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Black Power! People's Power!

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[reporter] "Black Power."
The words can send shivers

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down the spine of
the nervous white man,

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but while the white man struggles
with his nightmare,

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the Black man struggles
with his dream.

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You have to organize
yourselves politically!

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You have to say, "My power
is not only the power to defend myself,

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but the power of the population to defend
itself by taking a collective action."

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Black people!

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[narrator]
West London, 1970.

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A group of protestors march against
harassment by the police

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of a Black-owned restaurant
called the Mangrove.

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[reporter] "Hands off the Mangrove,"
says the slogan,

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and the restaurant was
the gathering point for the march.

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[narrator]
Black Power had arrived in Britain.

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It was like an awakening.
It was like a Black awakening.

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[narrator]
Young Black people were fighting back

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against their hostile environment.

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It was an immigrant community
in transition,

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from victim to protagonist,
and I just thought: at last.

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[narrator]
They stood up to the state,

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and they defied
the brutality of the police.

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We were not as acquiescent
as our parents.

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We saw ourselves
as revolutionary, you know.

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[narrator]
It was a conflict that reached

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the highest courts in the land.

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[woman] Since we've come here,
we've suffered a long trail of abuses

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by the police, with the active knowledge
and support of the British state.

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[Alan Moss] Policing,
you have to take charge,

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and sometimes,
this wasn't possible.

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Who had the prejudice?

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[Frank Crichlow] You know,
I want to fight, I want to fight.

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I need to argue.
I need to scream!

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[narrator]
And the question of violent resistance

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would increasingly challenge
the movement.

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[reporter] The 20-hour siege
started just before two this morning.

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[Farrukh Dhondy]
The outcome was quite tragic.

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It was a criminal act,
but it was for political purposes.

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[narrator]
For the first time on-screen,

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many of the people who made it happen
will tell the inside story.

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A forgotten history of the rise and fall
of the British Black Power movement.

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I think Black Power said,
"We're not going back home.

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Britain belongs to us.
We're here to stay."

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We were fighting for our rights.
We're still fighting for our rights.

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I think the youngsters in
the Black Lives Matter Movement

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need to appraise themselves
of what has gone before,

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so that they can draw some lessons

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from the battles that we fought and won.

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I've never been
a turn-the-other-cheek person.

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You punch me in the face,
I am gonna punch you back.

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[♪ Small Faces:
"What'cha Gonna Do About It"]

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It was very interesting
when I came to London

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because I came in 1965.

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It was a Thursday,
and Top of the Pops was on.

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[narrator]
Rock 'n roll and revolution.

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In Britain, the swinging sixties
blew open a new era of possibility

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for young people.

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But not everyone felt included.

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There was an unofficial color bar,
which meant that Black and Asian people

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were openly discriminated against.

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For Black teenager Neil Kenlock
and many like him,

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it was the beginning of a struggle
to feel part of Britain.

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As a young boy in Brixton,
and, um...

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there was a-a club in Brixton...

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and the person at the door said,
"We don't want your type here.

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Go home."

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I said, "I am not going to leave."

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Typical Black person,
I am not going to go.

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Um, they said, "Look, if you don't go,
we're going to call the police."

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Now, I didn't know how to cope with that.
I didn't know what to do.

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You'd walk into pubs,
and they'd ignore your presence.

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You'd stand at the bar for half an hour,
and they wouldn't serve you.

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Other customers would come in,
you know, white customers,

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and they would serve them
straight away,

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and then you'd get stubborn,
you know, you wouldn't turn away.

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"Excuse me, can I have
two pints of beer?"

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"Excuse me, you were not there."

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[narrator]
For a young Winston Trew,

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newly arrived from Jamaica,

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the welcome he received
was a complete shock.

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[Winston Trew] First day at school,
I am the only Black boy in the school,

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and a white boy walks up
and punches me in the face,

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so my first experience
coming to this country

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was racism and violence.

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Every Sunday afternoon
and Sunday evenings,

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you'd have Tarzan movies
played on the TV.

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You'd see Tarzan as a white hero,

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and you'd see Africans fearful,
running from lions.

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I feared going to school
on the Monday mornings

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because white people would say to you,
"I saw you on the TV last night.

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Was that your family
I saw on the TV?"

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There were only three other
Black children in the school,

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and I can only say my life there
was absolutely horrendous.

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We were ostracized in the playground.

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I remember kids putting up
their hands, and saying,

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"Miss, Miss, why are all
these people coming here?

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My dad says it's to take our jobs."

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My opinion is that they're taking
all the jobs of the white-white people.

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My husband's here now,
and he can't get a job anywhere.

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They're a nuisance when you've got
to walk past them in the streets.

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They won't move.

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They're a nuisance at work.
They won't work.

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[narrator]
Tensions had been building

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since the UK government
invited its Commonwealth citizens

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to come and help the mother country
get back on its feet

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in the aftermath of
the second world war.

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Working in Britain's transport system,
its factories,

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and the newly formed
National Health Service,

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the migrants played a key role
in rebuilding the nation.

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Peter Knight, please.

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[narrator]
But as Caribbean, African,

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and Asian families began
to settle and create communities

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in all the major cities,

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some in Britain came to resent
their new neighbors.

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I know there's a lot of
colored people working in hospitals,

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and we couldn't do it without them,

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but they're filling the hospitals up
for staff to employ them,

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to look after them,
I mean the maternity.

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I'm having a baby at the moment,
and look at our street,

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absolutely full of
pregnant Indian women,

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and they're there all the time.

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[narrator]
The new arrivals often had to put up with

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poor housing conditions,

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and they were facing
increasingly hostile locals.

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In 1958, violence exploded
in London's Notting Hill,

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when gangs of white youths,
known as the Teddy Boys,

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encouraged by far-right groups,

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started attacking
the local Black community.

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[muffled commotion]

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[reporter] An angry crowd of youths
chases a Negro into a greengrocer shop,

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while police reinforcements
are called out to check the riots.

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After the riots,
I always remembered one afternoon,

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I got attacked by some Teddy Boys.

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I was about 14 at the time,

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and this white woman came,
put her arms around me,

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and took me away,

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and she told these Teddy Boys
to go away.

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"We've got sons as well.
We've got sons as well.

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You can't do that
to a little colored kid."

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Yeah, and I always remember that day.

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Within our tight-knit community,

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some of the white women
used to take our sides,

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and this is why I just thought
I'd start taking photographs,

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document some of these people,
while growing up.

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But this was the era
that we had to go through,

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fighting the Teddy Boys.

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And this is how Kelso Cochrane
got killed.

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But the police didn't do anything.

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[narrator] Kelso Cochrane,
a carpenter from Antigua,

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was stabbed to death by a white gang
one night near Notting Hill.

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The police denied that the killing
was racially motivated,

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and nobody was prosecuted.

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For many Black people,

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it appeared as if their lives
did not matter.

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Even at school,

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children were not safe
from institutional prejudice.

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[Gutzmore]
The British educational system

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was pushing Black children
into special schools,

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misdiagnosing Caribbean youngsters

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as educationally subnormal.

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And the perception
was that Black boys, especially,

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had low IQ and were big and dangerous.

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[Zainab Abbas] It was just
the lack of opportunity.

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I remember my teachers
telling my mother,

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even though I was
a very bright kid,

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that I should go and work in
the local GEC factory,

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stripping electrical wires

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because they decided
I wasn't going to do my O-levels,

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and I wasn't going to do my A-levels,
and I wasn't going to go to university.

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So, you know,
the anger inside me was just...

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I can't describe it.

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[narrator]
Anxiety for the future was magnified

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when Zainab and her family
watched the news

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and saw state-sponsored
racism in action

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under the apartheid regime
of South Africa,

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a former British colony.

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Southern Africa, we would discuss
it virtually every day at home.

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You're growing up,
you're a teenager,

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and you're faced with
all these struggles around the world,

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and looking at what
we were facing here.

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They weren't killing us,
but they might as well have been

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because they were killing our lives.
We had no future.

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[Leila Hassan Howe] My mother
was East End working-class,

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my father was Muslim,
and they married.

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The marriage didn't last,
and I lived a very kind of

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isolated existence,
'cause in my family,

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which was a very large
working-class, East London family,

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I was the only Black person.

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[Leila Hassan Howe]
My experience led me to read.

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Mr. James Baldwin
has hardly a need of introduction.

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I read James Baldwin.
I read any Black literature going.

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But Baldwin
was my kind of mainstay.

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I...

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[narrator]
James Baldwin was a radical activist

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and writer whose books exposed
the impact of racism in America.

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It comes as a great shock to discover
that Gary Cooper killing off the Indians,

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when you were
rooting for Gary Cooper...

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that the Indians were you.

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It comes as a great shock to discover
the country has not,

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in its whole system of reality,
evolved any place for you.

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So I wrote to Baldwin
and probably poured my heart out,

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and told him what I was experiencing,

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and told him that his books
had given me hope.

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Thank you.

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00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:34,960
[applause]

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And James Baldwin
sent me a telegram back,

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telling me to keep the faith.

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I remember those words.

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"Keep the faith,
signed Jimmy."

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[narrator]
But keeping faith was increasingly hard.

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The 1964 general election
showed that immigration and race

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were now a political time bomb.

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[Gutzmore] My initial job
was in a factory,

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and I first became politicized in

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00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:04,840
the mid-'60s.

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00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:07,600
I was in the British Midlands,

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00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:11,320
where racism was
a big feature amongst the people.

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We know in Smethwick place
there's the problem

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of immigration, for example.

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00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:18,800
You and I know that here,
in this town,

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this is a problem.

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[Gutzmore] In fact, there was an MP,
a man called Peter Griffiths,

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who stood on the slogan,

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00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:29,760
"If you want a nigger for a neighbor,
vote Labour."

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00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:32,840
[reporter] People have stuck up posters
like, "Keep Britain white,"

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00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:34,960
or "If you want a nigger neighbor,
vote Labour."

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00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:37,800
Yes, um, well, I understand that
the people who stuck up those posters

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have since made
their statement themselves

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00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:43,320
that they did it entirely on their own,
and without any contact with me,

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00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,320
but this is a community
that wants to keep its identity.

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00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,080
That's why I have refused
to condemn people

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00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:50,720
who have made
extreme statements.

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00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:54,160
I have said,
if people feel so strongly

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00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:56,480
that they are prepared to put things
in these words,

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00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:59,760
we should find out what is it
that makes them feel so strongly,

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00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:01,760
and we should remove the causes.

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00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:04,280
[reporter]
I'd like to quote to you a slogan,

240
00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:06,600
"If you want a nigger neighbor,
vote Labour."

241
00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:11,160
I think that's an utterly squalid
and degrading thing for any Englishman,

242
00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:13,120
or any member of
the Commonwealth to say.

243
00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:14,960
It was said, in fact, I understand,

244
00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:17,320
by the Conservative candidate
in the Smethwick division.

245
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:18,520
[reporter]
That is what the report says.

246
00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:20,640
Yes, where they are, I think,

247
00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:22,960
degrading politics to
about the lowest level

248
00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:24,280
I have known in my lifetime.

249
00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:26,120
Griffiths, Peter...

250
00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:27,200
Conservative...

251
00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:28,800
-Sixteen thousand...
-[cheering]

252
00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:34,640
Sixteen thousand,
six hundred and ninety...

253
00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:38,240
Seven percent swing to
the Conservatives in Smethwick.

254
00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:41,800
And that's the context in which
my own politics emerged.

255
00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:45,120
[narrator]
Conservative Peter Griffiths

256
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,040
won an overwhelming victory,

257
00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:51,000
showing the electoral power
of racism in politics.

258
00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:56,760
The government has agreed to make
big changes in the race relations bill.

259
00:12:58,960 --> 00:12:59,880
[narrator]
Shortly afterwards,

260
00:12:59,960 --> 00:13:02,400
the Labour government introduced
a Race Relations Act,

261
00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:04,280
which sought to remove
the color bar,

262
00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,040
and made the promotion
of racial hatred illegal.

263
00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:11,840
It was a first attempt to address
the discrimination that was happening

264
00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:13,840
in public places in the UK.

265
00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:18,400
But the Race Relations Act
did not prevent discrimination

266
00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:22,280
in housing, education,
or at the hands of the police.

267
00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:25,080
[muffled police radio announcements]

268
00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:28,880
[woman]
Certain rights in our jobs.

269
00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,280
[indistinct] It's due to bloody coloreds,
that's why.

270
00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:33,040
[reporter]
What's the matter with him?

271
00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,400
[Peter Edrich] When I joined the Met
Police, I was posted to Harlesden.

272
00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:40,840
That was a working-class area, really,
and a lot of incoming West Indians.

273
00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:43,440
When I got there,
there was-there was definitely prejudice

274
00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:46,400
because I remember on-on my first day,
when I was picked up,

275
00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,880
and the police constable
was taking us to report,

276
00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:51,400
took us Harlesden.

277
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:55,040
As we crossed the north circular
from when we enter Harlesden,

278
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:56,480
he said, "You can tell
you're in Harlesden.

279
00:13:56,560 --> 00:13:58,120
There's your first spade."

280
00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:03,760
[men] We do ask a great deal
of our policemen...

281
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:05,040
Thank you.

282
00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:07,720
...the men empowered
to deprive us of our liberty.

283
00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:09,720
But in the police force,

284
00:14:09,800 --> 00:14:13,240
half of them never managed
to pass a single O-level at school.

285
00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:15,360
[Phillip] The police and them
weren't bright, you know.

286
00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,800
Police was like Teddy Boys,
National Front...

287
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:23,320
who joined the force,
and they had a license now

288
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:25,360
to beat up Black people.

289
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,240
[reporter]
The report criticizes, particularly,

290
00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:31,640
the junior ranks of
the Metropolitan police, the constables

291
00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,960
or sergeants, who, and I quote,
"go out nigger-hunting,"

292
00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,760
determined, without instructions
from their superiors,

293
00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:41,840
to bring in a colored person,
at all costs.

294
00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,440
[muffled radio speech]

295
00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,400
[Edrich] Police officers
tended to be prejudiced,

296
00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:50,920
but I never went
after a Black person

297
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,520
and, you know, made up a crime
he was committing just to arrest him

298
00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:56,960
and I'm not saying it didn't happen,
but I didn't do it.

299
00:14:57,040 --> 00:14:59,200
There was certainly
plenty of crime going on.

300
00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:01,240
Mostly boys
that couldn't get jobs,

301
00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:02,360
or this kind of thing.

302
00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:05,400
They were most likely to be
doing something wrong.

303
00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:08,800
Our job was to just,
you know, lock 'em up.

304
00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:12,920
[narrator]
In December 1964,

305
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,560
American civil rights leader,
Martin Luther King,

306
00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,160
known for his non-violent philosophy,
stopped off in Britain

307
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,560
on his way to accept
a Nobel Peace Prize.

308
00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,760
He delivered a speech
which highlighted the similarities

309
00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:27,640
between British and American racism.

310
00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:33,960
Skin may differ, but affection
dwells in Black and white the same.

311
00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,560
This reveals that whether
they be in the United States,

312
00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:39,760
or whether they be in
London, England,

313
00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,080
the system is
on its deathbed.

314
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:44,760
[narrator]
The following year,

315
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:48,280
King's militant counterpart,
Malcolm X, came to Britain

316
00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:51,320
and visited Smethwick's Black
and Asian communities,

317
00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:53,400
where he spoke of
the need to fight back

318
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,640
against racial prejudice,
using whatever means necessary,

319
00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:59,200
including violent resistance.

320
00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:03,200
Now, your views differs fundamentally
from that of Doctor Martin Luther King.

321
00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:05,840
Is it really a choice between
non-violence and violence now?

322
00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:09,680
I think it's a choice between
intelligence and-and, uh,

323
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:13,320
the lack of intelligence,
and any intelligent human being

324
00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:15,480
is going to protect himself
when he's attacked.

325
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:18,440
I've never been
a turn-the-other-cheek person.

326
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:25,000
I was never the big fan
of Martin Luther King's

327
00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,640
turn-the-other-cheek
and peaceful demonstration,

328
00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:32,360
and so I was attracted
to people like Malcolm X.

329
00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:35,160
They made sense to me.

330
00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:40,400
If you want to fight fire,
then you must take fire to fight fire.

331
00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:43,840
[narrator]
Malcolm X's philosophy of self-defense

332
00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:45,640
was becoming
increasingly commonplace

333
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,280
in Hyde Park
Speakers' Corner in London.

334
00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:50,560
[Roy Sawh]
When I talk about white people,

335
00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:53,960
you have killed more people
in two world wars

336
00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:56,480
than people have died
from natural diseases.

337
00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:57,800
Are you civilized?

338
00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,600
We do not advocate killing
of white people,

339
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:04,760
but if kill we may to defend our rights,
we shall kill you.

340
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:10,480
We used to go, friends and I,
to Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park,

341
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:14,800
where Roy Sawh was speaking up

342
00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:19,480
for the Black population
against racism.

343
00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:24,160
Look at the map of Africa.
Every island belongs to a white nation.

344
00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:26,720
Every island.
But look at Europe.

345
00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:31,320
The whole concept of Black Power really
came out of a growing awareness

346
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:33,640
among many people within
the Black communities

347
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,120
who were influenced
by things around them.

348
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:38,360
We don't know how to use it.
Let's be a...

349
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:40,840
One aspect of that is clearly
Speakers' Corner,

350
00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,200
and my memory of that is Roy Sawh.

351
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,880
You have committed more crimes...

352
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,760
This rhetoric was very dismissive
of white people.

353
00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:51,320
He was quite plain about it.

354
00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:53,920
...so when you talk about freedom
and you talk about...

355
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:55,480
[narrator]
The Hyde Park speeches

356
00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:57,920
were monitored closely by
undercover police officers,

357
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,640
and Roy Sawh was
constantly being charged

358
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:02,640
with incitement to racial hatred.

359
00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:06,880
Please, for taking your notes,

360
00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:11,800
make sure you get the exact
things I am saying...

361
00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,400
because at the last hearing
at the Old Bailey,

362
00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:20,880
the police couldn't even read
their own handwriting!

363
00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:22,080
[crowd laughs]

364
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,600
[♪ Nina Simone: "Revolution"]

365
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,640
[narrator]
Roy Sawh's provocative speeches

366
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,160
were an attempt to get Black people's
grievances heard.

367
00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:40,640
Like many in the Black
and Asian communities,

368
00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:44,840
he wanted improvements in housing,
equality in work, and fair policing.

369
00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:53,160
In 1967, he formed the group called
the Universal Colored People's Association

370
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,960
with Nigerian novelist and playwright,
Obi Egbuna.

371
00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:02,000
Well, life's full of every
constructive revolutionary movement

372
00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:03,080
in this world.

373
00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:05,040
What kind of ties does
your organization have

374
00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:06,840
with the Black Power movement
in the United States?

375
00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:11,120
Well, I cannot go into specifics,
but all I can say is that

376
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:12,600
there is an international link.

377
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:14,440
[narrator]
With the UCPA,

378
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:18,200
Obi Egbuna and Roy Sawh
had effectively kickstarted

379
00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:19,880
the British Black Power movement.

380
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:24,080
But the man credited for
doing so by the press

381
00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:26,240
was a Trinidadian immigrant to Britain,

382
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:28,400
who called himself Michael X.

383
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:32,080
[reporter] Michael X is 32,
and he comes from Trinidad.

384
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,280
He's the leader now
of an organization called RAAS.

385
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,160
[narrator]
He had started his own group

386
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,600
called the Racial Adjustment
Action Society.

387
00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:48,840
[Dhondy] Michael X was actually
a fellow called Michael De Fratas.

388
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,720
He was a Trinidadian
of Portuguese origin, I think,

389
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:54,440
who turned up in Britain.

390
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,320
You mustn't be afraid to fight
for what you want.

391
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:01,480
You must not be afraid
to fight for what is just.

392
00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:04,920
Brother Malcolm was once asked,
that was my first teaching,

393
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:06,400
Malcolm X.

394
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:10,360
[Dhondy] And then,
when Malcolm X came to Britain,

395
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,120
Michael changed his name
to Michael X.

396
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,440
I can't live in this system.
I don't like it.

397
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:19,880
I don't want it.
I want to destroy it, everything.

398
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,200
Down to the ground.
The lot. Ashes.

399
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:26,480
The Racial Adjustment Action Society
was Michael's baby,

400
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:31,440
but it didn't--it never--it never achieved
no kind of racial adjustment.

401
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,680
Michael was good
at selling himself.

402
00:20:36,360 --> 00:20:38,120
[Charlie Phillips]
That was taken in Tabernacle.

403
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:40,920
On the left is Michael X,
smoking a cigar.

404
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,160
In the middle is Bobby,
a militant friend of Stokely Carmichael.

405
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,400
And Michael, he said,
"Take it down to United Press."

406
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,640
So I rushed down in United Press,
and I got two pounds, ten shillings.

407
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,800
That's the first photograph
I've ever had published.

408
00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:00,640
That photograph was taken of
Stokely Carmichael outside the Cue Club.

409
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:04,120
I met him,
and I took the photograph of him.

410
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,520
[narrator]
Stokely Carmichael was born in Trinidad

411
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:07,960
and grew up in America.

412
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,120
He had become
a powerful campaigner,

413
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:14,400
working alongside Martin Luther King
in the American Civil Rights Movement.

414
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,960
Black people are not gonna let white
people just slap 'em anymore.

415
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:19,640
[reporter] Then what
do you see happening now?

416
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:22,720
Well, every time they slap us,
we're gon' move to break their arms.

417
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:24,840
[narrator]
After his friend was shot

418
00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:26,920
while protesting peacefully
in Tennessee,

419
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,760
Stokely Carmichael stopped
calling for nonviolence

420
00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:31,800
and started calling for Black Power.

421
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,200
There's a lot of confusion
about the phrase, "Black Power".

422
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:37,400
[reporter]
What does it really mean?

423
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:38,960
The coming together of Black people

424
00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,920
to fight for their liberation
by any means necessary.

425
00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:47,880
[narrator]
Stokely Carmichael was presenting

426
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,760
a new philosophy of Black unity
and self-empowerment

427
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:52,440
that had a profound influence on

428
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:54,920
the formation of the American
Black Panther Party.

429
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,040
I think I became aware of
the Black Power movement

430
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:02,200
when I snuck down to London, '67,

431
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,000
when Stokely Carmichael was speaking.

432
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:09,440
Isn't it absurd for them to say that
"Columbus discovered America"?

433
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,680
When Columbus got there,
he found people there.

434
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,400
And what of the Caribbean?

435
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:19,040
We did not wake up until
Sir Walter Raleigh came along

436
00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:20,680
and discovered us.

437
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,760
And all of our history begins
when a white man comes along

438
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:29,200
and says, "Poof, I have discovered you.
Come alive, Black man!"

439
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:36,920
The white man's definitions is
what we find ourselves trapped by.

440
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:44,560
We have come to tell you that
if you see your lot and your culture

441
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:46,480
being thrown with that of England,

442
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,280
then we see you
as part of England,

443
00:22:48,360 --> 00:22:50,600
who suppresses and oppresses us.

444
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:53,760
You will be with England
when the lines are drawn.

445
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:55,920
You had better come on home!

446
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:57,160
Home!

447
00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:01,480
He was talking to us.
He was talking to young Black people.

448
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,040
We've got nappy hair.
We've got thick lips.

449
00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:05,680
We're Black,
and we're beautiful.

450
00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:07,920
Black Power, of course,
you know.

451
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,520
That was just wow. Wow!

452
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:15,880
We have finally come to tell you,
we know we are going to win.

453
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:16,920
-Thank you.
-[cheers and applause]

454
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,480
[♪ James Brown: "Say it Loud -
I'm Black and I'm Proud"]

455
00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:00,440
James Brown,
"Say it Loud - I am Black and I am Proud".

456
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:03,360
That tune is one of
the first earliest rap tunes

457
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,880
because James Brown
isn't actually singing on that tune.

458
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:06,960
He is talking.

459
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:10,320
[♪ "Say it Loud -
I'm Black and I'm Proud" continues]

460
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,560
Put your hands like this!
Black Power!

461
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:17,600
Black Power!

462
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:19,120
Hey! One more time!

463
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:20,480
Black Power!

464
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:21,960
-Black Power!
-Yeah!

465
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,760
His name has become synonymous
with Black racialism,

466
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,480
and, for that, he will not be allowed
back into this country,

467
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:31,040
where the Race Relations Act is designed
to condemn racialism of any kind.

468
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:33,520
[narrator]
Stokely Carmichael's visit

469
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,160
had the Labour government
so concerned

470
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,880
that Special Branch
ordered him to leave the country

471
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,800
and he was banned from re-entering.

472
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:45,440
Soon afterwards,
the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins,

473
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:47,200
set up a secret police department

474
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,840
specifically to monitor
Black radical groups in Britain.

475
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,640
But the impact of the Black Power message
had been felt by many,

476
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,320
particularly Michael X,
who took the baton and ran with it.

477
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:01,960
What do you hope to gain from

478
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,360
the sort of inflammatory speech
that you made last night?

479
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:06,320
I do not make inflammatory speeches.

480
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,680
I simply speak the truth.
I speak the truth,

481
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:09,840
and when I speak the truth,

482
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:11,880
white people say
this is inflammatory statements

483
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:14,720
because they would like
to see Black men

484
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:16,800
pretend and be Uncle Toms

485
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,440
and aspire solely to go
to the Queen's garden parties.

486
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,640
Well, I don't give a damn about
the Queen's garden parties.

487
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:22,960
That's not where I want to go.

488
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:26,800
[narrator]
Michael X's words were calculated

489
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,520
to shake up enduring colonial attitudes
around Black subservience.

490
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,200
But when he made a statement,

491
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,400
that called for the killing
of any white man

492
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,920
seen to physically abuse
a Black woman,

493
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:39,840
the state decided to prosecute him.

494
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:43,760
He became the first person

495
00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:47,840
to be sent to prison
under the UK's 1965 Race Relations Act.

496
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,040
A law which had been designed to protect
Britain's Black and Asian populations

497
00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:53,240
from discrimination.

498
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,120
Watching very closely
how the state dealt with Michael X

499
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,400
was Darcus Howe,
a legal student,

500
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,560
who had arrived in Britain
from Trinidad in 1961.

501
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,320
What struck me
about Michael X was,

502
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,320
I used to like to hear Black people
say things that were brave and bold.

503
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,560
Even though if it didn't make sense,
because we were too quiet.

504
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:22,640
And almighty Darcus, yes,
his photograph came up in the darkroom,

505
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:24,200
and I was very impressed with it.

506
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:29,760
The leader, well-educated,
as we know,

507
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,480
Darcus has been an incredible person.

508
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:35,520
He-He never talked down to people.

509
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,920
And he doesn't insult anybody,

510
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:43,400
And he were determined that, you know,
things should change in this country.

511
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:47,280
[narrator]
Darcus was heavily influenced

512
00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:49,120
by his uncle, C.L.R. James,

513
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,800
a renowned Trinidadian writer
and intellectual.

514
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:56,360
His politically charged books inspired
a new generation of Black Power activists.

515
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:01,160
Is there a measure of
racial prejudice in the police?

516
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,080
[narrator]
When Darcus was invited to speak

517
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:04,600
on a BBC television program,

518
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,920
which highlighted the numerous cases
of police framing Black people

519
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,720
for crimes they had not committed,
he seized the opportunity.

520
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,880
The policeman who frames
the Black man is doing so

521
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:20,840
with a confidence that the system
is going to give him a conviction,

522
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,320
which reproduces
a lack of confidence in the Black man.

523
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,360
[reporter]
Why do so few people complain?

524
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:29,200
Who is going to take up a case,

525
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,480
when you have that whole weight
of the system against you?

526
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:36,040
And-And-And the West Indian,
the Black West Indian isn't doing this,

527
00:27:36,120 --> 00:27:38,000
and I don't think one should
ask him to do this either.

528
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,400
Darcus was a lawyer by training,
you know,

529
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:44,080
and, of course,
he contributed very strongly.

530
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,240
But it's presented out of context.

531
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:48,040
[narrator]
The program caused

532
00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:50,320
a storm of controversy,
and on live television,

533
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:55,160
Darcus confronted the Deputy Commissioner
of the Metropolitan police, Robert Mark.

534
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,080
It's a complete disrespect
for the way of life,

535
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,080
historical and present-day
of Black people.

536
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:03,200
[Darcus Howe]
Educated in the world of reason,

537
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:07,080
I was equipped
with a certain confidence.

538
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,920
And I knew what was happening in America.

539
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,280
I had been there,

540
00:28:11,360 --> 00:28:14,840
and I wasn't going to come back here
and put up with that crap.

541
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:19,040
A policeman is only racist
in that he is part of a racist society.

542
00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:23,840
And you cannot ask the policeman
to change his racist clothing,

543
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,280
if you don't change the society,
and that is the only solution.

544
00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:30,480
The Black community says,
"Stop it, and stop it now."

545
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:34,960
[reporter]
The violent death

546
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:38,160
of America's negro apostle of
nonviolence.

547
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,520
The Reverend Martin Luther King is dead,

548
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:42,280
killed by an assassin's bullet.

549
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:44,080
Compounding the tragedy,

550
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:47,400
there's now rioting in the streets
of many American cities.

551
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:49,840
[narrator]
While the voices of Black Power

552
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:51,720
were causing a stir in the UK,

553
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,160
the progress of the Civil Rights struggle
was dealt a devastating blow

554
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,080
when Martin Luther King was
assassinated in America.

555
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,920
[♪ Nina Simone:
"Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)"]

556
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,240
It affected me very deeply
that Martin Luther King is dead,

557
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,640
but, um, I feel that
his name will live on,

558
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,480
and that, um, what he had to do,
we'll continue to do it.

559
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,960
In this country,
in 15 or 20 years' time,

560
00:29:56,040 --> 00:30:00,920
the Black man will have
the whip hand over the white man.

561
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:03,840
[narrator]
Two weeks after King's assassination,

562
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,080
the Conservative MP,
Enoch Powell,

563
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:08,560
in a bid to position himself
as party leader,

564
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:10,920
delivered a speech that put
race and immigration

565
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:12,840
back at the center
of the political debate.

566
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:21,440
We must be mad,
literally mad, as a nation...

567
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:28,520
to be permitted the annual inflow
of some 50,000 dependents.

568
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:35,240
The discrimination and the deprivation,
the sense of alarm,

569
00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:40,280
and the resentment
lie not with the immigrant population...

570
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,000
[chanting]
We don't want to be replaced!

571
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:45,560
...but with those among whom
they have come.

572
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,360
And are still coming.

573
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:53,440
This is why to enact legislation of
the kind before parliament at this moment

574
00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:57,800
is to risk throwing a match
onto gunpowder.

575
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:01,680
What the great British public think
is that he is telling the truth

576
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:03,680
on behalf of his constituents.

577
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,040
A gunpowder--
well, gunpowder to me

578
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:08,240
means Guy Fawkes Day
and blowing up Parliament.

579
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,880
Gunpowder also can mean
the assassination of Martin Luther King.

580
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:13,400
It could do, yes.

581
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:20,920
[narrator]
Enoch Powell was speaking out

582
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:24,600
against a new expanded
1968 Race Relations Act

583
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,800
that attempted to prevent discrimination
in housing and employment.

584
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:30,920
As a former Health Secretary,

585
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,360
Powell had once championed
the recruitment of people

586
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,360
from the Caribbean to come
to Britain to work in the NHS.

587
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:42,120
His re-casting of immigrants
as an invading force

588
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:45,960
now struck fear into the hearts
of Black and Asian communities.

589
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:52,040
It was a watershed because
we knew that there was this attitude

590
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:56,200
in the Tory Party,
and he thought to himself

591
00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:00,560
that he would speak about
the rivers of blood.

592
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:06,000
It wasn't at all welcome,
but he put it out in the open,

593
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:09,920
and we could now
fight against it openly.

594
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:11,720
Men like Michael De Freitas.

595
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,120
Exactly what
Michael De Freitas has said.

596
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,680
It's really equivalent to what
Mr. Enoch Powell said,

597
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:19,960
but Mr. Michael De Freitas
goes in jail.

598
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:21,440
Now, why?

599
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:24,720
There must be a reason,

600
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:28,840
and the only reason that I can see
is that one is Black and one is white.

601
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,440
[narrator]
The Black and Asian population

602
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,160
of the country was now over a million,
and for many of them,

603
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,600
the fickle attitudes
of British politicians

604
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,000
could not be allowed
to pass without a fight.

605
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:45,720
Black Power groups started
to form all over Britain

606
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:51,800
in cities such as London, Manchester,
Birmingham, Leicester, Cardiff, and Leeds.

607
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:58,000
Black is a symbol for me of
the opposition against oppression.

608
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:01,200
I had two friends
who were both poets,

609
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:03,480
one of them was called
Farrukh Dhondy.

610
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:08,680
It seemed that they were going to be
involved with the Black Panther movement.

611
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:15,760
The way that I was first introduced to
an actual organization of Black Power,

612
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:19,920
which I wanted to join,
was Alexandra Palace,

613
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,040
where there was a large conference

614
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:27,360
of all the radical organizations
of Asians and blacks.

615
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:30,160
[male activist]
And we can never regard them

616
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:31,840
as revolutionaries...

617
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,960
I went, and a lot of the speakers
were bullshit rhetoric,

618
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:38,400
but Althea Jones.

619
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,400
[Althea]
To us, Black people...

620
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:42,640
She spoke very eloquently,

621
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,920
and she said she was from
the Black Panther movement.

622
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:49,400
[narrator]
Althea Jones LeCointe

623
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,360
came to England from Trinidad
to study biochemistry

624
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:53,960
at University College, London.

625
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,680
She was a fierce opponent of
state-sponsored racism

626
00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:59,280
in Britain's former colonies,

627
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:02,360
and soon became leader
of the Black Panther movement.

628
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:06,960
The camera is there to protect
and to help and to show.

629
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:08,920
This is Althea.

630
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,880
Althea is one of the most striking,
strong, determined young women.

631
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:17,720
Despite a protest from that section
of the British population,

632
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:22,120
your government is prepared to continue
supporting the racism and repression

633
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,320
that the South African
regime represents.

634
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,280
Our brothers and sisters
in the townships in South Africa,

635
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,680
our brothers and sisters who
are fighting right now

636
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:32,000
in Zimbabwe
and taking these words...

637
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:36,320
I became a member of the Black Panther
movement as a consequence

638
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,360
of hearing Althea LeCointe Jones,

639
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,400
the leader of the Black Panthers
in Brixton, speak.

640
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,920
She was bright,
she was articulate,

641
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,800
and I decided I wanted
to go to meetings,

642
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,760
to-to find out more about
this Black Panther movement.

643
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:54,640
[Althea]
This is what the system's getting at.

644
00:34:54,720 --> 00:34:57,640
Our generation
can't tolerate schools

645
00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:00,040
that only prepare us
to do the menial tasks.

646
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:02,000
[Jean Ambrose]
It was in Southeast London.

647
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,320
The organization was called
Black Unity and Freedom Party.

648
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:07,880
There were predominantly
young men,

649
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:10,160
and, at the meeting,
we had a speaker.

650
00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:11,880
It was like an awakening.

651
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,400
And I just went back,
all full of excitement

652
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,120
about what I had heard and seen,

653
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:23,920
and invited my school friends
to come with me the following week.

654
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,000
There were lots of us.
It was a young movement.

655
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,080
A young movement
of young men and women.

656
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:30,560
There were the Fasimbas.

657
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,880
There was the Black Liberation Front,
Black Panthers.

658
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,040
I came to join the Black Unity
and Freedom Party

659
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,360
because I was ready
to join a movement.

660
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,080
[male speaker]
We need more Black symbols,

661
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:42,640
Black Tories...

662
00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:46,360
March 1970, I joined
the Black Power organization,

663
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:47,560
the Fasimbas.

664
00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:50,800
I walked into the room,
and I saw a sea of Black faces.

665
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,280
The first time that
I had experienced that.

666
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:57,080
I was overwhelmed.

667
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,880
The best armor we have
against the prejudice...

668
00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:02,160
Listened to the speaker speak,

669
00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:04,840
said we had been exploited
for centuries.

670
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:06,760
Now time for us to unite.

671
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:09,720
He said, "Black Power,
Black Power, Black Power."

672
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:11,800
[cheering and applause]

673
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:14,160
I felt the hairs on the back
of my neck stand up.

674
00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:17,240
I found something I could belong to,
something I believe in.

675
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,000
It was Black people standing up
for the first time,

676
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,000
in a way that was
extremely militant.

677
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:26,280
It wasn't begging.

678
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,280
It wasn't trying to show
we were equal.

679
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,200
It was saying,
"We know we're equal,

680
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:31,560
and we're not putting up with it."

681
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:33,440
That's the attraction
for all of us.

682
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:37,000
We were all part of a huge
movement of belief.

683
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,480
I mean, Black Unity and Freedom Party
people knew people

684
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:41,160
in Black Liberation Front.

685
00:36:41,240 --> 00:36:43,800
We knew people in the Panthers.
We all knew each other.

686
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,600
My wife was a member of
the Black Panther movement.

687
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,120
Um, I was BLF,
she was Black Panther,

688
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,040
so we came together,
we got married,

689
00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:54,480
so there was that kind of synergy.

690
00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,200
We were just part of
a bigger Black movement

691
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,600
and wanted to, you know,
do what we had to do.

692
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:00,880
Demonstrate. Demand.

693
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:03,720
[protesting and chanting]

694
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:05,560
[narrator]
This feeling of solidarity

695
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,280
and increasing membership saw
Black Power groups

696
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:11,920
staging large demonstrations
against police harassment.

697
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,760
What are we here for?
What do we want?

698
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,600
I got involved with
the Black Liberation Front

699
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,640
because it was a doer organization.

700
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,880
The main focus of
the Black Power movement

701
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:31,840
of that era was education
and social programs.

702
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:32,960
That's what we were about.

703
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,040
There was nothing devious
about what we were doing.

704
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:39,120
[narrator]
With immigrant communities

705
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:42,120
feeling stigmatized by politicians
and the press,

706
00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:44,920
these activists were standing up
for their rights

707
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,840
in housing, education, and policing.

708
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,320
Rhodan Gordon, a community activist,
originally from Grenada,

709
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:57,520
set up a Black citizens advice center
in the heart of Notting Hill.

710
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,280
It was called the Black Peoples'
Information Centre,

711
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,760
and Black self-empowerment
was the organization's objective.

712
00:38:04,240 --> 00:38:07,480
We started off with
the Back-Ah-Yard restaurant.

713
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:10,400
It was an advice and action center

714
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:16,280
around the issues of housing,
education and legal services,

715
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:20,560
and it was fundamentally
a Black Power institution.

716
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,040
I felt that there was
a bigger picture here.

717
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,320
♪ Young, gifted and black ♪

718
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,160
Times were changing.

719
00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:30,600
Marcia was singing,
"Young, gifted, and Black."

720
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,760
♪ To be young, gifted, and Black ♪

721
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:38,480
♪ Open your heart to what I mean ♪

722
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,080
It was just a different time.
It-It felt good.

723
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:45,000
It felt like you could express yourself.

724
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:49,080
And I had an afro.
The style of the day was afro.

725
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:51,520
I wore all the-the African gowns.

726
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,280
And I remember
I went into school once

727
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:56,680
and asked the teacher
why we couldn't have Black history.

728
00:38:56,760 --> 00:39:01,320
[♪ Carl Douglas:
"Kung Fu Fighting"]

729
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,600
Wednesday, we used to have
an advanced karate class.

730
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,840
Martial arts were very important to us
because it gave you confidence.

731
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:12,320
Enormous amount of confidence.

732
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:13,680
Black power for us men.

733
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,240
We weren't going to take
any rubbish.

734
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:18,280
We weren't anymore
going to be victims.

735
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:19,720
I felt great.

736
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,080
[♪ Niney the Observer: "Blood And Fire"]

737
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:32,680
The musical soundtrack to
the Black Power movement

738
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:35,080
was Jamaica reggae tunes,
you know.

739
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:47,640
Tunes like "Blood and Fire" by Niney,

740
00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:50,160
which was kinda apocalyptic.

741
00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:52,280
[♪ "Blood and Fire" continues]

742
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,160
Talked about Black redemption.

743
00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:57,520
I was, like many youth
of my generation,

744
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:01,560
swept along by the wave
of new consciousness,

745
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:06,320
and all that has to be seen in the
context of the anti-apartheid struggle,

746
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:10,200
the struggle for independence
in African territories.

747
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,840
[♪ "Blood and Fire" continues]

748
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,960
We all saw American athletes
give the Black Power salute

749
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,120
in Mexico, 1968.

750
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:28,960
♪ Let it burn, let it burn ♪

751
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,480
That had a major impact on my life.

752
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:34,960
Some could hear the screams worldwide.

753
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:38,400
Black people around the world
reacted to that.

754
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:42,080
[narrator]
This spirit of revolution,

755
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:44,600
combined with the possibility
of real cultural change,

756
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,720
was inspiring people
like Linton Kwesi Johnson.

757
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:53,600
The Black Panther Movement
had a profound effect on me

758
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:59,040
and helped me to look at myself
in time and space, if you like.

759
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:03,080
It was there for the first time
I discovered Black literature.

760
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,440
It was a-a revelation because
as a schoolboy,

761
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,640
I wasn't even aware
that Black people wrote books.

762
00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:16,120
One of the books was a book called
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois,

763
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:20,280
and it was that book that stirred
something within me,

764
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:24,360
that got me writing poetry,
and there were also records.

765
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:28,560
But one record, in particular,
by The Last Poets.

766
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:38,760
African American poetry,
they were talking about revolution,

767
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:41,000
you know, they were just telling it
like it is.

768
00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:43,800
[♪ The Last Poets:
"When the Revolution Comes"]

769
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:45,040
And I thought to myself,

770
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,600
well, this is the kind of poetry
I want to write,

771
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,880
but from a Caribbean perspective,
or roots.

772
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:54,560
[narrator]
But as a new generation

773
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:57,200
of young Black people were exploring
their identity in Britain,

774
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,520
relations with the police
were deteriorating.

775
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:09,360
In those days, it was clear to
the Black youth of my generation

776
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:14,720
that the Metropolitan Police force
had declared war

777
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:17,000
against the youth of my generation.

778
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,040
The canteen culture,
the racist culture,

779
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:24,800
is so ingrained in the police.

780
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:26,680
The police was the enemy.

781
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:30,000
[Linton Kwesi Johnson on recording]

782
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:47,920
Look out! Look out! Look out!

783
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:50,760
Wi feel bad

784
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:52,440
Look sad

785
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:54,120
Smoke weedan

786
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:56,120
And if yu eye sharp

787
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:57,840
Read the violence inna wi

788
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:00,320
We goin' smash this guy
with the bad, bad blood

789
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,120
Look out! Look out! Look out!

790
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,160
[Moss] There's an old saying that

791
00:43:05,240 --> 00:43:08,600
the community gets
the policing it deserves.

792
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:11,080
When I was a sergeant,
I was at Brixton,

793
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:16,160
and what was surprising to me

794
00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:20,160
was the almost, like,
boisterous hostility

795
00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:22,840
you faced as a police officer
on the street.

796
00:43:23,240 --> 00:43:25,360
[commotion and honking]

797
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,920
If you're called to an incident,

798
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,080
you have to exert your authority,
you have to take charge,

799
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:38,440
and sometimes, in Brixton,
this wasn't possible.

800
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:43,520
And so, not believing that I would
do a professional job,

801
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:47,160
you know,
who had the prejudice?

802
00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:52,120
We had that spirit,
that tradition of defiance

803
00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:56,080
from our experiences,
going about our daily lives,

804
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,880
the racial profiling,
harassment, and treatment.

805
00:43:59,960 --> 00:44:03,640
That war that the police
had declared against us

806
00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:06,000
manifested itself in all kinds of ways.

807
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:10,320
Being arrested for sus, attempting
to steal from persons unknown.

808
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:13,880
The raids on our--on our parties.

809
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:17,120
[♪ Gregory Isaacs:
"Black Liberation Struggle"]

810
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:20,000
A war of attrition against
sound systems,

811
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:24,520
that provided the nexus
for our culture of resistance

812
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:26,400
through reggae music and so on.

813
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:31,560
[♪ "Black Liberation Struggle" continues]

814
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:35,240
[Moss] One of the
conflict points, if you like,

815
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:38,440
was sort of noisy parties
on a Saturday night.

816
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:41,120
A house full of two or three
hundred Black people.

817
00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:53,360
[Phillips] There wasn't any music
entertainment to suit our tastes,

818
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:54,840
and half the time,
we weren't welcome,

819
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,800
so we created these house parties.

820
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:02,440
The West Indians
love to have parties.

821
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:04,000
Big parties, small parties,

822
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:08,080
and the person holding the party
would buy all the stuff,

823
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,880
and then people who came
to the party would pay,

824
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:12,920
and that is technically illegal.

825
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:16,160
I mean, it's a nothing-crime,
but it was technically illegal.

826
00:45:16,720 --> 00:45:18,640
[Moss] The police have
to uphold the law,

827
00:45:18,720 --> 00:45:24,960
and white people didn't
have noisy parties in Brixton.

828
00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:26,680
If it had been
a white people's party,

829
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:27,800
they wouldn't have been raiding it.

830
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:29,480
Oh, yeah, it was racism.

831
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:31,640
Mostly there was just
a little squad that did it,

832
00:45:31,720 --> 00:45:33,040
but for some reason,

833
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,680
this one night,
they were going to raid about six houses,

834
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:38,960
and they wanted volunteers,

835
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:40,520
so we volunteered.

836
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:42,640
It was exciting.
Plainclothes, you know. Wow.

837
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:46,160
Went into this house, and there was
loads of West Indians there

838
00:45:46,240 --> 00:45:48,000
having a big party,

839
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,960
and I remember
one of the police officers,

840
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:53,880
they bashed down
the living room door.

841
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:57,760
And, I mean, I said,
"Why'd you do that?"

842
00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:01,080
It was an absolute melee,

843
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:02,440
and they were arresting people,

844
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:05,240
and a police officer
got hit over the head.

845
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:10,600
And we ended up dragging about
half a dozen of these West Indians

846
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:12,320
back to the station in the van.

847
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,240
And then after that,

848
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,840
the one man they thought had-had-had
smashed a beer can

849
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:20,760
over the police officer's head,
they took him into a cell.

850
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:22,560
And this one police officer
from Kilburn,

851
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,080
a really big fella,
just beat him up.

852
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,480
And I just remember
standing there, watching.

853
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,040
He was bleeding,
and-and he was just...

854
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:32,600
and he was pleading,

855
00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:34,640
and he was just saying,
"No, stop it."

856
00:46:34,720 --> 00:46:39,160
I-I-I don't remember, he was just,
he was just asking them to stop it

857
00:46:39,240 --> 00:46:40,520
and asking God to help him.

858
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:43,880
That's all I remember,
and-and-and I thought,

859
00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:46,000
"I-I didn't join the police
to beat people up."

860
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:54,080
[sighs]

861
00:46:56,040 --> 00:47:00,000
And I was just very upset about it,
and I was kind of ashamed I was there.

862
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:02,640
But I didn't do anything.
I didn't say anything.

863
00:47:02,720 --> 00:47:04,360
I didn't have the courage to do that.

864
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,880
I mean, in a perfect world,
I would have stepped in

865
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,800
and said, "Stop this right now,
otherwise, I will report everybody."

866
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:13,560
But I was a young police officer
on probation.

867
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:17,560
It-It never even occurred to me
to do that.

868
00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:22,040
I just-- I didn't know what to do.
I just didn't know what to do.

869
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:25,360
[narrator]
With brutal treatment

870
00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:26,440
at the hands of the police

871
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:28,240
a constant source of outrage,

872
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:31,240
the Black Power movement
needed strong leadership.

873
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:35,520
And as far as
the press were concerned,

874
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,640
Michael X was the movement's
de facto leader.

875
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:41,640
Now released from prison,

876
00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:45,520
Michael X's talent for self-promotion
had garnered him financial support

877
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:48,200
from celebrities such as
John Lennon and Yoko Ono,

878
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:49,600
who auctioned off their hair

879
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,080
to raise funds
in the name of Black Power.

880
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:54,160
[reporter]
I don't want to sound unkind,

881
00:47:54,240 --> 00:47:55,600
but don't you think that, um,

882
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:58,160
this may have been pursued
as just another "Lennon stunt"?

883
00:47:58,240 --> 00:47:59,840
Well, we tried to keep it quiet.

884
00:47:59,920 --> 00:48:02,160
-It'd be nice if it did.
-I don't care. It came useful for this.

885
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:04,240
[narrator]
But Michael X's past

886
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:05,680
revealed another side to him.

887
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:08,480
[Dhondy] Michael X,
he was quite charismatic,

888
00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:11,920
but he was basically a hustler.

889
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:15,760
[Desmond Gittens] Michael X, in his early
times, was a strong-arm man

890
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:19,760
for a landlord that rented,
to poor people, bad housing.

891
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:22,640
Why will you not take the rent
from this man here?

892
00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:25,160
I don't own the property.

893
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:27,200
But your name is on the rent book.

894
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:29,880
[narrator]
Michael X set up a new group

895
00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:31,200
called the Black Eagles,

896
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:33,840
and with it, a radical commune
in North London,

897
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:35,440
which he called the Black House.

898
00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:39,800
And he had recruited one of the
most powerful voices in the movement.

899
00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:47,200
A group of friends were returning
with me from Speakers' Corner,

900
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:51,720
and, as we were going along,
two Black guys started selling

901
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:55,200
their newspapers called
The Black Eagle.

902
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:58,920
So, my friend Shahid bought a paper,
and this guy asked me,

903
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:00,560
"Would you like to buy a paper?"

904
00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:01,960
I said, "I'll share his."

905
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:05,600
This guy said,
"Will you share his prison sentence?"

906
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:09,520
And that was Darcus Howe.
A loose cannon.

907
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:14,960
At the time, Darcus was looking for
a place to-to settle,

908
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:18,560
and Michael X,
the so-called leader of the Black Eagles,

909
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,280
he depended on Darcus,
who was more political.

910
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:24,280
He depended on him
to give him a kudos.

911
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:25,640
He wasn't an intellectual.

912
00:49:25,720 --> 00:49:27,160
He didn't know much
about Black Power.

913
00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:29,160
He would take things,
and then use it.

914
00:49:29,720 --> 00:49:30,760
[Darcus Howe]
The press

915
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,240
made him the militant activist he was,

916
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,640
and he had a remarkable capacity
to raise money

917
00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:39,880
from the likes of John Lennon
and Sammy Davis.

918
00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:43,160
Michael never organized
any large numbers of people

919
00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:46,640
in pursuit of any right,
civil or human.

920
00:49:46,720 --> 00:49:50,840
Michael was a hippy
with a commune always,

921
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,480
and I was the Prime Minister
of his commune at one time.

922
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:57,080
Michael, he was still involved
in criminal activity,

923
00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:59,800
and it bled into the Black Eagles
and the Black House.

924
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:03,040
[reporter]
Do you think that the Black House

925
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:04,400
could have succeeded?

926
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:05,880
Yes, it could.

927
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:09,560
[reporter]
Why don't you think it did succeed?

928
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:12,480
Because Michael was putting
every single cent he could get

929
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:13,880
in his own pocket.

930
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:15,520
He didn't care about Black people.

931
00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:17,800
[narrator]
Faced with allegations

932
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:19,080
of violence and corruption,

933
00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:21,080
the Black Eagles fell apart,

934
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,320
and the Black House was burned down
in mysterious circumstances.

935
00:50:25,720 --> 00:50:30,080
Facing arrest for extortion,
Michael X fled to Trinidad.

936
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:32,880
Darcus Howe remained
in West London,

937
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:36,440
where the British Black Power movement
was about to face its biggest challenge.

938
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:42,560
Darcus was wise enough
to kind of leave,

939
00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:46,040
and ended up working
with Frank on the Mangrove.

940
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:47,960
[muffled commotion]

941
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:52,440
[narrator]
Frank Crichlow's Mangrove Restaurant

942
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:54,600
was located in the heart
of Notting Hill.

943
00:50:56,960 --> 00:50:59,520
The Caribbean community
had put down roots here

944
00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:02,160
since the turmoil
of the 1958 race riots,

945
00:51:02,240 --> 00:51:04,760
and now celebrated the rapidly-growing
Notting Hill Carnival,

946
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:08,040
which showcased
the pride of Caribbean culture.

947
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:12,480
Frank Crichlow was
a local restaurateur,

948
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:13,960
originally from Trinidad,

949
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,680
who had set up the Mangrove
to serve Caribbean food.

950
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:21,520
He had no idea that
his new business venture

951
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:25,160
was about to become the focal point
of the British Black Power struggle.

952
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:30,600
The Mangrove quickly
proved its appeal,

953
00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:33,920
attracting a diverse range of customers,
including celebrities

954
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:39,360
like Sammy Davis Junior, Bob Marley,
Nina Simone, and Vanessa Redgrave,

955
00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,040
who were keen to be a part
of the new Caribbean scene.

956
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:46,160
And it became
an unofficial community center,

957
00:51:46,240 --> 00:51:50,000
with outspoken Black power activist
Darcus Howe working behind the bar.

958
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:55,080
You have a society with
a million and a half Black people

959
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:56,560
on the sidelines.

960
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,600
That is what you have.
Everything goes on.

961
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:02,560
Parliament goes on,
the economy goes on,

962
00:52:02,640 --> 00:52:05,600
everything goes on,
and all they need Black people for

963
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:08,480
is to produce whenever
they want them to produce.

964
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:11,280
Apart from that,
you stand on the sidelines,

965
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:15,120
rotting, dying, festering.

966
00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:20,520
The Black youths today had been
through so much police harassment,

967
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:24,640
being hounded by police officers.

968
00:52:24,720 --> 00:52:26,400
Police is bad news.

969
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,840
Police in the Black community
are bad news.

970
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,040
[Phillip]
The police are watching all of us!

971
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:38,880
Every night I leave the Ladbroke Grove,
I had a search.

972
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:44,480
If you come off All Saints Road,
you are guaranteed to get a search.

973
00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:48,120
[narrator]
All Saints Road,

974
00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:50,360
where the Mangrove restaurant
was situated,

975
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:53,000
was considered a high-crime area
by the police.

976
00:52:55,280 --> 00:52:57,600
[Moss] The briefings we had

977
00:52:57,680 --> 00:52:59,560
for the Notting Hill Situation

978
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:05,080
was that they had their fair share
of rising drug crime...

979
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:11,360
rising street robberies,
and the center of activity

980
00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:15,840
was all around All Saints Road
and the Mangrove Club,

981
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:20,680
so the Mangrove club was
raided on numerous occasions.

982
00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:23,360
[narrator]
Local people were convinced

983
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:26,640
that the Mangrove was being
unfairly targeted by police officers.

984
00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:33,600
When Frank opened the restaurant,
the police approach him.

985
00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:37,320
This policeman,
everybody knows him, Pulley,

986
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:39,840
he don't forget a face,
and he know everybody,

987
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:41,040
and then he had a way,

988
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:43,720
he would talk with these accents
he would put on.

989
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:46,240
"What's happening?
Open up na."

990
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:48,360
And talk like he was a Jamaican.

991
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:52,360
It was a racist thing that
they can take liberty with us,

992
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:54,320
but Frank wasn't having it.

993
00:53:54,880 --> 00:53:59,560
Pulley was a notorious police constable
from Notting Hill Gate Police Station.

994
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:01,600
He was absolutely racist,

995
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:05,240
because all he did was harass
Black youngsters.

996
00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:09,920
He was very well-known
for being that kind of a policeman.

997
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:12,480
[reporter] "Hands off
the Mangrove," says the slogan.

998
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:15,080
A favorite haunt of West Indians,
and which has been subject to

999
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:17,280
frequent visits by the police.

1000
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:19,240
No charges have ever been brought.

1001
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:21,880
[Darcus Howe]
I was working at the till,

1002
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:23,240
and the police,

1003
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:26,800
they said that there was
marijuana being sold there.

1004
00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:28,160
There was none!

1005
00:54:28,240 --> 00:54:31,920
There were three raids on the restaurant,
ostensibly for drugs.

1006
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:33,320
Nothing was found!

1007
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:35,880
[Darcus Howe]
They want it closed down.

1008
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:38,080
So they started raiding the place.

1009
00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:40,680
Because there was nobody

1010
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,680
to take on the police at that time.

1011
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:47,280
[narrator]
The constant raids on the Mangrove

1012
00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:49,920
meant that Frank's customers
started to stay away.

1013
00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:53,240
It was complete harassment

1014
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:54,440
on this restaurant.

1015
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:57,520
Complete harassment
on a Black business.

1016
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:01,600
And they end up by destroying it.

1017
00:55:01,680 --> 00:55:04,560
Destroying it because
they would raid on a Friday night,

1018
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:05,880
which is the busiest night,

1019
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:08,040
and people got fed up
and stopped coming.

1020
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:10,600
Frank used to walk around the block,

1021
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:13,440
just looking to see if
the police van or truck.

1022
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:15,600
It caused a kind of battle thing.

1023
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,120
[Darcus Howe] I was sitting
downstairs of the Mangrove.

1024
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:21,600
Frank was talking to
a member of parliament

1025
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:24,200
about how the police
were raiding the restaurant.

1026
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:29,200
So I sat listening to this,
and a young terror I was.

1027
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:32,920
After they left, I said,
"Frank, let's have a demonstration,

1028
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:36,280
and we're going to march
to every police station in the area."

1029
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:39,040
You know, I want to fight,
I want to fight.

1030
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:41,360
I need to fight
to express something.

1031
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:43,600
[reporter] Mm-hmm.

1032
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,040
I need to argue.
I need to scream!

1033
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:49,720
That is the situation
that British society has placed me in.

1034
00:55:51,360 --> 00:55:52,560
[narrator]
With feelings of anger

1035
00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:54,080
rising within the community,

1036
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:57,480
the Black Panther Movement,
led by Althea Jones LeCointe,

1037
00:55:57,560 --> 00:56:00,320
stepped in to help
organize a peaceful protest.

1038
00:56:02,200 --> 00:56:04,120
I believe the Mangrove,
what they seek to do

1039
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:05,800
is not to close down a restaurant,

1040
00:56:05,880 --> 00:56:09,760
but to close down what they see
as an area where Black people

1041
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:14,000
can collectively put up
some kind of resistance

1042
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:16,840
to day-to-day harassment
by the police.

1043
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:19,600
[narrator]
But some locals doubted

1044
00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:21,760
whether the protest
would remain peaceful.

1045
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:29,320
Demonstration, I agree with it,
but me and Frank fell out over it

1046
00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:34,920
because I went in there,
and I see them writing up these placards.

1047
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:39,840
"The Pigs," "Police Harassment,"
and then I see them stapling it

1048
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:43,000
onto some flimsy piece of wood,
so I said to Frank, I said,

1049
00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:44,640
"Frank, what you doing?"

1050
00:56:44,720 --> 00:56:48,480
I said, "Frank, you need some
two by two to defend we-self."

1051
00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:52,320
He went mad, he said,
"Listen, every time you come here,

1052
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:53,680
you're preaching violence."

1053
00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:56,800
I was into violence

1054
00:56:56,880 --> 00:57:00,440
because I used to feel so hurt inside

1055
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:03,040
when I see liberties
taken with people.

1056
00:57:03,760 --> 00:57:05,680
[distant clamoring,
indistinct speech]

1057
00:57:05,760 --> 00:57:08,480
[narrator] On Sunday 9th
of August 1970,

1058
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:12,000
a crowd of over a hundred people
gathered outside the Mangrove Restaurant

1059
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:13,160
to show their support.

1060
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:18,920
Darcus Howe stood on the roof of a car
to address the crowd.

1061
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:21,440
[Darcus Howe on recording]
It has been for some time now

1062
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:23,920
that Black people
have been caught up

1063
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:27,720
in complaining to police
about police, yeah,

1064
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:31,360
complaining to magistrate
about magistrate.

1065
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:32,680
[laughter]

1066
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:35,560
Complaining to politicians
about politicians.

1067
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:38,240
[♪ B.B. Seaton: "I Want Justice"]

1068
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:43,400
[narrator] The protestors,
now numbering about 150,

1069
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:46,160
set off with the intention
of peacefully marching past

1070
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:48,360
several police stations in the area.

1071
00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:51,480
[♪ "I Want Justice" continues]

1072
00:58:05,480 --> 00:58:11,440
Up to that time, blacks hadn't moved
to that kind of militancy before...

1073
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:15,640
but the police,
in their relations with blacks every day,

1074
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:18,120
had prepared blacks to revolt,

1075
00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:22,040
and we called the demonstration
to express politically

1076
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:24,600
what was at large socially.

1077
00:58:26,600 --> 00:58:27,760
[narrator]
By the time the demonstrators

1078
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:29,360
reached Notting Hill Police Station,

1079
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:32,960
there were over 500 plainclothes
and uniformed police officers

1080
00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:34,400
surrounding the marches.

1081
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:38,280
With the protestors
vastly outnumbered by police,

1082
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:41,280
resentment on both sides
was at fever pitch.

1083
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:44,520
[Darcus Howe]
What I want activists to do,

1084
00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:46,080
what this is going to continue to be

1085
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:49,720
is a concerted, determined attempt

1086
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:53,120
to prevent any infringement
on our rights.

1087
00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:56,920
[chanting]
Hands off Black people!

1088
00:58:57,680 --> 00:59:00,280
We went to Notting Hill Police Station,

1089
00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:01,680
by which time

1090
00:59:01,760 --> 00:59:05,240
it had accumulated
in the minds of the policemen

1091
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:09,720
who were on that demonstration
that we had taken that issue too far.

1092
00:59:09,800 --> 00:59:15,000
They believed, what are these cheeky
West Indians doing on the street,

1093
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:18,000
challenging our authority
with such confidence?

1094
00:59:18,520 --> 00:59:22,320
[crowd chanting]
Hands off Black people!

1095
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:26,280
On our way to
Harrow Road Police Station,

1096
00:59:26,360 --> 00:59:28,640
there was trouble.

1097
00:59:28,720 --> 00:59:31,160
[Phillip]
We see a bus with police.

1098
00:59:31,240 --> 00:59:34,040
Police and dem jump on the bus,

1099
00:59:34,120 --> 00:59:35,560
fighting start.

1100
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:38,920
[♪ Peter Tosh:
"Them A Fi Get A Beaten"]

1101
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:28,080
[narrator] The police strategy
at the demonstration

1102
01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:30,280
raised concerns amongst activists.

1103
01:00:32,480 --> 01:00:33,800
[male activist]
Immigration bill!

1104
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:35,480
[narrator]
A new conservative government

1105
01:00:35,560 --> 01:00:37,160
was pushing
a harsher immigration policy

1106
01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:38,280
through Parliament,

1107
01:00:38,360 --> 01:00:40,840
and the fear was that
the sensational news

1108
01:00:40,920 --> 01:00:44,480
about riots in Notting Hill
will be used to justify it.

1109
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:48,680
I believe that's why
that attack was launched,

1110
01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:53,160
and why subsequent to that attacks
by the police are being launched.

1111
01:00:53,240 --> 01:00:56,200
This thing was
blown out of all proportion,

1112
01:00:56,280 --> 01:00:59,840
was that the government
had certain things in mind

1113
01:00:59,920 --> 01:01:04,000
for Black people in relation
to the population as a whole.

1114
01:01:04,080 --> 01:01:07,720
Where have you heard anywhere
of a demonstration

1115
01:01:07,800 --> 01:01:12,640
in a community of about 150 people
hitting the Manchester Guardian,

1116
01:01:12,720 --> 01:01:14,000
The Yorkshire Post.

1117
01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:17,880
That thing is projected to the population
for a particular reason.

1118
01:01:17,960 --> 01:01:20,680
They wanted to justify
the Immigration Bill.

1119
01:01:20,760 --> 01:01:23,560
They wanted to justify
saying that Black people

1120
01:01:23,640 --> 01:01:25,080
had to register with the police,

1121
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:29,160
that Black people had to
ask permission to have certain jobs,

1122
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:30,560
and to move from place to place.

1123
01:01:30,640 --> 01:01:32,600
They wanted to justify
these kinds of measures.

1124
01:01:34,280 --> 01:01:37,600
[Darcus Howe] The police,
Special Branch, Scotland Yard,

1125
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:40,760
and Reginald Maulding, the Home Secretary,

1126
01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:44,320
and political people, all of them, met

1127
01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:45,920
and decided to put us in jail.

1128
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,200
I thought this is a hell of a thing,

1129
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:51,040
this is serious trouble.

1130
01:01:53,880 --> 01:01:55,360
[narrator]
For the nine people arrested

1131
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:57,120
following the Mangrove Demonstration,

1132
01:01:57,200 --> 01:01:59,240
it seemed like the whole
machinery of the state

1133
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:01,000
was now set against them

1134
01:02:01,080 --> 01:02:04,800
and the idea of Black Power in Britain
was being unfairly demonized.

1135
01:02:06,160 --> 01:02:07,640
[reporter]
The Mangrove Nine,

1136
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:09,960
two women, seven men,

1137
01:02:10,040 --> 01:02:11,720
31 charges.

1138
01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:15,520
[Gittens] Some of
the more vocal people

1139
01:02:15,600 --> 01:02:19,600
like Rhodan, Darcus, Frank,

1140
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:22,680
Altheia, Barbara Beese.

1141
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:24,040
They were targeted.

1142
01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:27,720
That was a method
of actually decapitating

1143
01:02:27,800 --> 01:02:30,520
the Black Power leadership,

1144
01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:32,320
the effective ones.

1145
01:02:33,960 --> 01:02:35,560
[narrator]
The trial of the Mangrove Nine

1146
01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:38,600
began in October 1971
at the Old Bailey.

1147
01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:43,640
Representing one of the nine defendants
was Ian MacDonald,

1148
01:02:43,720 --> 01:02:46,440
a young barrister,
who was to become a pioneer

1149
01:02:46,520 --> 01:02:49,000
of anti-racist legal practice in Britain.

1150
01:02:50,480 --> 01:02:54,280
[Ian MacDonald]
The Mangrove Nine came in '71,

1151
01:02:54,360 --> 01:02:59,400
and it was really an attempt
to put on trial the leadership

1152
01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:01,640
of the Black Panther Movement,

1153
01:03:01,720 --> 01:03:05,600
which was one of the largest, um,
mass movements of Black youth

1154
01:03:05,680 --> 01:03:07,760
that there has ever been
in this country.

1155
01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:10,080
They were charged with affray,

1156
01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:12,440
they were charged with
assault on police,

1157
01:03:12,520 --> 01:03:15,400
and then they were charged with riot
at the last minute.

1158
01:03:17,240 --> 01:03:19,360
[narrator]
Now facing up to five years in prison,

1159
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:23,400
Darcus Howe demanded an all-Black jury,
citing the Magna Carta,

1160
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:27,320
a medieval charter that asserted
the right of citizens to be judged

1161
01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:29,720
without prejudice
by a jury of their peers.

1162
01:03:30,800 --> 01:03:33,360
[MacDonald]
It was really a kind of statement

1163
01:03:33,440 --> 01:03:35,200
that they were making,

1164
01:03:35,280 --> 01:03:38,920
that they weren't going
to be forced by

1165
01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:42,840
any kind of racist part of the court.

1166
01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:46,000
The structure of the court
is such that, uh,

1167
01:03:46,080 --> 01:03:51,440
there is a tendency for that jury
to identify, uh, with the judge.

1168
01:03:51,520 --> 01:03:54,320
Ian Macdonald, he wasn't saying
what the other lawyers were saying,

1169
01:03:54,400 --> 01:03:55,360
and they knew that.

1170
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:57,920
He attacked
the whole structure of the court,

1171
01:03:58,000 --> 01:04:00,840
He tell the jury how the judge
keep them under control.

1172
01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:03,760
He tell the jury how the judge
keep us under control.

1173
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:06,000
He tell the jury
how the judge sit on high,

1174
01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:07,680
everybody have to bow to him.

1175
01:04:07,760 --> 01:04:11,840
He don't have to bow to nobody,
and he exposed that whole structure,

1176
01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:15,000
and how it meant to psychologically
terrorize ordinary people.

1177
01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:17,520
[narrator]
Defying legal convention,

1178
01:04:17,600 --> 01:04:21,040
Darcus and Altheia decide to
represent themselves in court

1179
01:04:21,120 --> 01:04:23,680
so they could spell out
their case to the jury,

1180
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:25,360
that the police were lying,

1181
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:27,520
and they had been motivated
by racism.

1182
01:04:27,600 --> 01:04:29,600
[Altheia]
Since we've come here,

1183
01:04:29,680 --> 01:04:32,600
we have suffered a long chain
of abuses by the police,

1184
01:04:32,680 --> 01:04:35,360
with the active knowledge
and support of the British state.

1185
01:04:35,920 --> 01:04:38,680
[Darcus Howe] This case
is about a real situation

1186
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:42,600
involving people who are prepared
to come to say what that situation is.

1187
01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:45,160
[narrator]
Darcus wanted to convey

1188
01:04:45,240 --> 01:04:48,960
this real situation to
white working-class members of the jury,

1189
01:04:49,040 --> 01:04:52,160
who he believed they were more likely
than their middle-class counterparts

1190
01:04:52,240 --> 01:04:54,960
to have experienced
everyday police injustice.

1191
01:04:56,200 --> 01:04:57,200
[Darcus Howe]
At the end of the day,

1192
01:04:57,280 --> 01:04:59,560
I knew there were white people
I could convince.

1193
01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:04,000
Ordinary whites, working whites,
that I could speak to

1194
01:05:04,080 --> 01:05:07,800
about what their police
was doing to me, and win.

1195
01:05:10,560 --> 01:05:16,080
I remember attending demonstrations
at the Mangrove Nine trial.

1196
01:05:16,160 --> 01:05:19,400
Darcus, you know,
he had style, and he had flair.

1197
01:05:19,480 --> 01:05:21,760
[Darcus Howe]
I am interested in the truth.

1198
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:23,600
You come from Brixton,
you are unemployed,

1199
01:05:23,680 --> 01:05:26,760
you steal something,
not a single lawyer in this country

1200
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:28,480
is going to talk about
your unemployment,

1201
01:05:28,560 --> 01:05:30,760
is going to talk
about the housing condition,

1202
01:05:30,840 --> 01:05:33,160
is going to talk about the pressures
under which you live.

1203
01:05:33,240 --> 01:05:35,160
And that is central
to your case,

1204
01:05:35,240 --> 01:05:38,000
and central to the case
of every Black person in this country.

1205
01:05:38,760 --> 01:05:42,600
[Dhondy] Darcus bought
his lawyer's skills to bear

1206
01:05:42,680 --> 01:05:46,920
about the cross-examination
which he gave the police.

1207
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:49,240
Darcus was extremely flamboyant.

1208
01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:53,760
He would use quotations from
Shakespeare in defending himself.

1209
01:05:53,840 --> 01:05:57,600
You know, "The time is out of joint,
O cursed spite,

1210
01:05:57,680 --> 01:06:01,320
that nine West Indians
were born to put it right."

1211
01:06:01,400 --> 01:06:03,560
[♪ Derrick Morgan:
"Conquering Ruler"]

1212
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:07,080
The Mangrove trial generated
a lot of publicity

1213
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:12,080
and Darcus and Altheia
used it as a platform

1214
01:06:12,160 --> 01:06:15,960
to publicize the discrimination
that we felt.

1215
01:06:17,200 --> 01:06:20,600
I think this is why more and more
people should defend themselves.

1216
01:06:20,680 --> 01:06:23,560
However inadequately,
some of the truth will get through.

1217
01:06:23,640 --> 01:06:26,800
[♪ "Conquering Ruler" continues]

1218
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:36,080
[reporter]
Radford Darcus Howe, not guilty.

1219
01:06:36,880 --> 01:06:39,000
Frank Crichlow, not guilty.

1220
01:06:39,080 --> 01:06:40,080
Not guilty.

1221
01:06:40,160 --> 01:06:41,760
[narrator]
All of the Mangrove Nine

1222
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:44,160
were found not guilty of riot
and were spared prison.

1223
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:47,000
The police had been
humiliated in court.

1224
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:51,040
Crucially, the presiding judge
said in his summary

1225
01:06:51,120 --> 01:06:54,160
that he had found evidence
of racial hatred on both sides.

1226
01:06:55,760 --> 01:06:59,280
It was the first official acknowledgment
from anybody in the British state

1227
01:06:59,360 --> 01:07:02,000
that there was racism
in the police force.

1228
01:07:03,240 --> 01:07:05,280
[MacDonald]
It was a watershed trial

1229
01:07:05,360 --> 01:07:07,480
because it was the beginning

1230
01:07:07,560 --> 01:07:12,600
of a realization that the police
didn't behave like gentlemen,

1231
01:07:12,680 --> 01:07:17,600
and all the rest of it,
by the establishment in this country.

1232
01:07:18,400 --> 01:07:21,240
That was a historic victory.

1233
01:07:21,320 --> 01:07:24,720
It was a sense of what Black Power
was all about.

1234
01:07:24,800 --> 01:07:26,160
Black Power really meant

1235
01:07:26,240 --> 01:07:29,520
the only way you are going
to effectively challenge racism

1236
01:07:29,600 --> 01:07:32,800
was to organize yourselves
and fight back.

1237
01:07:35,120 --> 01:07:36,360
[narrator]
The Mangrove victory

1238
01:07:36,440 --> 01:07:39,080
created a sense of possibility
as other Black activists

1239
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:41,080
were making progress in their struggle.

1240
01:07:41,840 --> 01:07:43,640
[Leila Hassan Howe]
You know, we were young radicals.

1241
01:07:43,720 --> 01:07:45,280
We were going to change the world.

1242
01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:48,320
We'd seen the big protests against
the Vietnam war,

1243
01:07:48,400 --> 01:07:49,560
which was revolutionary.

1244
01:07:49,640 --> 01:07:52,120
We'd seen the women's liberation
movement come to the fore,

1245
01:07:52,200 --> 01:07:54,600
and that was revolutionary,
so, for us,

1246
01:07:54,680 --> 01:07:56,240
yeah, we were about revolution.

1247
01:07:56,320 --> 01:07:59,240
[♪ Bob Marley & The Wailers:
"Coming In From The Cold"]

1248
01:07:59,320 --> 01:08:00,720
[narrator]
In South London,

1249
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:03,120
Black Panther member Olive Morris

1250
01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:05,720
worked alongside other notable
Black and Asian women

1251
01:08:05,800 --> 01:08:08,040
to create a pioneering
feminist movement

1252
01:08:08,120 --> 01:08:09,320
for women of color.

1253
01:08:09,400 --> 01:08:11,480
[♪ "Coming In From The Cold" continues]

1254
01:08:11,560 --> 01:08:17,560
Olive Morris was the most fearless
Black woman I have ever met.

1255
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:21,960
And we created the first
Brixton Black women's group.

1256
01:08:23,320 --> 01:08:24,640
[narrator]
Olive also led the Black community's

1257
01:08:24,720 --> 01:08:26,640
fightback against
poor housing conditions

1258
01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:29,200
through her involvement
with the Squatting Movement.

1259
01:08:30,360 --> 01:08:32,800
She was a woman
with a lot of guts,

1260
01:08:32,880 --> 01:08:36,280
and she saw squatting
as a political movement.

1261
01:08:38,280 --> 01:08:40,320
[narrator]
Darcus Howe found a new platform,

1262
01:08:40,400 --> 01:08:42,920
editing in a magazine with
the Race Today Collective.

1263
01:08:44,240 --> 01:08:48,160
He was joined there by poet and activist
Linton Kwesi Johnson.

1264
01:08:49,760 --> 01:08:53,480
The Black Parents Movement challenged
racism within the education system

1265
01:08:53,560 --> 01:08:57,280
by creating supplementary schools
to improve teaching for their children.

1266
01:08:58,160 --> 01:08:59,840
Being Black,
being confident,

1267
01:08:59,920 --> 01:09:02,960
being assured of who you are
and what you believe in,

1268
01:09:03,040 --> 01:09:05,200
that's what
the Black Power movement did.

1269
01:09:06,120 --> 01:09:07,960
[narrator]
Much of the energy of the movement

1270
01:09:08,040 --> 01:09:11,080
was devoted to forcing the state
to acknowledge equal rights.

1271
01:09:11,960 --> 01:09:14,520
But there was a growing backlash
for those involved.

1272
01:09:14,600 --> 01:09:16,920
The police continued
to raid the Mangrove

1273
01:09:17,000 --> 01:09:19,440
and harass its owner,
Frank Crichlow.

1274
01:09:20,040 --> 01:09:22,000
[Crichlow]
I think I suffered very badly

1275
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:23,880
for what has happened.

1276
01:09:24,960 --> 01:09:29,840
I have been arrested on nearly
every year in the '70s.

1277
01:09:29,920 --> 01:09:33,120
I was on bail--you can easily say
I was on bail for ten years.

1278
01:09:33,200 --> 01:09:34,680
One case after the other.

1279
01:09:35,880 --> 01:09:38,240
Don't ask me what kept me going.

1280
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:44,240
Um, I think that I was standing up
for my rights,

1281
01:09:44,320 --> 01:09:46,640
and that's where I got
my strength from.

1282
01:09:47,280 --> 01:09:49,120
[reporter]
Police took two alleged Panthers

1283
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:52,080
with them as hostages
and as shields.

1284
01:09:52,160 --> 01:09:54,280
[narrator]
The early '70s saw governments

1285
01:09:54,360 --> 01:09:57,480
on both sides of the Atlantic
cracking down on Black Power.

1286
01:09:58,200 --> 01:10:00,520
They saw these groups
as a hotbed of criminality

1287
01:10:00,600 --> 01:10:01,800
and potential terrorism.

1288
01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:03,120
[rapid gunfire]

1289
01:10:03,200 --> 01:10:06,680
In America, the Black Panthers
were ruthlessly eliminated

1290
01:10:06,760 --> 01:10:08,800
by the FBI and the police.

1291
01:10:08,880 --> 01:10:10,920
[reporter] Yet as
Panther raids go these days,

1292
01:10:11,000 --> 01:10:12,360
it was unique in that no one,

1293
01:10:12,440 --> 01:10:14,480
policeman or Panther,
got killed.

1294
01:10:15,360 --> 01:10:17,200
[narrator]
The UK government continued to spy

1295
01:10:17,280 --> 01:10:18,640
on Black Power groups,

1296
01:10:18,720 --> 01:10:22,320
concerned that some might be
planning acts of violent insurrection.

1297
01:10:23,040 --> 01:10:25,080
In their sights was
a North London group

1298
01:10:25,160 --> 01:10:26,840
called the Black Liberation Front,

1299
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:30,320
who had established close links
with the American Black Panthers.

1300
01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:35,760
[Abbas] We reproduced an article
in Grassroots, our newspaper,

1301
01:10:35,840 --> 01:10:40,800
which was from the Black Panther
newspaper in the United States.

1302
01:10:40,880 --> 01:10:47,000
And in it was an article about
how to put together a bomb.

1303
01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:53,200
Now you've got to remember,
the Panther newspaper

1304
01:10:53,280 --> 01:10:58,560
was freely available not only in America,
but also in the UK.

1305
01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:01,640
[narrator] Publishing
bomb-making instructions

1306
01:11:01,720 --> 01:11:03,480
was the all the state needed
to prosecute

1307
01:11:03,560 --> 01:11:05,480
one of the Black Liberation
Front's leaders,

1308
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:07,440
known as Tony Sonares.

1309
01:11:07,920 --> 01:11:11,240
[Ansel Wong] Even though the
publication is a collective effort,

1310
01:11:11,320 --> 01:11:16,920
Tony was arrested for incitement
to, um, racial hatred and to murder

1311
01:11:17,000 --> 01:11:18,960
and was found guilty.

1312
01:11:19,040 --> 01:11:21,200
[Abbas]
It was a mistake,

1313
01:11:21,280 --> 01:11:24,800
and it was a mistake not done by Tony.

1314
01:11:24,880 --> 01:11:28,040
He had nothing to do
with that article appearing.

1315
01:11:28,120 --> 01:11:32,960
Tony took the fall because the police
insisted he was in charge

1316
01:11:33,040 --> 01:11:35,040
of the newspaper
at that moment in time.

1317
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:38,440
[narrator]
Despite the bomb article being a reprint

1318
01:11:38,520 --> 01:11:41,520
from a publication already
in circulation in the UK,

1319
01:11:41,600 --> 01:11:45,320
Tony would be held in prison
for several months for this offense.

1320
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:49,760
We were then put under
surveillance by Special Branch.

1321
01:11:49,840 --> 01:11:52,320
[Abbas]
In the early days of phone tapping,

1322
01:11:52,400 --> 01:11:56,480
you could hear
the phone being tapped,

1323
01:11:56,560 --> 01:12:00,840
and I have had conversations
I have had on the phone read back to me.

1324
01:12:00,920 --> 01:12:04,480
[Abbas] In every Black organization,

1325
01:12:04,560 --> 01:12:05,680
there's no doubt,

1326
01:12:05,760 --> 01:12:09,960
there were people who were
working for the security services.

1327
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:13,640
[narrator] As the
Black Liberation Front struggled

1328
01:12:13,720 --> 01:12:16,240
to survive the imprisonment
of one of its leaders,

1329
01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:19,200
it rallied support from other
Black Power groups.

1330
01:12:20,200 --> 01:12:22,760
Winston Trew was a member
of the Fasimbas,

1331
01:12:22,840 --> 01:12:24,920
a youth group in
the Black Power movement

1332
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:28,680
which encouraged community work,
education, and self-defense.

1333
01:12:29,480 --> 01:12:32,040
On the morning of 16th of March 1972,

1334
01:12:32,120 --> 01:12:35,600
I had gone to sign on, as normal,
at Peckham Labor Exchange.

1335
01:12:35,680 --> 01:12:39,880
In the evening, we had a meeting
to go and see the Black Liberation Front.

1336
01:12:41,960 --> 01:12:47,920
We had left the meeting at about 10:15,
took the train from Manor House,

1337
01:12:48,000 --> 01:12:49,320
changed at Leicester Square,

1338
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:53,280
got the northern line
to Oval underground station.

1339
01:12:54,600 --> 01:12:58,000
The bottom of the escalator was very,
very crowded, so we decided to walk up.

1340
01:12:59,840 --> 01:13:02,280
Halfway up the escalator,
there were two men in front of us,

1341
01:13:02,360 --> 01:13:03,680
wouldn't let us pass.

1342
01:13:04,440 --> 01:13:07,320
When we got to the top,
two men suddenly turned round and said,

1343
01:13:07,400 --> 01:13:08,880
"Get over there!
Get over there!"

1344
01:13:08,960 --> 01:13:10,240
"What do you want?"

1345
01:13:10,320 --> 01:13:12,600
"We are police."
I said, "So? Where's your ID?"

1346
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:17,000
[narrator] Winston and
his three Fasimba colleagues

1347
01:13:17,080 --> 01:13:19,200
were arrested for allegedly
stealing handbags

1348
01:13:19,280 --> 01:13:21,040
and assaulting police officers.

1349
01:13:22,400 --> 01:13:24,560
[Trew] The detective
in charge of our arrest

1350
01:13:24,640 --> 01:13:27,200
was called Detective Sergeant
Derek Ridgewell.

1351
01:13:27,280 --> 01:13:30,560
After we were arrested
and taken in the police station,

1352
01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:33,240
I said to them, "We've got
a right to a phone call."

1353
01:13:33,320 --> 01:13:34,720
He ran over to me,
looked at my face,

1354
01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:38,560
and said to me, "You blacks
got no bloody rights."

1355
01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:42,920
[narrator]
Winston was facing the very thing

1356
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:45,840
he and other Black Power groups
had campaigned against,

1357
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:49,000
being fitted up
by corrupt police officers.

1358
01:13:49,800 --> 01:13:53,760
The charge had said there's
a head-on collision of evidence.

1359
01:13:53,840 --> 01:13:57,760
Either defendants are lying,
or the police are lying.

1360
01:13:57,840 --> 01:14:00,080
Now what jury is going
to say that the police are lying?

1361
01:14:00,360 --> 01:14:02,080
When they announced
the guilty verdict,

1362
01:14:02,160 --> 01:14:03,840
I was in a state of shock.

1363
01:14:03,920 --> 01:14:06,560
I couldn't believe it,
but I had to believe it.

1364
01:14:06,640 --> 01:14:11,120
I woke up the following morning
in wormwood scrubs, 9th of November.

1365
01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:13,920
The 9th of November was
the birthday of my oldest son.

1366
01:14:14,840 --> 01:14:17,400
I felt like crap.

1367
01:14:20,880 --> 01:14:22,040
[narrator]
Building on the example

1368
01:14:22,120 --> 01:14:23,440
of the Mangrove Nine,

1369
01:14:23,520 --> 01:14:26,640
Winston and his friends
quickly became known as the Oval Four

1370
01:14:26,720 --> 01:14:28,760
and captured media attention.

1371
01:14:29,520 --> 01:14:30,880
[reporter]
Back at the Oval station,

1372
01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:34,080
Ridgewell had arrested
a group of Black youths,

1373
01:14:34,160 --> 01:14:36,480
the group that became known
as the Oval Four.

1374
01:14:36,560 --> 01:14:38,120
[narrator]
When a BBC journalist

1375
01:14:38,200 --> 01:14:40,160
started investigating
Winston's case,

1376
01:14:40,240 --> 01:14:43,840
it was revealed that Detective
Sergeant Derek Ridgwell's testimony

1377
01:14:43,920 --> 01:14:46,760
was directly contradicted
by eyewitnesses.

1378
01:14:47,800 --> 01:14:50,280
They claim that after getting off
a train at the Oval,

1379
01:14:50,360 --> 01:14:53,280
three of the youths
jostled an elderly passenger,

1380
01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:56,160
while Trew ran his hand
over the man's pocket.

1381
01:14:56,240 --> 01:14:59,920
Ridgewell claimed that he saw Trew
put his hand into the pocket

1382
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:01,520
of another elderly passenger,

1383
01:15:01,600 --> 01:15:04,360
but the police didn't
produce either victim,

1384
01:15:04,440 --> 01:15:08,120
and the only witnesses were
the anti-mugging squad themselves.

1385
01:15:08,200 --> 01:15:10,280
But Mrs. O'Connor,
the woman who intervened

1386
01:15:10,360 --> 01:15:13,120
and tried to break up the fight,
says otherwise.

1387
01:15:13,200 --> 01:15:17,040
He definitely hadn't got a handbag
at that stage when I saw him.

1388
01:15:18,920 --> 01:15:20,840
[narrator]
The media account of Winston's case

1389
01:15:20,920 --> 01:15:23,960
helped him to appeal
and his sentence was reduced.

1390
01:15:25,160 --> 01:15:28,040
But the judge did not
overturn the conviction,

1391
01:15:28,120 --> 01:15:30,040
leaving Winston with
a criminal record.

1392
01:15:31,200 --> 01:15:34,920
It later emerged that Derek Ridgewell
was a corrupt police officer

1393
01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:38,840
whose tactic was to arrest Black men
for crimes they had not committed.

1394
01:15:40,360 --> 01:15:42,320
On this occasion,
Ridgewell's actions

1395
01:15:42,400 --> 01:15:45,200
had helped to destroy
a Black Power organization.

1396
01:15:46,760 --> 01:15:51,440
So I came out of prison,
July 1973.

1397
01:15:51,520 --> 01:15:54,800
People were so shocked by
what happened to the four of us,

1398
01:15:54,880 --> 01:15:57,240
the Fasimbas closed,
they disbanded.

1399
01:15:57,320 --> 01:16:01,400
I lost confidence in myself.
I became turned inwards.

1400
01:16:01,480 --> 01:16:02,800
It was hell.

1401
01:16:06,720 --> 01:16:08,680
[narrator] The British press
had for a long time,

1402
01:16:08,760 --> 01:16:12,480
used Michael X's activities
to tarnish the image of Black Power.

1403
01:16:12,840 --> 01:16:16,360
Despite his absence from the UK,
he was still reported on

1404
01:16:16,440 --> 01:16:18,680
as if he were the movement's
overall leader.

1405
01:16:19,200 --> 01:16:22,360
But Michael X had been arrested
4,000 miles away

1406
01:16:22,440 --> 01:16:25,120
after two bodies were found
buried in shallow graves

1407
01:16:25,200 --> 01:16:27,080
on his commune in Trinidad.

1408
01:16:30,640 --> 01:16:33,040
All he was after, Michael X,

1409
01:16:33,120 --> 01:16:35,800
was taking money from people.

1410
01:16:35,880 --> 01:16:37,240
He was slightly mad,

1411
01:16:37,320 --> 01:16:39,640
and he murdered
poor Gail Benson,

1412
01:16:39,720 --> 01:16:43,640
a woman who had gone
following his charisma.

1413
01:16:44,720 --> 01:16:46,560
[reporter]
As Michael X is taken into custody,

1414
01:16:46,640 --> 01:16:49,320
the search goes on for the sort of clues
that might help unravel

1415
01:16:49,400 --> 01:16:52,200
this murder mystery at
his burnt-out home at Arriva,

1416
01:16:52,280 --> 01:16:53,640
16 miles from the capital.

1417
01:16:53,720 --> 01:16:56,280
In the burnt-out shell
of Malik's house,

1418
01:16:56,360 --> 01:16:58,640
there is a great deal
of Black Power literature,

1419
01:16:58,720 --> 01:17:00,080
but there is a strong feeling here

1420
01:17:00,160 --> 01:17:03,080
that Malik was using his connections
with the Black Power movement

1421
01:17:03,160 --> 01:17:04,880
as a cover for other activities.

1422
01:17:05,320 --> 01:17:08,080
The one hard fact Malik
will have to explain

1423
01:17:08,160 --> 01:17:12,360
is how two bodies brutally murdered
came to be buried in his garden.

1424
01:17:12,440 --> 01:17:14,880
[Dhondy] Michael X
made the biggest noise of all

1425
01:17:14,960 --> 01:17:17,640
and had the least effect on

1426
01:17:17,720 --> 01:17:21,280
any reform or change or progress

1427
01:17:21,360 --> 01:17:24,040
in the lives of Black people in Britain.

1428
01:17:24,120 --> 01:17:25,440
[reporter]
His lawyer says

1429
01:17:25,520 --> 01:17:27,800
the only money he's had
towards the defense case

1430
01:17:27,880 --> 01:17:31,680
has come from John Lennon and Yoko
Ono, who are friends of Michael X.

1431
01:17:32,600 --> 01:17:34,000
[narrator]
But this time,

1432
01:17:34,080 --> 01:17:36,680
Michael X's celebrity friends
couldn't help him.

1433
01:17:36,760 --> 01:17:40,800
He was found guilty of murder by
Trinidadian court and sentenced to death.

1434
01:17:42,120 --> 01:17:46,080
On the 16th of May, 1975,
he was hanged in Trinidad for murder.

1435
01:17:49,640 --> 01:17:51,760
The fall of Michael X
showed how vulnerable

1436
01:17:51,840 --> 01:17:54,040
the Black Power cause
was to being hijacked

1437
01:17:54,120 --> 01:17:58,360
and the fine line between
revolutionary ideas and criminal deeds.

1438
01:18:00,440 --> 01:18:03,200
I think one of the issues for
the Black Power movement

1439
01:18:03,280 --> 01:18:07,200
was that you were really
an open church to any and everybody,

1440
01:18:07,280 --> 01:18:10,560
and there are groups of people
within the BLF

1441
01:18:10,640 --> 01:18:15,000
who did certain things that were
very much on the fringes of criminality,

1442
01:18:15,080 --> 01:18:17,880
on the edge of subversion
and terrorism.

1443
01:18:17,960 --> 01:18:19,120
[reporter]
The siege started

1444
01:18:19,200 --> 01:18:20,560
just before two this morning

1445
01:18:20,640 --> 01:18:22,200
when police surrounded the restaurant.

1446
01:18:22,280 --> 01:18:26,680
Take everything out of your pockets,
and put it on the counter! Move!

1447
01:18:27,160 --> 01:18:29,920
[narrator]
On the 28th of September, 1975,

1448
01:18:30,000 --> 01:18:33,040
three armed men claiming to be
from the Black Liberation Front

1449
01:18:33,120 --> 01:18:36,400
entered a restaurant in Knightsbridge
and demanded money.

1450
01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:39,080
When police quickly arrived
on the scene,

1451
01:18:39,160 --> 01:18:42,200
the gunmen took six members
of staff hostage,

1452
01:18:42,280 --> 01:18:44,680
and a standoff began
that would become known

1453
01:18:44,760 --> 01:18:46,560
as the Spaghetti House Siege.

1454
01:18:46,640 --> 01:18:51,520
The ensuing events would be turned into
an iconic film by director Horace Ove.

1455
01:18:51,720 --> 01:18:53,640
It was a total surprise.

1456
01:18:53,720 --> 01:18:59,040
It is not part and parcel of,
or-or action that we wanted to endorse.

1457
01:18:59,360 --> 01:19:02,200
We now can confirm that there are,
in fact, three gunmen.

1458
01:19:03,720 --> 01:19:05,400
[narrator]
The three gunmen were identified as

1459
01:19:05,480 --> 01:19:08,960
Wesley Dick, Anthony Munroe,
and Frank Davis.

1460
01:19:09,040 --> 01:19:12,320
They were all regular attendees
at Black Power meetings.

1461
01:19:12,760 --> 01:19:14,440
All three claimed to be members,

1462
01:19:14,520 --> 01:19:18,640
but there was a doubtful issue
about who is a member of the BLF

1463
01:19:18,720 --> 01:19:20,000
because we didn't have membership.

1464
01:19:20,080 --> 01:19:22,360
Nobody paid any money
to become a member.

1465
01:19:22,840 --> 01:19:26,240
[Abbas] I knew one,
but he wasn't a member.

1466
01:19:26,320 --> 01:19:30,240
He was an interested young person.

1467
01:19:30,320 --> 01:19:31,400
[reporter]
The scene outside

1468
01:19:31,480 --> 01:19:32,720
the Spaghetti House restaurant

1469
01:19:32,800 --> 01:19:35,040
is taking on something
of an air of permanence.

1470
01:19:35,120 --> 01:19:38,000
As the traffic flows past
just a few feet away,

1471
01:19:38,080 --> 01:19:41,080
the police have erected
a scaffold and tarpaulin canopy

1472
01:19:41,160 --> 01:19:44,760
that completely hides
the building from public gaze.

1473
01:19:44,840 --> 01:19:47,720
My instinct was,
this is criminal activity.

1474
01:19:47,800 --> 01:19:52,840
My instinct was,
"You can't--you can't do this. Surrender."

1475
01:19:52,920 --> 01:19:55,640
On the other side,
I was getting political pressures

1476
01:19:55,720 --> 01:19:58,120
to say these are freedom fighters.

1477
01:19:58,200 --> 01:20:00,400
These are people
taking up the struggle.

1478
01:20:00,480 --> 01:20:02,880
You can't ask them to surrender.

1479
01:20:02,960 --> 01:20:05,360
[narrator]
The siege rolled on for five days

1480
01:20:05,440 --> 01:20:07,040
with crowds gathering
outside to watch.

1481
01:20:08,040 --> 01:20:08,960
Inside the restaurant,

1482
01:20:09,040 --> 01:20:12,120
the three gunmen,
led by 24-year-old Wesley Dick,

1483
01:20:12,200 --> 01:20:14,240
were making
politically-motivated demands...

1484
01:20:16,040 --> 01:20:20,080
but police commissioner Robert Mark
was quick to point out the problem.

1485
01:20:21,080 --> 01:20:25,440
I have, in fact, asked for the release
of, uh, two prisoners,

1486
01:20:25,520 --> 01:20:27,160
who have completed
their sentences.

1487
01:20:28,360 --> 01:20:30,760
[reporter] These people are not
in prison, is that correct?

1488
01:20:30,840 --> 01:20:32,200
[overlapping commotion]

1489
01:20:32,280 --> 01:20:33,600
[reporter #2] But you can see,
as was said earlier--

1490
01:20:33,680 --> 01:20:37,280
But it is--but it is right to say that
that is only one of their demands,

1491
01:20:37,360 --> 01:20:39,320
and their demands
are very confusing.

1492
01:20:39,400 --> 01:20:43,400
Because the brothers were asking
for someone from the BLF

1493
01:20:43,480 --> 01:20:46,400
to go down,
to talk to them,

1494
01:20:46,480 --> 01:20:50,160
so that their demands
could be made in public,

1495
01:20:50,240 --> 01:20:55,080
Ansel and Tony, in their wisdom,
decided to send me,

1496
01:20:55,160 --> 01:20:59,600
and what they sent me to
was the strangest situation

1497
01:20:59,680 --> 01:21:01,360
I have ever been in
in my life.

1498
01:21:01,440 --> 01:21:03,920
You couldn't even tell
it was a restaurant

1499
01:21:04,000 --> 01:21:07,000
because the police vans
and cars and everything

1500
01:21:07,080 --> 01:21:09,960
blocked off the whole
of Knightsbridge,

1501
01:21:10,040 --> 01:21:14,880
and I was taken in,
downstairs to a basement...

1502
01:21:15,560 --> 01:21:17,840
surrounded by policemen,

1503
01:21:17,920 --> 01:21:21,320
and I was shouting up
to a hole in the wall.

1504
01:21:21,400 --> 01:21:25,920
They are asking me to ask you
to give yourselves up...

1505
01:21:26,880 --> 01:21:29,600
which is the only way they'd let us
speak to them.

1506
01:21:30,960 --> 01:21:34,440
We couldn't get out
what they wanted to say.

1507
01:21:34,520 --> 01:21:37,160
The police confiscated it immediately,

1508
01:21:37,240 --> 01:21:41,120
so they handed, um,
a-a written statement out,

1509
01:21:41,200 --> 01:21:43,480
but I got to view it for 30 seconds.

1510
01:21:43,800 --> 01:21:45,880
[reporter]
It's obvious from the careful surveying

1511
01:21:45,960 --> 01:21:46,880
of the whole building

1512
01:21:46,960 --> 01:21:48,960
that's been going on that
the police are considering

1513
01:21:49,040 --> 01:21:52,080
and drawing up plans to cope
with all possibilities.

1514
01:21:52,160 --> 01:21:54,840
I have never understood
Spaghetti House.

1515
01:21:54,920 --> 01:21:58,880
Everybody in the BLF thought
it was a criminal act gone wrong.

1516
01:21:59,600 --> 01:22:01,600
[reporter]
Just before four o'clock this morning,

1517
01:22:01,680 --> 01:22:04,880
ambulances began arriving
at Spaghetti House Restaurant.

1518
01:22:04,960 --> 01:22:09,400
Minutes later, the six exhausted
but unhurt Italian hostages were led out.

1519
01:22:09,800 --> 01:22:12,000
Shortly afterwards,
handcuffed to detectives,

1520
01:22:12,080 --> 01:22:14,920
came two of the captors,
who'd surrendered peacefully.

1521
01:22:15,000 --> 01:22:17,800
Seconds later,
the third gunman shot himself.

1522
01:22:19,080 --> 01:22:20,640
[Dhondy] He didn't kill himself.

1523
01:22:20,720 --> 01:22:22,480
He was taken to hospital,

1524
01:22:22,560 --> 01:22:25,640
straightened out,
tried, and jailed.

1525
01:22:26,440 --> 01:22:29,240
[Wong] Consequences
of that siege, for me,

1526
01:22:29,320 --> 01:22:32,080
it really knocked me back,
in terms of my own understanding,

1527
01:22:32,160 --> 01:22:34,240
belief and commitment
to the BLF.

1528
01:22:34,320 --> 01:22:36,520
Something that I could not support.

1529
01:22:38,160 --> 01:22:39,400
[narrator] The confusion over,

1530
01:22:39,480 --> 01:22:40,640
the Spaghetti House Siege

1531
01:22:40,720 --> 01:22:42,120
proved to be a turning point,

1532
01:22:42,200 --> 01:22:45,600
exposing the messy realties
of revolutionary politics.

1533
01:22:46,280 --> 01:22:48,920
The radical energy of
the British Black Power movement

1534
01:22:49,000 --> 01:22:50,080
appeared to be waning.

1535
01:22:50,280 --> 01:22:51,360
[Leila Hassan Howe]
By then,

1536
01:22:51,440 --> 01:22:53,360
the Black Power movement
was in decline in Britain.

1537
01:22:53,440 --> 01:22:56,600
Definitely, we were a hodgepodge
of different ideologies,

1538
01:22:56,680 --> 01:22:59,480
and of course, the government did
respond to the change in Black Power

1539
01:22:59,560 --> 01:23:02,120
because they co-opted
many of the Black Power people.

1540
01:23:02,200 --> 01:23:05,560
Money was being poured into
the Black community for projects

1541
01:23:05,640 --> 01:23:08,320
to try and defuse the demands
that were being made.

1542
01:23:08,400 --> 01:23:11,840
So, if your demand was
for decent housing for young Black men,

1543
01:23:11,920 --> 01:23:13,960
they would give you
money for a hostel.

1544
01:23:14,040 --> 01:23:16,480
So the demand for decent housing
was defused

1545
01:23:16,560 --> 01:23:18,120
'cause they didn't get
decent housing.

1546
01:23:18,200 --> 01:23:19,200
They got a hostel.

1547
01:23:19,280 --> 01:23:21,160
But the hostel was run
by a Black person.

1548
01:23:21,240 --> 01:23:25,800
[Gutzmore] Nothing in the nature
of social movements

1549
01:23:25,880 --> 01:23:27,400
exists forever.

1550
01:23:28,320 --> 01:23:32,160
If you have hundreds
of Black young people,

1551
01:23:32,240 --> 01:23:34,480
militant, eager,
wanting to do something,

1552
01:23:34,560 --> 01:23:36,320
what do you actually get them to do?

1553
01:23:36,400 --> 01:23:38,840
So, they march,
they attend meetings,

1554
01:23:38,920 --> 01:23:41,280
and then you run out
of things to do.

1555
01:23:42,240 --> 01:23:46,400
The achievement of the movement
was that it represented

1556
01:23:46,480 --> 01:23:51,400
a population that was not prepared
to put up with what British society

1557
01:23:51,480 --> 01:23:53,160
had defined it should do.

1558
01:23:54,040 --> 01:23:56,920
I think Black Power said,
"We're not going back home.

1559
01:23:57,000 --> 01:23:59,800
Britain belongs to us.
We're here to stay,

1560
01:23:59,880 --> 01:24:02,400
and we're going to fight for
our rights, here in this country."

1561
01:24:02,480 --> 01:24:03,920
That's what Black Power did.

1562
01:24:05,840 --> 01:24:07,280
[narrator]
Black Power had moved on,

1563
01:24:07,360 --> 01:24:08,640
and so had the country.

1564
01:24:09,600 --> 01:24:10,760
The Notting Hill Carnival,

1565
01:24:10,840 --> 01:24:13,760
which began as a response
to racism of the 1950s,

1566
01:24:13,840 --> 01:24:17,600
was now a global attraction with
a quarter of a million people attending.

1567
01:24:19,400 --> 01:24:23,760
A new Race Relations Act in 1976
made it illegal to discriminate

1568
01:24:23,840 --> 01:24:25,760
in housing or in education,

1569
01:24:25,840 --> 01:24:29,000
two of the key concerns
that motivated Black Power.

1570
01:24:30,960 --> 01:24:35,480
But the police remained legally exempt
from anti-racist legislation,

1571
01:24:35,560 --> 01:24:38,280
and at the Carnival in 1976,

1572
01:24:38,360 --> 01:24:40,240
they now faced a new generation
of young people

1573
01:24:40,320 --> 01:24:42,720
who had grown up with
the Black Power message

1574
01:24:42,800 --> 01:24:45,520
and would not back down
in the face of police brutality.

1575
01:24:49,240 --> 01:24:52,840
[Gutzmore] The Notting Hill
1976 Carnival,

1576
01:24:53,920 --> 01:24:57,640
the Metropolitan Police tried, by force,

1577
01:24:57,720 --> 01:24:59,800
to police the carnival
into submission.

1578
01:24:59,880 --> 01:25:01,600
How many policemen
are you using this year?

1579
01:25:01,680 --> 01:25:04,400
Approximately about fourteen hundred.

1580
01:25:05,040 --> 01:25:07,680
And last year,
it said that there were only sixty.

1581
01:25:10,400 --> 01:25:12,680
[narrator]
As tensions around the carnival mounted,

1582
01:25:12,760 --> 01:25:16,720
Darcus Howe warned of the risk
of using the same policing tactics

1583
01:25:16,800 --> 01:25:18,560
deployed at the Mangrove protest.

1584
01:25:19,480 --> 01:25:21,320
If there is a risk
on carnival day,

1585
01:25:21,400 --> 01:25:24,280
then it's going to be
an explosion of the kind

1586
01:25:24,360 --> 01:25:25,920
that hasn't been seen
in this country before.

1587
01:25:26,000 --> 01:25:27,320
I say that with no joy.

1588
01:25:27,880 --> 01:25:29,000
[narrator] And he was right.

1589
01:25:29,080 --> 01:25:32,040
Heavy-handed policing
resulted in a riot

1590
01:25:32,120 --> 01:25:34,080
that was the biggest seen
on British soil

1591
01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:35,640
since the second world war.

1592
01:25:37,040 --> 01:25:40,320
It signaled a new era of confrontation
with the police,

1593
01:25:40,400 --> 01:25:42,240
where organized protest gave way

1594
01:25:42,320 --> 01:25:45,320
to spontaneous outbursts
of anger and rioting.

1595
01:25:45,400 --> 01:25:48,440
For many Black people,
these were known as uprisings.

1596
01:25:50,200 --> 01:25:53,960
[Abbas] People talk about
the United States in terms of racism,

1597
01:25:54,040 --> 01:25:56,200
as though it was so much better here.

1598
01:25:56,280 --> 01:25:57,960
You've got to remember,

1599
01:25:58,040 --> 01:26:01,400
who were the pilgrims to America?

1600
01:26:01,480 --> 01:26:03,040
They were Brits.

1601
01:26:03,120 --> 01:26:05,320
OK? All over Africa,

1602
01:26:05,400 --> 01:26:09,360
who was in the forefront, besides
the Portuguese, of slavery?

1603
01:26:09,440 --> 01:26:10,840
It was the British.

1604
01:26:12,480 --> 01:26:14,560
[glass shattering]

1605
01:26:15,520 --> 01:26:17,800
[narrator]
Fifty years after the Mangrove protests,

1606
01:26:17,880 --> 01:26:21,000
relations between the police
and Black people remain problematic.

1607
01:26:21,800 --> 01:26:25,320
The police are no different
towards young Black men

1608
01:26:25,400 --> 01:26:28,200
than they were to me
when I was a teenager.

1609
01:26:28,280 --> 01:26:30,520
They don't beat you up
in the police station anymore

1610
01:26:30,600 --> 01:26:32,440
because all things are recorded.

1611
01:26:33,200 --> 01:26:34,560
But they still tell lies.

1612
01:26:34,640 --> 01:26:37,480
They'll still verbally
deny your rights.

1613
01:26:41,640 --> 01:26:44,320
What kind of country do we live in?

1614
01:26:45,280 --> 01:26:46,640
[chanting "Black Lives Matter"]

1615
01:26:47,240 --> 01:26:50,360
I have been in
the Black Power movement

1616
01:26:50,440 --> 01:26:52,680
and proud to have been in it.

1617
01:26:52,760 --> 01:26:56,800
I am very conscious
of the color of my skin

1618
01:26:56,880 --> 01:27:00,560
because I won't deny
the color of my skin.

1619
01:27:00,960 --> 01:27:05,520
I'm 70 years of age,
and I was born in Britain.

1620
01:27:06,160 --> 01:27:10,280
And to this day, people ask me
where I come from.

1621
01:27:10,360 --> 01:27:12,040
To this day!

1622
01:27:13,320 --> 01:27:17,960
This is a v-- a very strange country.

1623
01:27:25,480 --> 01:27:27,560
[Trew] On the 5th of December,
I walked into the Court of Appeal,

1624
01:27:27,640 --> 01:27:30,400
with my wife before
the Lord Chief Justice

1625
01:27:30,480 --> 01:27:32,280
to have our convictions overturned.

1626
01:27:32,360 --> 01:27:35,480
He quashed the convictions.
I was so happy.

1627
01:27:35,560 --> 01:27:38,240
I was even seen smiling.
I was so happy.

1628
01:27:38,320 --> 01:27:42,000
Today the Lord Chief Justice has told me
exactly what I wanted to hear.

1629
01:27:42,080 --> 01:27:44,600
He said he is only sorry
this has taken so long

1630
01:27:44,680 --> 01:27:47,160
for this injustice to be remedied.

1631
01:27:48,000 --> 01:27:49,520
[interviewer]
How long had it taken?

1632
01:27:49,600 --> 01:27:52,080
It had taken me 47 years.

1633
01:27:53,800 --> 01:27:58,480
That's where my Black activism
comes in. I was not giving up.

1634
01:28:00,920 --> 01:28:04,360
[Johnson] I think that the youngsters
in the Black Lives Matter movement

1635
01:28:04,440 --> 01:28:08,280
need to appraise themselves
of what has gone before,

1636
01:28:08,360 --> 01:28:11,320
so that they can draw some lessons

1637
01:28:11,400 --> 01:28:14,600
from the battles
that we fought and won.

1638
01:28:15,720 --> 01:28:16,960
[narrator]
The story of Britain's

1639
01:28:17,040 --> 01:28:19,080
Black Power movement has,
until recently,

1640
01:28:19,160 --> 01:28:20,360
been largely overlooked,

1641
01:28:20,440 --> 01:28:22,720
but to ignore this history

1642
01:28:22,800 --> 01:28:25,600
is to risk not learning
key lessons from the past.

1643
01:28:26,680 --> 01:28:30,360
The Black Power story reveals
the struggle faced by British citizens

1644
01:28:30,440 --> 01:28:32,000
to be treated fairly by the state

1645
01:28:32,080 --> 01:28:35,240
and their willingness to fight back
when they weren't.

1646
01:28:36,280 --> 01:28:40,240
Black Power in Britain showed that
with unity and self-empowerment,

1647
01:28:40,320 --> 01:28:42,560
it was possible to take a stand

1648
01:28:42,640 --> 01:28:43,960
and bring about change.

1649
01:28:45,880 --> 01:28:48,240
[♪ Linton Kwesi Johnson:
"Time Come"]