: Adrian Boot\/Adrian Boot \/ urbanimage.tv<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The radical journal Race Today, on which he worked on as editor, was hugely influential in black political movements in the 1970s. Dr Denise Noble, a US-based professor of African American and African Studies, says it was especially powerful to have a \u201cserious black British journal that was both politically and theoretically nuanced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline2\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline2\" data-link-name=\"ad slot inline2\" data-name=\"inline2\" data-mobile=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|fluid\" data-desktop=\"1,1|2,2|300,250|620,1|620,350|fluid\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Reclaiming this history is important for me not only politically, but also personally. My father, Maurice Andrews, migrated from Jamaica at a similar time to Howe and was engaged in grassroots activism for decades. He was part of the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.voice-online.co.uk\/article\/community-organisation-celebrates-50-years-activism\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">African Caribbean Self-Help Organisation,<\/a> which is still running after 50 years in Birmingham; he also founded <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blackunity.org.uk\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the Harambee Organisation<\/a>, with which he is still involved. My mother, Carole Andrews, was also prominently involved in anti-racist campaigning, working for years at the organisation formerly known as the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">For both of my parents, Howe was a figure who could not be ignored and who made a major commitment to the struggle of the times. He was a central figure in many of the key activist movements over the past 40 years. He was a member of <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_se\/article\/neil-kenlocks-photos-give-the-british-black-panthers-the-legacy-they-deserve\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the British Black Panthers<\/a>, along with key figures such as Althea Jones-Lecointe, Eddie Chambers and Olive Morris. Guerrilla, which airs this week on Sky Atlantic, dramatises that period; Howe was a consultant on the show. The series centres on the so-called \u201cblack power\u201d desk at the London Metropolitan police, which was set up to counter the perceived threat posed by black activism over 40 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In March 1981, the Black People\u2019s Day of Action drew 20,000 people on to the streets of London to protest the police investigation in the New Cross massacre. In May 1981, 13 teenagers had died in a fire at a house party in south-east London, in suspicious circumstances. Howe was a key figure in organising the demonstration, where one of the leading chants was \u201c13 dead, nothing said\u201d. But we would be wrong to memorialise events such as these as history. Over 30 years later, the Interim National African People\u2019s Parliament still organise annual marches because we still have no answers. Justice is too often suspended for black people; the <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.inquest.org.uk\/issues\/home\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">long list of families waiting for justice<\/a> for their kin who have died after police contact is chilling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/law\/2010\/nov\/29\/mangrove-nine-40th-anniversary\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Mangrove Nine trial<\/a> in 1971 was a pivotal event in the black British struggle, and another in which Howe played a key role. Howe was arrested and charged after protesting against repeated police raids on the Caribbean restaurant Mangrove in Notting Hill in 1970. He and Jones-Lecointe insisted on representing themselves against the false charges brought against them and seven other defendants. After 55 days at the Old Bailey, the Mangrove Nine were acquitted and\u2013 for the first time \u2013 judges declared that there was \u201cevidence of racial hatred\u201d in the Met.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Howe also served as chairman for the Notting Hill carnival in 1977 and resisted attempts to move the celebration from the streets of west London where it originated. <a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2011\/aug\/25\/importance-notting-hill-carnival-riots\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">The political nature of carnival is often overlooked<\/a>, but it emerged from efforts to provide legal assistance to the black youth who were caught up in the racist riots in the area in 1958. The very concept of carnival is a political act that comes from the history of African enslavement. Enslaved people were given one day off a year and used this to celebrate and reconnect to their African past, which the slaveholders tried in vain to destroy. Attempts to stop carnival, which has happened successfully in Birmingham, and which are still hinted at in Notting Hill, can only be seen as an attempt to suppress political expression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">As we remember and celebrate his life and influence and mourn his death, the best way to remember Howe is as someone who gave voice to a politics and community that was often overlooked. He made a lot of noise and he drew a lot of attention to the struggle for equal rights and justice \u2013 and since these battles are far from over, it\u2019s exactly what we should continue to do.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>>via:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2017\/apr\/03\/darcus-howe-race-britain-black-politics-tribute\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2017\/apr\/03\/darcus-howe-race-britain-black-politics-tribute<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> DARCUS HOWE ____________________ Darcus Howe: \u2018He translated the anger of street protests into political action\u2019 Journalist, activist and publisher Darcus Howe, who has died aged 74, spent his life working for justice for black British people \u2013 and the struggle is far from over By\u00a0Kehinde Andrews When I heard the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176472513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176472552,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176472513\/revisions\/176472552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176472513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176472513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176472513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"darcus](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/darcus-03.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n