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The Original Windrush Warriors of West London

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“Since We’ve Come Here We’ve Suffered A Long Train of Abuses By The Police, With The Active Knowledge & Support of The British State.”

Altheia Jones of The Mangrove 9

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The 1970 Protests Against Police Harassment By The Police of The Owners And The Patrons of A Black Owned Restaurant In West London Called The Mangrove, Led To One of The Most Important Legal Trials In Black British History. And This Documentary Really Gets Its Teeth Into It.

At 90 Minutes It’s A Long Documentary. But It Is Educationally, Historically, And Legally Important And Well Worth The Watch. We’ve Watched It More Than Once And There Is So Much To Be Gleaned From It In Terms of Black British History And Power Abuses By The British Police. On Watching It You Will Hopefully Reach Your Own Conclusions About Its Significance.

We’ve Drawn Ours And Can See Exactly Why We Are Where We Are Today And Why Former England Team Footballer John Barnes, Now Commentator, Is Wise With His Observations On The Matter of Race Relations In British Society. What He Is Saying Now Is Not Too Dissimilar To The Views of Activist Darcus Howe, One of The Mangrove 9 At The Height of The Mangrove Drama.

The Case of The Mangrove 9 Was The First Time British Black People Legally Fought Back Against Police Brutality. And They Fought Successfully. They Won Their Legal Case & Retained Their Freedom. Howe Had Insisted on Defending Himself, Because He Was Legally Trained. The Group As A Whole Was Helped By A Young White Scottish Lawyer, Ian Macdonald, Who Was To Become A QC And Legal Champion for The Black Community. Although He Has Now Passed, His Law Firm Still Operates Today.

[Scottish QC Ian Macdonald.]

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Caution

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In 1975 A Hostage Take At The Knightsbridge Speghetti House By The BLF (Black Liberation Front) One of A Number Disparate Black Power Groups Had Disastarous Consequences. Although All The Hostages Were Thankfully Eventually Released 5 Days Later. The Criminal Behaviourof The Hostages Takers Was Nonetheless Utterly Ridiculous. Martin Luther King’s American Black Civil Rights Movement In Comparison Advocated Non-Violence And Peaceful Protest. That Is How He Garnered So Much Universal Public Support, Public Sympathy And Publice Respect. Which He Still Has Today As A Man of Civil Rights History.

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As Well As The Achievements of The Black Power Movement This Documentary Details Some of The Self-Inflicted Problems Which Need To Be Avoided This Time Round.

A Glaringly Obvious Question That Arises Is Whether The Same Organisational Failings That Led To Its Demise Back Then Will Befall The Black Lives Matter Movement Now, And See History Repeat Itself Once Again.  And Also Whether, Nonetheless, Today’s Movement Can Claim Huge Achievements Just Like The Black Power Movement Can From Way Back Then.

For Instance The Black Lives Matter Movement Today Is Said To Have No Identifiable Headquarters or Leadership. And Apparently It Likes That Because It Does Not Want To Put Restraints on The Movement. But Who Then Takes Responsibility For Actions Taken In The Groups Name? Who Do People Contact To Make Donations? How Does It Organise Itself To Remain Sustainable As A Recognised Movement. And How Does It Fight or Inititate Legal Actions In Order To Protect Itself As A Movement?

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Successes

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The Notting Hill Carnival Was A Caribbean Initiative By Journalist & Community Activist Claudia Jones, To Help Heal The Problem of Regular Attacks By Racists In The 1950s. It Has Grown To Become An Annual Global Attraction Drawing Hundreds And Thousands of People To Celebrate Caribbean Culture Every August In West London. (Incidentally Bearing This In Mind It Is A Complete And Utter Mystery How One of The Creators of Red Nose Day Charity Could Also Make A Film Called Notting Hill (Starring Julia Roberts & Huge Grant) And Not Have Black Characters In It (1999)!)

The 1976 Racial Relations Act Made It Illegal To Discriminate In Housing And Education.

The Mangrove 9 Case Lead To The First Ever Official Recognition By The Establishment That Racism Exists In The MET Police.

And It Sent A Message That Black People Will Indeed Legally Fight Back If Attacked.

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The Achievement of The Movement Is That It Represented A Population That Was Not Prepared To Put Up With What British Society Had Defined It Should Do.

I Think Black Power Said, We’re Not Going Back Home. Britain Belongs To Us. We’re Here To Stay And We’re Going To Fight For Our Rights Here In This Country.

That’s What Black Power Did.

Leila Hassan Howe (Black Unity And Freedom Party, Part of The Black Power Movement)

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It Had Taken 47 Years. That’s Where My Black Activism Comes In. I Was Not Giving Up.

Winston True One of The Oval 4

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On December 5 2019 The Lord Chief Justice of The Court of Appeal Quashed The Oval 4’ Case (Which Was A Stitch-Up Case By A Corrupt Police Officer Called Sergeant Derrick Ridgewell.  It Saw Four Men Convicted On False Mugging Charges In 1972). Winston True, Who Was Truly, Truly, Truly Happy Put It Down To His “Black Activism”. The Lord Chief Justice Apologised That It Had Taken So Long.

A Problem That Pervades Today Is The Arrogant Attitude of The Police, Who Also Refused To Learn Lessons Even After Mangrove. We See That Still With Macpherson Today As It Relates To The Stephen Lawerence Murder Case. Which Of Course Reeked of The Same Attitude In The Kelsso Case.

The Biggest Problem of Them All, The Police, Were Exempt From Prosecution Under The New Discrimination  Legislation (The 1976 Race Relations Act).

However Young Black People, Not As Acquiescent As Their Parents, Were Fightin’ Back Against A British Hostile Environment.There Was To Be A Culture Clash Because The Children of The Windrush Generation Were Not Willing To Tolerate The Foolishness of The Racist Police That Had Dogged Their Parents’ Generation. They Seen Too Many Trials And Tribulations As Endured By Those Parents. They Had Grown Up With The Black Power Movement.

The 1976 Notting Hill Carnival Police Agitation Erupted Again As The MET, Having Learnt Absolutely Nothing, Used The Same Heavy-Handed Tactics They Used At The Mangrove Restaurant Protests – Even Though Those Tactics Landed Them In Court And Exposed Them As Liars.

This Was Arguably The Black Power Movement’s Biggest Legal & Historical Achievement.

The Biggest Tragedy Is That Still, To This Day, The MET Refuse To Learn From It Sufficiently. And The Same Old Mistakes, Mistreatments And Mismanagements Are Still Being Made, By Them Today.

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Commentators, Organisations & Some Major Mangrove Moments

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It Comes As A Great Shock To Discover Gary Cooper Killin’ off The Indians, When You Were Rootin’ For Gary Cooper, That The Indians Were You.

It Comes A Great Shock To Discover That The Country In Its Whole System of Reality Has Not Evolved Any Place For You.

The Late African-American Writer James Baldwin (Pictured)

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Kelso Cochrane – Was Tragically Stabbed To Death By A White Gang One Night In Notting Hill In The 1950s. Police Denied It Was Racially Motivated And Nobody Was Prosecuted. This Sowed The Seeds of Mistrust In & Disrespect For The Police.

Charlie Phillips – (Photographer): Was Attacked By A Group of Teddy Boys & Was Rescued By A White Woman Who Put Her Arm Around Him & Took Him Away, Tellin’ The White Boys To Leave Him Alone, Sayin “We’ve Got Sons As Well” (Implyin’ That White Mothers Could Empathise With Black Women Who Would Not Wish To Hear Harm Had Come To Their Sons). It Inspired Him To Start Takin’ Photographs.

Rodem Gordon  –  (Set Up The Black People’s Information Centre): It Sought To Help The Black Community Around The Issues of Legal Services, Housing & Education, & Policing. It Was Based At The Back-Ah-Yard Restaurant

Cecil Gutzmore (Black People’s Information Centre): In School Black Children Were Bein’ Misdiagnosed As Educationally Subnormal & Black & Dangerous And Bein’ Put Into Special Needs Schools. He Also Helps Explain The Demise of The Movement.

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Zianab Abbas: (Black Liberation Party) It Was Just The Lack of Opportunity. The School Told My Mother I Should Go & Work In The Local GEC Factory Because They Decided I Wasn’t Goin’ To Do My O’ Levels & I Wasn’t Goin’ To Do My A’ Levels And I Wasn’t Goin’ To Go To University. The Anger Inside Me Was Just…I Can’t Describe It.

The Main Focus Was Education & Social Programmes.  And How Olive Morris Was One of The Bravest Women In The Movement.

Olive Norris (The Squatting Movement): Helped Establish The First Brixton Black Women’s Group. And Led The Squatting Movement Which Was A Protest Movement Against Poor Housing Conditions.

Leila Hassan Howe (Black Unity And Freedom Party): “My Mother Was East End Workin’ Class & My Father Was Muslim And They Married. The Marriage Didn’t Last And I’ve Lived A Very Isolated Existence Because In My Family Which Is A Very Large East End Workin’ Class Family, I Was The Only Black Person. My Experience Led Me To Read. I Read James Baldwin. I Read Any Black Literature Goin. But James Baldwin Was A Mainstay.”

She Also Explains How The Vietnam War Demonstrations And The Women’s Liberation Front In America  Provided Inspiration To The Black Power Movement.

[Black People Around The World Reacted To The Black Power Salute of The Athletes At The Olympics 1968]

But Ultimately How The Speghetti House Siege Saw The Government Try And Further Quell The Movement. Albeit It A Little More Cunningly & Diplomatically. Nonetheless She Explains What The Movement Did Achieve And Why Its History Is So Important.

Jean Ambrose: A Friend of Hers Who Was In The Movement Too Is Also Featured In The Documentary.

Neil Kenlock (Black Power Movement Photographer): The Camera Is There To Protect, To Help & To Show…

The Fasimbas – Winston Trew. Martial Arts Were Important Because It Gave Confidence. Enormous Confidence. He Explains How He And Friends Were Set Up By A Police Officer Called Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell And Sent To Prison For Theft And Assault. The Oval Four. He Was Later Found To Be A Corrupt Officer In Association With The Anti-Mugging Division.

Ansel Wong – Was A Member of The Black Liberation Front – (Married His Wife When She Was In The Black Panther Movement) 

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The Godfather of Soul, James Brown

Linton Kwesi Johnson – (lintonkwesijohnson.com) Becoming A Member of The Black Power Movement Introduced Johnson To Literature.

“As School Boy I Had No Idea Black People Wrote Books” He Says On Camera.

This Is Both Testimony To The Biased Nature of The British Education System And The Importance of Being Taught Black History. And Furthermore How The Abscence of A Diverse Narrative Can Help Formulate Social & Cultural Impressions And Sterotypes of Black People. By Both White People, And, Black People Themselves!

‘The Souls of Black Folk’ By W.E.B. DU BOIS  Inspired Him To Write Poetry, As Did The Black Panther Movement In America (Especially With The Athletes At The 1968 Olympics Makin The Black Panther Sign With Their Fists Bein’ Very Inspirational To Many In The Movement At The Time).

Music Was Important Too. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On. Stevie Wonder ~ Just Enough For The City. James Brown.

He Says “Say It Loud & Say It Proud” By James Brown Is One of The First Earliest Rap’ Tunes Because James Brown Is Not Naturally Singin’ On That Track, He’s Talkin’.

Linton Was To Later To Join Darcus Howe, A Main Black Power Movement Speaker, Editing A Magazine Produced Through The Race Today Collective Associated With The Black Power Movement.

And He Was Eventually To Become An Award-Winning Writer, Public Speaker, And World Class Orator.

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Desmond Gittens (Black People’s Information Centre): Explains That Darcus Howe Was An Intellectual Who Got Involved With Michael X Who Was Less Educated And More Hot-Headed, Extremist, A Fan of Malcom X And Fame-Hungry. Darcus Was A Trinidadian Legal Student Who Came To Britain Around This Time. He Was The Nephew of Political Writer C.L.R.  James.

Farrukh Dhondy (Poet) Member of The Black Panther Movement:  Attended The National Conference of Black People, Britain 1968, Alexander Palace, Wood Green, London N22, May 1968. Altheia Jones Was There And Declared Herself A Member of The Black Power Movement. She Came From Trinidad To Study Biochemistry At University College London & Opposed State Sponsored Racism In Britain’s Former Colonies.

United Coloured People’s Association: (Obi Egbuma & Roy Saw) – A Commentator Explains There Was A Group Called The Racial Adjustment Society (But It Never Achieved Racial Adjustment; Micheal de Freitas Became Friends With Malcom X When Malcom Came To Britain. He Even Changed His Name To Michael X. Both Wanted The System Destroyed To The Ground And To “Ashes”.)

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Race Hate Rhetoric During The 1964 Elections, The 1968 Enoch Powell (Rivers of Blood Speech), And The Police As Members of Society

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parliament.uk

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1964 General Elections Saw Tory Peter Griffiths Use The Following Offensive Slogan “If You Want A “N Word” For A Neighbour Vote Labour.”

Painted On Walls Was “Keep Africa Black.”  “Keep Britian White.” “Blacks Go Home.”

“This Is A Community That Wants To Keep Its Identity That’s Why I Refuse To Condemn People Who Have Made Extreme Statements. That’s   Why I’ve Said If People Feel So Strongly That They Are Prepared To Put Things In These Words We Should Find Out What Is It That Makes Them Feel  So Strongly & We Should Remove The Cause.”

Harold Wilson Said In Reply – “I Think That Is An Utterly Squalid & Degrading Thing For Any English Man or Any Member of The Commonwealth To Say.” “It Was Said In Fact By The Conservative Candidate In The Smethwick Division, Where They Are I Think Degrading Politics To About The Lowest Level I’ve Known In My Lifetime.”

Smethwick Won By Just 7%. It Showed The Electoral Power of Racism In Politics. Labour Nonetheless Won The General Election And Shortly Afterwards The Labour Government Introduced The Race Relations Act (1965) Which Made The Promotion of Racial Hatred Illegal Which Was The First Attempt To Address The Racial Discrimination That Was Happenin’ In The UK.

But Discrimination With Housing, Policing, & Education Continued.

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Male Voice On Old Documentary: “We Do Ask A Great Deal of Our Policeman. The Men Empowered To Deprive Us of Our Liberty. But In the Police Force Half of Them Never Manage To Pass A Single O’Level At School.”

Female Voice On Old Documentary: “The Police & Them Were Not Very Bright, They Were Like Teddy Boys, National Front, Who Joined The Force, And Had A Licence Now To Beat Up Black People.”

Male Voice On Old Documentary: The Report Criticises The Junior Ranks of The Metropolitan Police, The Constables or Sergeants Who Go Out “N Word” Huntin’ Without Instruction From Their Superiors, To Bring A Coloured Person At All Cost.”

Male Voice On Old Documentary: There Was Certainly Plenty of Crime Goin’ On Mostly Because They Couldn’t Get Jobs or This Kind of Thing, They Were Most Likely To Be Doin’ Something Wrong. Our Job Was To Just Lock Them Up.

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On 7 December 1964 Martin Luther King Stopped off In Britain On His Way To Accept A Noble Peace Prize.  He Delivered A Speech Which Highlighted The Similarities Between British & American Racism.

1965 Malcolm X Came To Smethwick. “I Think It’s A Choice Between Intelligence & The Lack of Intelligence. Any Intelligent Human Being Is Goin’ To Protect Himself When He’s Attacked.”

Stokely Carmichael First Worked With MLK And Then Changed To Radicalism After His Friend Was Shot Protesting Peacefully. He Helped Build The Black Panthers In America. He Was Accused of “Black Racialism” & Banned From The Country & Banned From Re-Entering. The FBI Described Him As The Most Likely Successor To Malcom X After The Charismatic Leader Was Assassinated.

Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, Soon Set Up A New Police Department  Within The MET’s Special Branch Unit To Specifically Monitor Black Activism, Namely, ‘The Black Power Desk’.

Michael X, The Founder of The Racial Adjustment Action Society (‘RAAS’), Paradoxically, Was The First Black Person To Be Imprisoned Under The 1965 Race Relations Act (‘RRA’). This Was After He Called For The Killing of Any White Man Seen To Physically Abuse A Black Woman (Following The Racist Attacks Which Provoked The 1958 Notting Hill Riots, Which Included White Men Attacking Black Women). He Eventually Returned To Trinidad, Where He Was Later Hung For Murder After Killing Two People And Burying Them On The Land of His Trinidadian Commune.

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Darcus Howe (A Former Trinidadian Law Student And Thus One of The Most Articulate Black Power Movement Leaders) Was Interviewed By The BBC TV Programme ‘Cause For Concern’ Which Invited Him To Talk About Police Impropriety:

“The Policeman Who Frames The Black Man Is Doin’ So with A Confidence The System Is Goin’ To Give Him A Conviction. Which Therefore Produces A Lack of Confidence In The Black Man.”

On The Current Affairs Show Darcus Told The Deputy Commissioner of Police Robert Mark “It’s A Complete Disrespect For The Way of Life, History & Present Day, of Black People.”

He Later Said “Educated In The World of Reason I Was Equipped With A Degree of Confidence. I Knew What Was Happenin’ In America, I Had Been There And I Wasn’t Goin’ To Come Back Here and Put Up With That (Crap).”

“A Policeman Is Only Racist In That He’s Part of A Racist Society. And You Cannot Ask A Policeman To Change His Racist Clothin’ If You Don’t Change The Society.”

This Is The Exact Same View That Former Liverpool & England Footballer, Now Commentator, John Barnes Takes Today.

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4^th 4^th 1968 MLK Assassinated. Reportedly By The FBI.

“Will The Murders Never Cease. Are They Men or Are They Beasts?”

Nina Simone

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20 April 1968 (Shadow Defence Secretary) Enoch Powell Delivered His Rivers of Blood Speech Durin’ His Party Leadership Campaign (Whilst Addressing The West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre)

He Was Fired From His Roll As Shadow Defence Secretary The Next Day By Tory Party Leader Ted Heath.

He Was Objectin’ To The 1968 Race Relations Act Enacted To Combat Racism In Housin’ & Education, Despite Bein’ The Former Health Secretary Who Called For West Indians To Come Help Rebuild The Country & Staff The NHS (1960-63).

Reportedly 67 – 82 Percent of The British Population Agreed With His Sentiment According To A Number of Polls. His Personal Appeal Helped The Tories Win The General Election of 1970 And His Person Action of Supporting A Labour Motion, Lose It Four Years Later.

Black Guest Commentator On The Programme ’24 Hours’: “What Enoch Powell Has Said Is Exactly Like What Michael De Frietas Said. Yet Mr De Frietas Goes In Jail.”

“Now Why?”

“There Must Be A Reason. And The Only Reason I Can See Is One Is Black & One Is White.”

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Insightful Contributions From The Perspective of Good Cops & Bad Cops

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Ian Moss, Former Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent – (Comes Across As The Sort Cooper That Would Readily Seek To Criminalize Members of The of the African Caribbean Community By Accusing Them of “Smelling of Cannabis”Who Stinks of Contempt For The Black Community He Was Supposed To Be Serving & Protecting) Says To Camera: “There’s An Old Sayin’ “The Community Gets The Policing It Deserves.”

“When I Was A Sergeant What Was Surprising’ To Me Was The Almost Boisterous Hostility That You Faced As A Police Officer On The Street.”

“If You’re Called To An Incident You Have To Exert Your Authority, You Have To Take Charge And Sometimes In Brixton This Wasn’t Possible. And So Not Believin’ I Would Do A Professional Job – You Know, Who Had The Prejudice?”

“One of The Points of Conflict Was Noisy Parties On A Saturday Night. A House Full of Two or Three Hundred Black People.“

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Charlie Phillips (Photographer): There Wasn’t Any Music Entertainment To Suit our Taste And Half The Time We Weren’t Welcome So We Created These House Parties.

That War That The Police Declared Against Us Manifested Itself In All Kinds of Ways, Being Arrested For Sus’ (Suspicion of Committin’  A Crime), Attempting To Steal From Persons Unknown, Raids On Our Parties, A War of Attrition Against Sound Systems That Provide The Nexus For Our Culture of Resistance Through Reggae Music & So On.

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Peter Eldrich (Former Policeman) Was Posted To Harlesdon, “A Workin’ Class Area, With A Lot of Incomin’ West Indians.”

“The West Indians Love To Have Parties Big Parties, Small Parties. The Person Holdin The Party Would Buy All The Stuff & The People Who Came To The Party Would Pay. And That Is Technically  Illegal. I Mean It’s A Nothin’ Crime, But Technically It’s Illegal.”

Moss: The Police Have To Uphold The Law And Right People Didn’t Have Noisy Parties In Brixton.

Eldrich: If It Had Been A White People’s Party There Wouldn’t Have Been A Raid In There. Yeah It Was Racism.

“Mostly It Was A Little Squad That Did It But For Some Reason This One Night They Were Goin’ To Raid About 6 Houses & They Wanted Volunteers. So We Volunteered.  It Was Excitin’, Plain Clothes, You Know, Wow!”

“We Went Into This House & There Were Loads of West Indians Havin’ A Big Party. And I Remember One of The Police Officers Bashed Down The Livin’ Room Door. It Was An Absolute Melee And They Were Arrestin’ People And A Police Officer Got Hit Over The Head. And We Ended Draggin’ About Half A Dozen of These West Indians Back To The Station In The Van And After That…”

…[Eldrich’s Voice Begins To Break…] “The One Man They Thought Had Smashed The Beer Can Over The Police Officer’s Head They Took Into A Cell And This One Police Officer Called John, A Really Big Fella, Just Beat Him Up. And I Just Remember Standin’ There Watchin’. He Was Bleedin’ And He Was Pleadin’ Sayin’ No Stop It. I Don’t Remember He Was Just Askin’ Him To Stop It And Askin’ God To Help Him. That’s All I Remember. I Didn’t Join The Police To Beat People Up.”

“And I Was Just Very Upset About It.” [His Lip Is Quivering Now And He Is Clearly Still Very Upset About It].

“I Was Kind of Ashamed I Was There. I Didn’t Do Anything. I Didn’t Say Anything. I Didn’t Have The Courage To Do That. I Mean In A Perfect World I Would Have Said Stop This Right Now Or I’ll Report Everybody. But I Was A Young Police Officer On Probation. It Never Even Occurred To Me To Do That. I Just Didn’t Know What To Do.”

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Documentary Narration: With Brutal Treatment At The Hands of The Police A Constant Source of Outrage, The Black Power Movement Needed Strong Leadership. And As Far As The British Press Were Concerned ‘Michael X’ Was The Movement’s Defacto Leader.

He Had Previously Been A Strong Arm Man For A Notorious Notting Hill Slum Landlord In The 1960s & 70s. He Was So Notorious He Featured In A BBC1 1963 Panorama Documentary Investigating The Issue And His Involvement In It.

After Being Released From Prison Michael X’s Talent For Self-Promotion Had Garnered Financial Support From Celebrities Such As John Lennon And Yoko Ono Who Auctioned Off Their Hair To Raise Funds In The Name of Black Power. And Funds Came From Sammy Davis Junior Too For The Black Power Movement. Michael Also Set Up A Commune Called The Black House.

His Continued Involvement In Criminality Saw Both The Black Eagles And The Black House Negatively Effected And Michael Disappearing To Trinidad.

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The Mangrove Restaurant Trial

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Darcus Re-focused His Attention On A New Community Hub, The Mangrove Restaurant, In Heart of Notting Hill And Owned By Frank Critchely. Critchley Had Set Up The Restaurant To Cater For Caribbeans Hungry For The Culinary Tastes of Home And Anyone Else Who Wanted To Enjoy Them.

Bob Marley, Sammy Davis Jnr, Nina Simone, Vanessa Redgrave, And Leonard Cohen Were Supporters.

The Police Harassed The Restaurant And Its Customers.PC Frank Pulley Was The Ringleader And Main Agitator. Including Mimicking The Jamaican Accent. Accusations Were Made of Selling Marijuana As An Excuse For Regular Raids. Customers Began To Stay Away. The Police Harassment Destroyed This Black Business. They Wanted It Closed Down. The Accused Black People of Stealing And Being Lazy. Yet When They Worked Hard At Building A Business They Still Don’t Like It.

A Campaign Called ‘Hands of The Mangrove’ Developed In Order To Highlight The Problem. Darcus Howe And Altheia Lecointe Jones, & Another Leader of The Local Black Panther Movement Organised A Peaceful  Demonstration. It Took Place Sunday 9 August 1970. It Was The First Time The Black Community And Their Allies Ever Protested In This Organised Way To This Degree.

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Darcus Howe Interview 1970

“I Want To Fight

I Want To Fight

I Need To Fight To Express Something.

I Need To Argue. I Need To Scream.

That Is The Situation That British Society Has Placed Me In.”

Charlie Phillips – “I Was Into Violence Because I Used To Feel So Hurt Inside When I See ‘Liberty Take’ With People”

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Nine of The Most Vocal Black Power Movement Members Were Arrested. 7 Men & 2 Women. They Became Known As The Mangrove 9.Frank Critchley. Darcus Howe. And Anltheia Were Amongst Them. Affray. Assault On Police. Riot. Were Amongst The 31 Charges.

Ian Mcdonald QC Championed The Cause of The Mangrove 9. Darcus And Altheia Defended Themselves As They Wanted To Tell Their Story Their Way. All The Mangrove 9 Were Acquitted.

The Judge Said He Had Found Evidence of Racial Hatred On Both Sides. This Was The First Official Acknowledgement From The Establishment That Racism Existed Within The MET.

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Linton Kwesi Johnson

“That Was An Historic Victory. It Was A Sense of What Black Power Was All About. Black Power Really Meant The Only Way You’re Going To Effectively Fight Racism Is To Organise Yourselves And Fight Back.

Linton Kwesi Johnson, Civil Rights Activist, Writer & Poet

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It Was A Watershed Trial Because It Was The Beginning of A Realization That The Police Did Not Behave Like Gentlemen And All The Rest of It, By The Establishment In This Country.

Ian Macdonald QC (1991)

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     America, Britain & The Speghetti Siege

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Photo Gallery: Leila Hassan Howe, With Barbara Beese (of The Mangrove 9), And Also Darcus Howe, Her Late Husband, @bcaheritage @darcushowe @cheltladiescoll

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On Both Sides of The Atlantic Police Were Continued Cracking Down on The Black Power Movement.

The Black Liberation Front Had Established Links With The American Black Panthers.

Their Newspaper ‘Grassroots’ Reprinted An Article From The Black Panther Newspaper In America Which Including A Guide To Bomb-Making. It Was The Perfect Excuse To Arrest, Charge, Trial, And Jail One of Their Leaders For Months.

Add To This The Speghetti House Siege By Three So Called Members of The Black Liberation Front Which Was A Ridiculous Restaurant Robbery That Went Ridiculously Wrong, Due, Frankly, To The Stupidity of The Robbers. It Lasted For Over 5 Days. All 6 Italian Hostages Were Released Without Harm. It’s Beyond Words. Watch For Yourselves. Sufffice to Say The Devil Is in The Detail!

This Event Spelt The Beginning of The End of The Black Power Movement of This Time.

 “We Were A Hodge-Podge of Different Ideologies”

“And of Course The Government Did Respond To The Change In Black Power. Because They Co-opted Many of The Black Power People.” (On Screen Words of A Former Member of The Black Power Movement.)

Lelia Hassan Howe (Black Power Movement Member) Spells Out How It Worked:

“Money Was Being Poured Into The Black Community For Projects To Try And Diffuse The Demands That Were Being Made. So If Your Demand Was For Decent Housing For Young Black Men, They Would Give You Money For A Hostel. So The Demand For Decent Housing Was Diffused. Because They Didn’t Get Decent Housing. They Got A Hostel. But The Hostel Was Run By A Black Person.”

‘Black Power: A Story of Resistence’. BBC March 25 2021. Also Available On BBC iPlayer.

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