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British Black Panthers

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The British Black Panthers (BBP) or the British Black Panther movement (BPM) was a Black Power organisation in the United Kingdom that fought for the rights of Black people and peoples of colour in the country. The BBP were inspired by the US Black Panther Party, though they were unaffiliated with them.[1] The British Panthers adopted the principle of Political Blackness, which included activists of Black as well as South Asian origin.[2] The movement started in 1968 and lasted until around 1973.[3]

The movement reached its pinnacle with the 1970 Mangrove Nine Trial. The trial, involving members of the Panther Movement and other black activists, succeeded in fighting against police harassment of Frank Critchlow's Mangrove restaurant.

About

The BBP worked to educate Black communities and fight against racial discrimination.[4] Members of the BBP worked to educate one another and British communities about black history.[4] The BBP used imagery and symbols already established by the Black Panther Party in the United States.[5] They were fighting against police brutality in the UK and they "emphasized their own preparedness and willingness to confront police when necessary."[6] The BPM also opposed the Immigration Act 1971, defended communities against fascist violence, held civil rights demonstrations, and supported Caribbean and Palestinian liberation struggles.[7] Black and South Asian activists were involved with the group.[2]

Several branches existed, but the main centre of the organisation was in Brixton, South London.[1] The BBP also had a Youth League.[8] Headquarters, at 38 Shakespeare Road, were purchased with a donation from writer John Berger (half of his 1972 Booker Prize award for the novel G.).[1][9][10] The BBP published its own newspaper called Freedom News,[11] and other publications such as Black Power Speaks (1968) and Black People's News Service (1970).[12]

Neil Kenlock, a Jamaican-born photographer, was a member of the BBP and documented their activities.[13][14]

History

Malcolm X was visiting the UK between 1964 and 1965,[15] and Stokely Carmichael's address at the Dialectics of Liberation Congress at the Roundhouse in London in 1967, inspired many in Britain's Black power movement.[16][17] Carmichael's speech and visit influenced writer Obi Egbuna.[18] Egbuna, in 1966, spent time in the United States learning about the black power movement in the United States.[15] Activists in Britain were also inspired by the Black Panther newspaper, and watching reports on the US Black Panthers on the BBC.[19]

The British Black Panther Movement (BPM) were founded in the summer of 1968,[20] by Obi Egbuna,[21] Darcus Howe, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Olive Morris, who were influenced by the American Black Panther Party.[22] Other early members included Altheia Jones-LeCointe, as well as south Asian activists such as Farrukh Dhondy and Mala Sen under the banner of "blackness", with "Black" as a political label for all people of colour; for example, the related Southall Black Sisters were an Asian organisation.[2][23]

In 1969, the Race Today political magazine was founded by the Race Today Collective, becoming a leading organ for Black and Asian politics in 1970s Britain. It was founded by BPM members including Darcus Howe, Farrukh Dhondy, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Mala Sen.[24]

The group was initially known as the British Black Power Movement, but after about a year, changed its name to the British Black Panthers.[5] Egbuna had been arrested and was convicted in December 1968 on the charge of a conspiracy to murder police officers because of an essay he wrote about resisting police violence.[11] The arrest attracted the first media attention the group received, where they were labelled as "black racialists" and "extremists."[25]

After Egbuna, Altheia Jones-LeCointe took his place as leader of the movement.[11][26]The growth of the organisation was slow, but by the early 1970s, they were "firmly ensconced in Britain's left political culture,"[12] and there were around 3,000 members.[11]

In March 1970, around 300 BBP members demonstrated in front of the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square to protest against the treatment of the American Black Panthers.[27] On 9 August 1970, 150 protesters involved with the BBP demonstrated against the constant police raids on the Mangrove, a black-owned restaurant in Ladbroke Grove, a West Indian neighbourhood in west London.[28] There were 700 police involved, and violence and arrests took place.[28] In addition to the police, a Special Branch "black power desk" monitored the protest.[29] Nineteen members of the BBP were arrested, though later the charges against 10 were dropped.[30] The remaining people, who became known as the "Mangrove Nine", chose to either defend themselves or have "radical barrister Ian McDonald" represent them.[29] They also requested all-black juries, citing Magna Carta as precedent.[29] All members of the Mangrove Nine were later found not-guilty by the jury.[29]

The British Black Panther Movement were under extensive State surveillance by the Special Branch's "Black Power Desk". Top-secret documents were uncovered by Robin Bunce and Paul Field whilst writing their political biography of Darcus Howe. The State sought to end the Black Power movement and imprison leading figures within the BPM.[31]

Eventually the movement "collapsed amid infighting, power struggles and 'kangaroo courts'," according to The Guardian.[32]

Impact

Actions and educational efforts by the BBP helped expose racism in schools and in the government.[14] The trial of the Mangrove Nine drew attention to the fight against racism in the UK police force.[29] Robin Bunce, a biographer of Howe, said: "He basically turned it into a trial of the Police.... His defence appealed to the Magna Carta, and the media loved it because it was rooted in English traditions of fair play, but was also enormously radical and subversively funny."[33]

As the BBP began to fall apart in 1973, a number of women including Beverley Bryan, Olive Morris and Liz Obi organised to form the Brixton Black Women's Group in Brixton.[3]

In recent years, Kenlock's photographs of the BPM have been featured in exhibitions and other media. A 2013 project by Brixton arts organisation Photofusion conducted oral histories interviews with a number of members and held an exhibition of Kenlock's photographs of the BPM curated by young people.[34][35] Tate Britain's 2017 display Stan Firm Inna Inglan: Black Diaspora in London, 1960–70s, featured photographers, including Kenlock, who captured the experiences of black people during that time.[36]

A television drama miniseries, Guerrilla (2017), explores the British Black Panthers movement in the early 1970s.[2][32] However, American magazine Ebony criticised the series for not representing black women in leadership roles in the black power movement of the UK.[37] There has also been some controversy over Freida Pinto's casting as a female lead, which has been defended as historically appropriate by early British Black Panther members, Farrukh Dhondy and Neil Kenlock, noting the central role of British Asians in the movement, including Asian women such as Mala Sen, who inspired Pinto's character.[2][38]

Notable members

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Clayton, Steve (May 2014). "Mixed Media: The British Black Panther Movement". The Socialist Party of Great Britain. No. 1317. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Dhondy, Farrukh (12 April 2017). "Guerrilla: A British Black Panther's View By Farrukh Dhondy (One Of The Original British Black Panthers)". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Agyepong, Heather (10 March 2016). "The Forgotten Story of the Women Behind the British Black Panthers". The Debrief. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  4. ^ a b Bayley, Bruno (8 October 2013). "The Amazing Lost Legacy of the British Black Panthers". Vice. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  5. ^ a b Angelo 2009, p. 18.
  6. ^ Angelo 2009, p. 26.
  7. ^ Barberis, Peter, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century, London/New York: Pinter, 2000, p. 108.
  8. ^ a b Snowden, Don (9 March 1990). "Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson Finds the Right Words Again". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  9. ^ Hertel, Ralf (2015). "The Body of the Text". On John Berger: Telling Stories. BRILL. p. 145. ISBN 9789004308114.
  10. ^ "John Berger dies at 90". The Times. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2017 – via EBSCOhost.
  11. ^ a b c d "Darcus Howe and Britain's Black Power Movement". Our Migration Story: The Making of Britain. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  12. ^ a b Rhodes 2017, p. 271.
  13. ^ "About". Kenlock Photography. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  14. ^ a b Williams, Hazelann (1 September 2012). "Reliving the British Black Panther movement". The Voice. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  15. ^ a b Angelo 2009, p. 21.
  16. ^ Brown, Mark (27 December 2013). "Britain's Black Power Movement is at Risk of Being Forgotten, Say Historians". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  17. ^ Fazakarley, Jed (12 May 2016). "Race as a Separate Sphere in British Government: From the Colonial Office to Municipal Anti-racism". Callaloo. 39 (1): 185–202. doi:10.1353/cal.2016.0032. ISSN 1080-6512. S2CID 156822628 – via Project MUSE.
  18. ^ Rhodes 2017, p. 267.
  19. ^ Rhodes 2017, p. 270.
  20. ^ Lyons 2013, p. 78.
  21. ^ a b Tuck 2014, p. 198.
  22. ^ a b c Fletcher, Amber (21 February 2016). "The Black Panther Movement is Part of Black British History Too". Media Diversified. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  23. ^ Knight, Bryan (24 July 2020). "Black Britannia: The Asian Youth Movements Demonstrated the Potential for Anti-Racist Solidarity". Novara Media. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  24. ^ Knight, Bryan (10 July 2020). "Black Britannia: The Race Today Collective Demonstrated the Radical Potential of Journalism". Novara Media. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  25. ^ Rhodes 2017, p. 272.
  26. ^ Knight, Bryan (18 June 2020). "Black Britannia: Today's Anti-Racist Movement Must Remember Britain's Black Radical History". Novara Media. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  27. ^ "Black Panthers Stage Protest". The Argus. 16 March 1970. Retrieved 11 April 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ a b Bunce, Robin, and Paul Field (22 September 2017). "Frank Critchlow: Community leader who made the Mangrove Restaurant the beating heart of Notting Hill". The Independent. Retrieved 11 April 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ^ a b c d e Bunce, Robin; Field, Paul (29 November 2010). "Mangrove Nine: the court challenge against police racism in Notting Hill". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  30. ^ Angelo 2009, p. 24.
  31. ^ Knight, Bryan (24 June 2020). "Black Britannia: There Is a Long, Racist History of State Surveillance of Black Communities". Novara Media. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  32. ^ a b Hughes, Sarah (9 April 2017). "The story of the British Black Panthers through race, politics, love and power". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  33. ^ "Black Power in Britain becoming 'forgotten history'". University of Cambridge. 5 January 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  34. ^ "Organised Youth Present: The British Black Panthers". Photofusion. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  35. ^ Williams, Holly (13 October 2013). "Power struggle: A new exhibition looks back at the rise of the British". The Independent. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  36. ^ "Stan Firm inna Inglan: Black Diaspora in London, 1960–70s". Tate. Archived from the original on 13 April 2017. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  37. ^ Gaynair, M. Hyacinth (12 April 2017). "Black Women Were Vital to the UK's Black Power Movement Even Though 'Guerrilla' Doesn't Show It". Ebony. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  38. ^ Sherwin, Adam, "Freida Pinto in tears as Idris Elba Guerrilla drama hit by 'erasing blackness' row", iNews, 7 April 2017.
  39. ^ Hughes, Sarah, "The story of the British Black Panthers through race, politics, love and power", The Observer, 9 April 2017.

Sources

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