26 Facts About Darcus Howe

Leighton Rhett Radford "Darcus" Howe was a British broadcaster, writer and racial justice campaigner.

Originally from Trinidad, Howe arrived in England as a teenager in 1961, intending to study law and settling in London.

Darcus Howe came to public attention in 1970 as one of the nine protestors, known as the Mangrove Nine, arrested and tried on charges that included conspiracy to incite a riot, following a protest against repeated police raids of The Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, London.

Darcus Howe was an editor of Race Today, and chairman of the Notting Hill Carnival.

Darcus Howe was best known as a television broadcaster in the UK for his Black on Black series on Channel 4, his current affairs programme Devil's Advocate, and his work with Tariq Ali on Bandung File.

Darcus Howe was a columnist for the New Statesman and The Voice.

Leighton Rhett Radford Darcus Howe was born in the village of Moruga in Trinidad, the son of teacher Lucille and Cipriani Darcus Howe, an Anglican priest.

Darcus Howe was schooled in Port of Spain at Queen's Royal College, where he won a scholarship.

At the age of 18, after leaving QRC, Darcus Howe moved to England, arriving on the SS Antilles at Southampton on 11 April 1961, after a two-week journey, and taking a train on to London Waterloo station.

Darcus Howe intended to study law, but after two years at Middle Temple he left, becoming more involved with journalism.

The restaurant had become a meeting place for black people, serving as what Darcus Howe called the "headquarters of radical chic".

In what would come to be considered a landmark case, Darcus Howe elected to represent himself.

From 1973 to 1985, Darcus Howe served as editor of the magazine Race Today, which was originally connected with the Institute of Race Relations.

In 1977, Darcus 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.

In 1982, Darcus Howe began his broadcasting career on Channel 4's television series Black on Black, was co-editor with Tariq Ali of Bandung File and later White Tribe, a look at modern-day Britain and its loss of Englishness.

Darcus Howe continued to write in the New Statesman and fronted the Channel 4 current affairs programme Devil's Advocate.

Darcus Howe appeared on the discussion programme Midweek to promote the documentary on 19 October 2005 and, live on air, became involved in an angry debate with American comedian Joan Rivers.

The dispute began when Darcus Howe suggested that Rivers was offended by the use of the term "Black"; Rivers objected strongly to the suggestion that she was racist and accused Darcus Howe of having a "chip on his shoulder".

Darcus Howe was one of several public figures who fell foul of satirist and prankster Chris Morris on Morris's show Brass Eye, in the final episode, "Decline".

Darcus Howe was interviewed by Fiona Armstrong for BBC News on 9 August 2011 at the time of the 2011 England riots.

Darcus Howe has parents, he has brothers, he has sisters, and two yards away from where he lives, a police officer blew his head off.

Darcus Howe was married to the British editor and activist Leila Hassan, who succeeded him as editor of Race Today.

Howe had a relationship with fellow Black Panther and Mangrove Nine member Barbara Beese, and they have a son, Darcus Beese, who is a former president of Island Records.

Darcus Howe was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2007 and he subsequently campaigned for more men to get tested.

Darcus Howe died aged 74 on 1 April 2017, at his home in Streatham, London, where he lived with his wife Leila Howe.

Darcus Howe appears in the 1973 Franco Rosso and John La Rose documentary film The Mangrove Nine.