Darcus Howe - Early Life and Early Career

Early Life and Early Career

Howe was born in Moruga, Trinidad, the son of an Anglican priest. He first moved to England at the age of 18, arriving on the SS Antilles at Southampton. He intended to study law at Middle Temple, but left the law for journalism. He returned to Trinidad, where his uncle and mentor, radical intellectual CLR James, inspired him to combine writing with political activism. A brief spell as assistant editor on the Trinidad trade union paper The Vanguard was followed by a return to Britain, where he served as editor of the magazine Race Today from 1973 to 1985.

He became a member of the British Black Panther Movement, and in the summer of 1970 took part in a protest against the frequent police raids of the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, where he worked on the till. The restaurant had become a meeting place for black people, serving as what Howe called the "headquarters of radical chic". It was raided 12 times between January 1969 and July 1970 by police looking for drugs, and so 150 demonstrators marched on the local police station in protest, a demonstration that ended in violence. Six weeks later, Howe and eight others—the Mangrove Nine—were arrested for riot, affray and assault. He and four of his co-defendants were acquitted of all charges after a celebrated 55-day trial in 1971 at the Old Bailey, which included an unsuccessful demand by Howe for an all-black jury, and fighting in the dock when some of the defendants tried to punch the prison officers. The judge stated that there was "evidence of racial hatred on both sides"—the first acknowledgement from a British judge that there was racial hatred in the Metropolitan Police Service.

In 1977 Howe was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for assault, after a racially motivated altercation at a London Underground Station, but was released upon appeal after protests over his arrest. Linton Kwesi Johnson contributed a song, "Man Free (For Darcus Howe)", to the campaign for his release.