{"id":33639,"date":"2017-04-03T10:02:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T10:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/anti-racism-campaigner-darcus-howe-dies-aged-74\/"},"modified":"2017-04-03T10:02:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T10:02:51","slug":"anti-racism-campaigner-darcus-howe-dies-aged-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/anti-racism-campaigner-darcus-howe-dies-aged-74\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-racism campaigner Darcus Howe dies aged 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Civil rights activist who campaigned for more than 50 years has died at the age of 74.}<\/p>\n

Darcus Howe, one of Britain’s most prominent anti-racism campaigners, has died in London aged 74.<\/p>\n

An uncompromising champion for racial justice and fierce opponent of police brutality, Howe was born in British-ruled Trinidad in 1943 and moved to the United Kingdom in 1961.<\/p>\n

He intended to study law at London’s Middle Temple, but abandoned his plans for activism, joining the Black Panthers – a movement inspired by the American group of the same name – after experiencing racist abuse and prejudice from white Britons towards the Afro-Caribbean community.<\/p>\n

Howe would later begin a successful career in journalism, writing a regular column for the New Statesman magazine, but gained public attention in 1970 as a member of a group that marched on a west London police station to protest against repeated police raids on Mangrove, a popular Caribbean restaurant.<\/p>\n

Howe and the eight others – known as the “Mangrove Nine” – endured a 55-day trial before finally being acquitted of the main charge: incitement to riot.<\/p>\n

The trial managed to successfully highlight tensions between the black community and the British legal process, after Howe demanded an all-black jury. His request was rejected.<\/p>\n

Howe would gain further prominence in 1981 when he led 20,000 people on a “Black People’s March” to protest against an investigation into the New Cross Fire, when 13 black teenagers were killed in a suspected arson attack.<\/p>\n

Weyman Bennett, the joint national convener for Stand Up Against Racism, told Al Jazeera that Howe’s actions shaped and defined the debate on how to stop and resist racism.<\/p>\n

“Howe was one of the first people to empower young black people and oppose racism in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

“He led the fight against the [far-right] National Front in the 1970s and 1980s, a fore-runner to today’s organisations that are Islamophobic and fascist,” Bennett said.<\/p>\n

“He was outspoken on Islamophobia, the government’s [anti-terror] Prevent programme, and how Muslims are being demonised by authorities.<\/p>\n

“He was a living example to many people on why you should speak out when you see injustice, his fire to defeat such groups never died out. He was fearless.”<\/p>\n

The fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan in August 2011, which triggered riots in several poor neighbourhoods in London, further highlighted Howe’s powerful voice.<\/p>\n

During a live interview with BBC News, which has since gone viral, presenter Fiona Armstrong asked a poorly-phrased question which implied Howe was an apologist for the rioters. <\/p>\n

Howe challenged the interviewer, saying: ”Stop accusing me of being a rioter and have some respect for an old West Indian Negro. You sound idiotic – have some respect.”<\/p>\n

The BBC later apologised for any offence caused.<\/p>\n

Diane Abbott, a member of parliament with the opposition Labour Party and shadow home secretary, called Howe “a living embodiment of the struggle against police racism”.<\/p>\n

Several politicians also took to social media to pay tribute to the veteran campaigner.<\/p>\n

\"Howe<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Civil rights activist who campaigned for more than 50 years has died at the age of 74.} Darcus Howe, one of Britain’s most prominent anti-racism campaigners, has died in London aged 74. An uncompromising champion for racial justice and fierce opponent of police brutality, Howe was born in British-ruled Trinidad in 1943 and moved to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33639"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33639"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}