Civil rights campaigner

Born: February 26, 1943;

Died: April 1, 2017

DARCUS Howe, who has died aged 74, was a radical broadcaster, writer, activist and intellectual who became a powerful voice for black rights in newspapers, on television and on the streets.

He was a leading figure in the British Black Panthers, the organisation that was established in the 1960s to fight racial discrimination, inspired by the American Black Panthers, the revolutionary black organisation whose armed members monitored the behaviour of the police. Howe also spoke out about rights for immigrants and was the first democratically elected chair of the Notting Hill Carnival.

In 1981, he organised the Black People's March after the New Cross fire in which 13 black teenagers were killed. The protesters were furious at the police handling of the case - no one has ever been charged in connection with the fire, which many believed was the result of a racially motivated attack. Howe also wrote radical columns and articles for the New Statesman and was editor of the magazine Race Today.

He was born on February 26 1943 in Trinidad, where his father was a vicar and his mother was a teacher. He came to the Uk in 1961 when he was 18 years old and planned to become a lawyer. However, he started to become involved in journalism and activism and started his journalism career around 1968 at The Hustler, a magazine produced in Notting Hill, where he lived for more than 30 years.

Recalling his early days in London, he said new immigrants were a constant target. He said: "One election slogan made things as plain and as clear as can be: "If you want a n----- for a neighbour, vote Labour."

After a visit to America where he discovered more about the Black Panthers, he became involved in the British version of the organisation. Officially in existence for only four years from 1968 to 1972, it quickly became an important organisation at the time of significant racial tensions in public life. The aim was to educate British black people about their history and give them a voice to speak out against prejudice.

As a member of the Black Panthers, Howe was one of the so-called Mangrove Nine, who were arrested and charged after protesting against repeated police raids on the Caribbean restaurant Mangrove in Notting Hill in 1970. Howe had organised a campaign to stop the Metropolitan Police closing down the restaurant; they had raided it a dozen times, triggering a backlash that climaxed in a battle between police and 250 protesters. Howe later successfully defended himself against charged of riot and affray. He and four of his co-defendants were acquitted of all charges after a 55-day trial at the Old Bailey.

Seven years later, Howe became head of the Notting Hill Carnival - a year after the riots in which youths at the event fought with the police. Howe saw off attempts to police to restrict and relocate the carnival in response to the riots.

Meanwhile, his work as a journalist continued and expanded. He was editor for more than a decade at Race Today magazine, and more recently was a columnist for The Voice newspaper. He also wrote a regular column for the New Statesman, as well as having a column in the Evening Standard in the 1990s.

He was also a successful broadcaster, working for the BBC and Channel 4. He is perhaps best known for his Channel 4 series Black on Black but he also made a late-night current affairs programme for the channel, The Devil's Advocate. In 2003, he also wrote and presented the controversial series White Tribe, in which he travelled around England exploring the idea of Englishness.

More recently, Howe had been a consultant on Guerilla, a new drama by John Ridley, the writer of 12 Years a Slave, which is due to be shown on Sky Atlantic.

In 2009, he wrote about his prostate cancer diagnosis and the treatment that followed in an article for The Guardian. He said: "Long live the NHS. The campaign to persuade black men to get tested for prostate cancer starts here."

Farrukh Dhondy, who was a member of the British Black Panther movement with Howe, paid tribute to his friend. “He was one of the most important immigrant activists that Britain has known," he said. "And his great gift was that he was a practical agitator for the rights of black people, and not simply a theoretician. He was, to describe it colloquially, a street-fighting man.

“It had powerful results. I am absolutely sure that the political parties and general political opinion shifted because of the agitation and stance that he, and others, took at the time in the Black Panther movement and in magazines like Race Today.”

Robin Bunce, who co-wrote the biography - Renegade: The Life and Times of Darcus Howe - with Paul Field, hailed Howe's grass roots activism in the 1970s and 80s. He said: "I think he's also important in the 80s, 90s and 00s, because he brought a radical voice, a voice for egalitarianism and justice, to the mainstream media."

Dr Bunce, a historian at Homerton College at the University of Cambridge, added: "On a personal level, Darcus was enormously warm and generous and he loved life. It was a real privilege to get to know him."

In 2005, Howe made a film Son of Mine which followed his efforts to get close to his son Amiri following clashes with the law. He is survived by his wife Leila Hassan and his even children.