The march she led in 1981 helped forge a black British identity. She talks about revolution, police brutality and Black Lives Matter

On Monday 2 March 1981, Leila Hassan Howe led a 20,000-person march through the streets of London. It was designed, she said, to “cause maximum disruption” and so, for eight hours, on a working day, the protesters marched; when they stopped the traffic on Blackfriars Bridge the police were so angry they tried to end it there. When they continued down Fleet Street – then synonymous with the British media – Hassan Howe says that “people were throwing banana skins at us”. Yet neither the police nor overt racism in the home of the press could stop them.

The protest that Hassan Howe helped organise – with her partner, the journalist, activist and publisher Darcus Howe – was dubbed the National Black People’s Day of Action. And it was unlike anything seen in Britain before. Today it is considered to be a turning point in black British identity.

Continue reading…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Europe pins hopes on vaccine campaigns as Covid curbs relaxed

Leaders across continent look to gathering pace of vaccinations as key to…

Keir Starmer defends Labour’s ‘robust and costed’ plan to freeze energy bills – UK politics live

Labour leader says policy for a windfall tax on energy is needed…

Sainsbury’s will do well to take the low-pay pressure seriously | Nils Pratley

It’s hard to see why the supermarkets have resisted real living wage…

Daniel Khalife: police searching Chiswick area after ‘confirmed sightings’

Met police searching west London district for escaped terror suspect after ‘intelligence-led…