Darcus howe biography of rory gilmore

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He came to London as a teenager in intending to study and practice law. He, like all Black newcomers, was shocked at his reception and treatment by the English after his arrival. Refusing to submit to the second class status that Britain wanted to impose on him, he abandoned his plans to study law in order to become a writer.

It was here that Darcus personally encountered members of The US based Black Panther Party, a meeting that inspired him to develop a similar self-determination movement for Black people in the UK. Darcus helped organise the community response and a protest march was arranged. Darcus famously addressed the protestors atop a parked car as the march began to demonstrate against the racist and oppressive police.

After a predictably heavy-handed response by the police on the day, the protest took a violent turn and many protestors were arrested. Among these were 9 individuals including Darcus, who became known as the Mangrove Nine. Darcus represented himself at the subsequent trial and gave a masterclass in litigation, forensically dismembering the police and prosecution witnesses during his cross-examination and turning the trial into an indictment of police racism, harassment and brutality.

One masterstroke was to cite the Magna Carta in demanding an all Black jury of his peers; although this demand went unmet, the defence eliminated 63 candidate jurors and made sure that two of the final twelve jurors were Black. Between and , the Race Today journal and its collective of writers published articles on anti-racist political activities, campaigns, and cultural events in Britain and beyond.

Darcus Howe talks about the Mangrove Nine trial.