British Black Panthers

The BBP worked to educate black communities and fight against racial discrimination. Members of the BBP worked to educate one another and British communities about black history. Black and South Asian activists were involved with the group. Several branches existed, but the main centre of the organisation was in Brixton, South London. 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.). The BBP published its own newspaper called Freedom News, == History ==

Malcolm X was visiting the UK between 1964 and 1965, 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. Carmichael's speech and visit influenced writer Obi Egbuna. Egbuna, in 1966, spent time in the United States learning about the black power movement in the United States. Activists in Britain were also inspired by the Black Panther newspaper, and watching reports on the US Black Panthers on the BBC. The British Black Panther Movement (BPM) were founded in the summer of 1968, by Obi Egbuna, Darcus Howe, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Olive Morris, who were influenced by the American Black Panther Party. 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. 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. The group was initially known as the British Black Power Movement, but after about a year, changed its name to the British Black Panthers. 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. The arrest attracted the first media attention the group received, where they were labelled as "black racialists" and "extremists." After Egbuna, Altheia Jones-LeCointe took his place as leader of the movement. The growth of the organisation was slow, but by the early 1970s, they were "firmly ensconced in Britain's left political culture," and there were around 3,000 members. 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. There were 700 police involved, and violence and arrests took place. Nineteen members of the BBP were arrested, though later the charges against 10 were dropped. The remaining people, who became known as the "Mangrove Nine", chose to either defend themselves or have "radical barrister Ian McDonald" represent them. Eventually the movement "collapsed amid infighting, power struggles and 'kangaroo courts'," according to The Guardian. == Impact ==

Actions and educational efforts by the BBP helped expose racism in schools and in the government. 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. 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. A television drama miniseries, Guerrilla (2017), explores the British Black Panthers movement in the early 1970s. 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. == Notable members ==