On this day, 9 January 1945, biochemist and Black radical Altheia Jones-LeCointe was born in Trinidad. Later moving to Britain, in the 1970s, Altheia was a leading activist in the British Black Panthers, and was one of the people arrested and acquitted in the racist trial of the Mangrove 9. Nine Black people were charged with 39 offences following a police raid of the Mangrove Caribbean restaurant in London’s Notting Hill, which was undertaken in order to disrupt Black anti-racist organising efforts. Jones-LeCointe along with her co-defendant Darcus Howe represented themselves during the 55 day trial, which ended with the first official acknowledgement that British police targeted Black people due to “racial hatred”, in the judge’s closing statement.
These events have just been featured in the recent film, Mangrove by Steve McQueen, in which Jones-LeCointe was played by Letitia Wright.
Learn more about Black working class organising in Britain in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/the-making-of-the-black-working-class-in-britain-ron-ramdin https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1626430087542135/?type=3