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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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[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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the mid-'60s.

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00:11:05,643 --> 00:11:07,643
I was in the British Midlands,

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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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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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"If you want a nigger for a neighbor,
vote Labour."

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[reporter] People have stuck up posters
like, "Keep Britain white,"

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00:11:32,963 --> 00:11:35,003
or "If you want a nigger neighbor,
vote Labour."

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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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that they did it entirely on their own,
and without any contact with me,

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00:11:43,443 --> 00:11:46,363
but this is a community
that wants to keep its identity.

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That's why I have refused
to condemn people

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00:11:49,203 --> 00:11:50,763
who have made
extreme statements.

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I have said,
if people feel so strongly

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that they are prepared to put things
in these words,

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we should find out what is it
that makes them feel so strongly,

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and we should remove the causes.

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00:12:01,883 --> 00:12:04,323
[reporter]
I'd like to quote to you a slogan,

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00:12:04,403 --> 00:12:06,643
"If you want a nigger neighbor,
vote Labour."

239
00:12:06,723 --> 00:12:11,203
I think that's an utterly squalid
and degrading thing for any Englishman,

240
00:12:11,283 --> 00:12:13,163
or any member of
the Commonwealth to say.

241
00:12:13,243 --> 00:12:15,003
It was said, in fact, I understand,

242
00:12:15,083 --> 00:12:17,363
by the Conservative candidate
in the Smethwick division.

243
00:12:17,443 --> 00:12:18,563
[reporter]
That is what the report says.

244
00:12:18,643 --> 00:12:20,683
Yes, where they are, I think,

245
00:12:20,763 --> 00:12:23,003
degrading politics to
about the lowest level

246
00:12:23,083 --> 00:12:24,323
I have known in my lifetime.

247
00:12:24,403 --> 00:12:26,163
Griffiths, Peter...

248
00:12:26,243 --> 00:12:27,243
Conservative...

249
00:12:27,323 --> 00:12:28,843
-Sixteen thousand...
-[cheering]

250
00:12:32,283 --> 00:12:34,683
Sixteen thousand,
six hundred and ninety...

251
00:12:34,763 --> 00:12:38,283
Seven percent swing to
the Conservatives in Smethwick.

252
00:12:38,363 --> 00:12:41,843
And that's the context in which
my own politics emerged.

253
00:12:43,203 --> 00:12:45,163
[narrator]
Conservative Peter Griffiths

254
00:12:45,243 --> 00:12:47,083
won an overwhelming victory,

255
00:12:47,163 --> 00:12:51,043
showing the electoral power
of racism in politics.

256
00:12:52,963 --> 00:12:56,803
The government has agreed to make
big changes in the race relations bill.

257
00:12:59,003 --> 00:12:59,923
[narrator]
Shortly afterwards,

258
00:13:00,003 --> 00:13:02,443
the Labour government introduced
a Race Relations Act,

259
00:13:02,523 --> 00:13:04,323
which sought to remove
the color bar,

260
00:13:04,403 --> 00:13:07,083
and made the promotion
of racial hatred illegal.

261
00:13:08,643 --> 00:13:11,883
It was a first attempt to address
the discrimination that was happening

262
00:13:11,963 --> 00:13:13,883
in public places in the UK.

263
00:13:16,003 --> 00:13:18,443
But the Race Relations Act
did not prevent discrimination

264
00:13:18,523 --> 00:13:22,323
in housing, education,
or at the hands of the police.

265
00:13:23,003 --> 00:13:25,123
[muffled police radio announcements]

266
00:13:27,283 --> 00:13:28,923
[woman]
Certain rights in our jobs.

267
00:13:29,003 --> 00:13:31,323
[indistinct] It's due to bloody coloreds,
that's why.

268
00:13:31,403 --> 00:13:33,083
[reporter]
What's the matter with him?

269
00:13:33,163 --> 00:13:36,443
[Peter Edrich] When I joined the Met
Police, I was posted to Harlesden.

270
00:13:36,523 --> 00:13:40,883
That was a working-class area, really,
and a lot of incoming West Indians.

271
00:13:40,963 --> 00:13:43,483
When I got there,
there was-there was definitely prejudice

272
00:13:43,563 --> 00:13:46,443
because I remember on-on my first day,
when I was picked up,

273
00:13:46,523 --> 00:13:49,923
and the police constable
was taking us to report,

274
00:13:50,003 --> 00:13:51,443
took us Harlesden.

275
00:13:51,523 --> 00:13:55,083
As we crossed the north circular
from when we enter Harlesden,

276
00:13:55,163 --> 00:13:56,523
he said, "You can tell
you're in Harlesden.

277
00:13:56,603 --> 00:13:58,163
There's your first spade."

278
00:14:01,123 --> 00:14:03,803
[men] We do ask a great deal
of our policemen...

279
00:14:03,883 --> 00:14:05,083
Thank you.

280
00:14:05,163 --> 00:14:07,763
...the men empowered
to deprive us of our liberty.

281
00:14:08,163 --> 00:14:09,763
But in the police force,

282
00:14:09,843 --> 00:14:13,283
half of them never managed
to pass a single O-level at school.

283
00:14:13,803 --> 00:14:15,403
[Phillip] The police and them
weren't bright, you know.

284
00:14:15,483 --> 00:14:18,843
Police was like Teddy Boys,
National Front...

285
00:14:20,283 --> 00:14:23,363
who joined the force,
and they had a license now

286
00:14:23,443 --> 00:14:25,403
to beat up Black people.

287
00:14:25,483 --> 00:14:28,283
[reporter]
The report criticizes, particularly,

288
00:14:28,363 --> 00:14:31,683
the junior ranks of
the Metropolitan police, the constables

289
00:14:31,763 --> 00:14:36,003
or sergeants, who, and I quote,
"go out nigger-hunting,"

290
00:14:36,083 --> 00:14:38,803
determined, without instructions
from their superiors,

291
00:14:38,883 --> 00:14:41,883
to bring in a colored person,
at all costs.

292
00:14:42,603 --> 00:14:45,483
[muffled radio speech]

293
00:14:46,123 --> 00:14:48,443
[Edrich] Police officers
tended to be prejudiced,

294
00:14:48,523 --> 00:14:50,963
but I never went
after a Black person

295
00:14:51,043 --> 00:14:54,563
and, you know, made up a crime
he was committing just to arrest him

296
00:14:54,643 --> 00:14:57,003
and I'm not saying it didn't happen,
but I didn't do it.

297
00:14:57,083 --> 00:14:59,243
There was certainly
plenty of crime going on.

298
00:14:59,323 --> 00:15:01,283
Mostly boys
that couldn't get jobs,

299
00:15:01,363 --> 00:15:02,403
or this kind of thing.

300
00:15:02,483 --> 00:15:05,443
They were most likely to be
doing something wrong.

301
00:15:06,243 --> 00:15:08,843
Our job was to just,
you know, lock 'em up.

302
00:15:10,763 --> 00:15:12,963
[narrator]
In December 1964,

303
00:15:13,043 --> 00:15:15,603
American civil rights leader,
Martin Luther King,

304
00:15:15,683 --> 00:15:19,203
known for his non-violent philosophy,
stopped off in Britain

305
00:15:19,283 --> 00:15:21,603
on his way to accept
a Nobel Peace Prize.

306
00:15:22,003 --> 00:15:24,803
He delivered a speech
which highlighted the similarities

307
00:15:24,883 --> 00:15:27,683
between British and American racism.

308
00:15:28,443 --> 00:15:34,003
Skin may differ, but affection
dwells in Black and white the same.

309
00:15:34,083 --> 00:15:37,603
This reveals that whether
they be in the United States,

310
00:15:37,683 --> 00:15:39,803
or whether they be in
London, England,

311
00:15:39,883 --> 00:15:42,123
the system is
on its deathbed.

312
00:15:43,483 --> 00:15:44,803
[narrator]
The following year,

313
00:15:44,883 --> 00:15:48,323
King's militant counterpart,
Malcolm X, came to Britain

314
00:15:48,403 --> 00:15:51,363
and visited Smethwick's Black
and Asian communities,

315
00:15:51,443 --> 00:15:53,443
where he spoke of
the need to fight back

316
00:15:53,523 --> 00:15:56,683
against racial prejudice,
using whatever means necessary,

317
00:15:56,763 --> 00:15:59,243
including violent resistance.

318
00:15:59,803 --> 00:16:03,243
Now, your views differs fundamentally
from that of Doctor Martin Luther King.

319
00:16:03,323 --> 00:16:05,883
Is it really a choice between
non-violence and violence now?

320
00:16:05,963 --> 00:16:09,723
I think it's a choice between
intelligence and-and, uh,

321
00:16:09,803 --> 00:16:13,363
the lack of intelligence,
and any intelligent human being

322
00:16:13,443 --> 00:16:15,523
is going to protect himself
when he's attacked.

323
00:16:15,603 --> 00:16:18,483
I've never been
a turn-the-other-cheek person.

324
00:16:18,563 --> 00:16:25,043
I was never the big fan
of Martin Luther King's

325
00:16:25,123 --> 00:16:28,683
turn-the-other-cheek
and peaceful demonstration,

326
00:16:28,763 --> 00:16:32,403
and so I was attracted
to people like Malcolm X.

327
00:16:33,283 --> 00:16:35,203
They made sense to me.

328
00:16:36,203 --> 00:16:40,443
If you want to fight fire,
then you must take fire to fight fire.

329
00:16:41,443 --> 00:16:43,883
[narrator]
Malcolm X's philosophy of self-defense

330
00:16:43,963 --> 00:16:45,683
was becoming
increasingly commonplace

331
00:16:45,763 --> 00:16:48,323
in Hyde Park
Speakers' Corner in London.

332
00:16:48,403 --> 00:16:50,603
[Roy Sawh]
When I talk about white people,

333
00:16:50,683 --> 00:16:54,003
you have killed more people
in two world wars

334
00:16:54,083 --> 00:16:56,523
than people have died
from natural diseases.

335
00:16:56,603 --> 00:16:57,843
Are you civilized?

336
00:16:57,923 --> 00:17:00,643
We do not advocate killing
of white people,

337
00:17:00,723 --> 00:17:04,803
but if kill we may to defend our rights,
we shall kill you.

338
00:17:05,523 --> 00:17:10,523
We used to go, friends and I,
to Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park,

339
00:17:10,603 --> 00:17:14,843
where Roy Sawh was speaking up

340
00:17:14,923 --> 00:17:19,523
for the Black population
against racism.

341
00:17:19,603 --> 00:17:24,203
Look at the map of Africa.
Every island belongs to a white nation.

342
00:17:24,283 --> 00:17:26,763
Every island.
But look at Europe.

343
00:17:26,843 --> 00:17:31,363
The whole concept of Black Power really
came out of a growing awareness

344
00:17:31,443 --> 00:17:33,683
among many people within
the Black communities

345
00:17:33,763 --> 00:17:36,163
who were influenced
by things around them.

346
00:17:36,243 --> 00:17:38,403
We don't know how to use it.
Let's be a...

347
00:17:38,483 --> 00:17:40,883
One aspect of that is clearly
Speakers' Corner,

348
00:17:40,963 --> 00:17:44,243
and my memory of that is Roy Sawh.

349
00:17:44,323 --> 00:17:46,923
You have committed more crimes...

350
00:17:47,003 --> 00:17:49,803
This rhetoric was very dismissive
of white people.

351
00:17:49,883 --> 00:17:51,363
He was quite plain about it.

352
00:17:51,443 --> 00:17:53,963
...so when you talk about freedom
and you talk about...

353
00:17:54,043 --> 00:17:55,523
[narrator]
The Hyde Park speeches

354
00:17:55,603 --> 00:17:57,963
were monitored closely by
undercover police officers,

355
00:17:58,043 --> 00:18:00,683
and Roy Sawh was
constantly being charged

356
00:18:00,763 --> 00:18:02,683
with incitement to racial hatred.

357
00:18:03,243 --> 00:18:06,923
Please, for taking your notes,

358
00:18:07,003 --> 00:18:11,843
make sure you get the exact
things I am saying...

359
00:18:12,923 --> 00:18:16,443
because at the last hearing
at the Old Bailey,

360
00:18:17,003 --> 00:18:20,923
the police couldn't even read
their own handwriting!

361
00:18:21,003 --> 00:18:22,123
[crowd laughs]

362
00:18:22,203 --> 00:18:24,643
[♪ Nina Simone: "Revolution"]

363
00:18:32,683 --> 00:18:34,683
[narrator]
Roy Sawh's provocative speeches

364
00:18:34,763 --> 00:18:37,203
were an attempt to get Black people's
grievances heard.

365
00:18:38,163 --> 00:18:40,683
Like many in the Black
and Asian communities,

366
00:18:40,763 --> 00:18:44,883
he wanted improvements in housing,
equality in work, and fair policing.

367
00:18:47,923 --> 00:18:53,203
In 1967, he formed the group called
the Universal Colored People's Association

368
00:18:53,283 --> 00:18:57,003
with Nigerian novelist and playwright,
Obi Egbuna.

369
00:18:57,683 --> 00:19:02,043
Well, life's full of every
constructive revolutionary movement

370
00:19:02,123 --> 00:19:03,123
in this world.

371
00:19:03,203 --> 00:19:05,083
What kind of ties does
your organization have

372
00:19:05,163 --> 00:19:06,883
with the Black Power movement
in the United States?

373
00:19:06,963 --> 00:19:11,163
Well, I cannot go into specifics,
but all I can say is that

374
00:19:11,243 --> 00:19:12,643
there is an international link.

375
00:19:13,083 --> 00:19:14,483
[narrator]
With the UCPA,

376
00:19:14,563 --> 00:19:18,243
Obi Egbuna and Roy Sawh
had effectively kickstarted

377
00:19:18,323 --> 00:19:19,923
the British Black Power movement.

378
00:19:21,243 --> 00:19:24,123
But the man credited for
doing so by the press

379
00:19:24,203 --> 00:19:26,283
was a Trinidadian immigrant to Britain,

380
00:19:26,363 --> 00:19:28,443
who called himself Michael X.

381
00:19:28,643 --> 00:19:32,123
[reporter] Michael X is 32,
and he comes from Trinidad.

382
00:19:32,203 --> 00:19:35,323
He's the leader now
of an organization called RAAS.

383
00:19:35,483 --> 00:19:37,203
[narrator]
He had started his own group

384
00:19:37,283 --> 00:19:39,643
called the Racial Adjustment
Action Society.

385
00:19:43,723 --> 00:19:48,883
[Dhondy] Michael X was actually
a fellow called Michael De Fratas.

386
00:19:48,963 --> 00:19:52,763
He was a Trinidadian
of Portuguese origin, I think,

387
00:19:52,843 --> 00:19:54,483
who turned up in Britain.

388
00:19:54,563 --> 00:19:57,363
You mustn't be afraid to fight
for what you want.

389
00:19:57,443 --> 00:20:01,523
You must not be afraid
to fight for what is just.

390
00:20:01,603 --> 00:20:04,963
Brother Malcolm was once asked,
that was my first teaching,

391
00:20:05,043 --> 00:20:06,443
Malcolm X.

392
00:20:06,523 --> 00:20:10,403
[Dhondy] And then,
when Malcolm X came to Britain,

393
00:20:10,483 --> 00:20:13,163
Michael changed his name
to Michael X.

394
00:20:13,243 --> 00:20:16,483
I can't live in this system.
I don't like it.

395
00:20:16,563 --> 00:20:19,923
I don't want it.
I want to destroy it, everything.

396
00:20:20,003 --> 00:20:22,243
Down to the ground.
The lot. Ashes.

397
00:20:22,803 --> 00:20:26,523
The Racial Adjustment Action Society
was Michael's baby,

398
00:20:26,603 --> 00:20:31,483
but it didn't--it never--it never achieved
no kind of racial adjustment.

399
00:20:31,563 --> 00:20:35,723
Michael was good
at selling himself.

400
00:20:36,403 --> 00:20:38,163
[Charlie Phillips]
That was taken in Tabernacle.

401
00:20:38,243 --> 00:20:40,963
On the left is Michael X,
smoking a cigar.

402
00:20:41,043 --> 00:20:45,203
In the middle is Bobby,
a militant friend of Stokely Carmichael.

403
00:20:45,283 --> 00:20:48,443
And Michael, he said,
"Take it down to United Press."

404
00:20:48,523 --> 00:20:51,683
So I rushed down in United Press,
and I got two pounds, ten shillings.

405
00:20:51,763 --> 00:20:54,843
That's the first photograph
I've ever had published.

406
00:20:56,123 --> 00:21:00,683
That photograph was taken of
Stokely Carmichael outside the Cue Club.

407
00:21:00,763 --> 00:21:04,163
I met him,
and I took the photograph of him.

408
00:21:04,243 --> 00:21:06,563
[narrator]
Stokely Carmichael was born in Trinidad

409
00:21:06,643 --> 00:21:08,003
and grew up in America.

410
00:21:08,083 --> 00:21:10,163
He had become
a powerful campaigner,

411
00:21:10,243 --> 00:21:14,443
working alongside Martin Luther King
in the American Civil Rights Movement.

412
00:21:15,083 --> 00:21:18,003
Black people are not gonna let white
people just slap 'em anymore.

413
00:21:18,083 --> 00:21:19,683
[reporter] Then what
do you see happening now?

414
00:21:19,763 --> 00:21:22,763
Well, every time they slap us,
we're gon' move to break their arms.

415
00:21:23,603 --> 00:21:24,883
[narrator]
After his friend was shot

416
00:21:24,963 --> 00:21:26,963
while protesting peacefully
in Tennessee,

417
00:21:27,043 --> 00:21:29,803
Stokely Carmichael stopped
calling for nonviolence

418
00:21:29,883 --> 00:21:31,843
and started calling for Black Power.

419
00:21:33,363 --> 00:21:36,243
There's a lot of confusion
about the phrase, "Black Power".

420
00:21:36,323 --> 00:21:37,443
[reporter]
What does it really mean?

421
00:21:37,523 --> 00:21:39,003
The coming together of Black people

422
00:21:39,083 --> 00:21:41,963
to fight for their liberation
by any means necessary.

423
00:21:46,403 --> 00:21:47,923
[narrator]
Stokely Carmichael was presenting

424
00:21:48,003 --> 00:21:50,803
a new philosophy of Black unity
and self-empowerment

425
00:21:50,883 --> 00:21:52,483
that had a profound influence on

426
00:21:52,563 --> 00:21:54,963
the formation of the American
Black Panther Party.

427
00:21:56,323 --> 00:21:59,083
I think I became aware of
the Black Power movement

428
00:21:59,163 --> 00:22:02,243
when I snuck down to London, '67,

429
00:22:02,323 --> 00:22:05,043
when Stokely Carmichael was speaking.

430
00:22:05,123 --> 00:22:09,483
Isn't it absurd for them to say that
"Columbus discovered America"?

431
00:22:09,563 --> 00:22:12,723
When Columbus got there,
he found people there.

432
00:22:12,803 --> 00:22:14,443
And what of the Caribbean?

433
00:22:14,523 --> 00:22:19,083
We did not wake up until
Sir Walter Raleigh came along

434
00:22:19,163 --> 00:22:20,723
and discovered us.

435
00:22:20,803 --> 00:22:24,803
And all of our history begins
when a white man comes along

436
00:22:24,883 --> 00:22:29,243
and says, "Poof, I have discovered you.
Come alive, Black man!"

437
00:22:32,443 --> 00:22:36,963
The white man's definitions is
what we find ourselves trapped by.

438
00:22:40,483 --> 00:22:44,603
We have come to tell you that
if you see your lot and your culture

439
00:22:44,683 --> 00:22:46,523
being thrown with that of England,

440
00:22:46,603 --> 00:22:48,323
then we see you
as part of England,

441
00:22:48,403 --> 00:22:50,643
who suppresses and oppresses us.

442
00:22:50,723 --> 00:22:53,803
You will be with England
when the lines are drawn.

443
00:22:53,883 --> 00:22:55,963
You had better come on home!

444
00:22:56,043 --> 00:22:57,203
Home!

445
00:22:57,523 --> 00:23:01,523
He was talking to us.
He was talking to young Black people.

446
00:23:01,603 --> 00:23:04,083
We've got nappy hair.
We've got thick lips.

447
00:23:04,163 --> 00:23:05,723
We're Black,
and we're beautiful.

448
00:23:05,803 --> 00:23:07,963
Black Power, of course,
you know.

449
00:23:08,043 --> 00:23:10,563
That was just wow. Wow!

450
00:23:10,643 --> 00:23:15,923
We have finally come to tell you,
we know we are going to win.

451
00:23:16,003 --> 00:23:16,963
-Thank you.
-[cheers and applause]

452
00:23:17,043 --> 00:23:20,523
[♪ James Brown: "Say it Loud -
I'm Black and I'm Proud"]

453
00:23:55,963 --> 00:24:00,483
James Brown,
"Say it Loud - I am Black and I am Proud".

454
00:24:00,563 --> 00:24:03,403
That tune is one of
the first earliest rap tunes

455
00:24:03,483 --> 00:24:05,923
because James Brown
isn't actually singing on that tune.

456
00:24:06,003 --> 00:24:07,003
He is talking.

457
00:24:07,083 --> 00:24:10,363
[♪ "Say it Loud -
I'm Black and I'm Proud" continues]

458
00:24:14,483 --> 00:24:16,603
Put your hands like this!
Black Power!

459
00:24:16,683 --> 00:24:17,643
Black Power!

460
00:24:17,723 --> 00:24:19,163
Hey! One more time!

461
00:24:19,243 --> 00:24:20,523
Black Power!

462
00:24:20,603 --> 00:24:22,003
-Black Power!
-Yeah!

463
00:24:22,083 --> 00:24:24,803
His name has become synonymous
with Black racialism,

464
00:24:24,883 --> 00:24:27,523
and, for that, he will not be allowed
back into this country,

465
00:24:27,603 --> 00:24:31,083
where the Race Relations Act is designed
to condemn racialism of any kind.

466
00:24:32,043 --> 00:24:33,563
[narrator]
Stokely Carmichael's visit

467
00:24:33,643 --> 00:24:35,203
had the Labour government
so concerned

468
00:24:35,283 --> 00:24:37,923
that Special Branch
ordered him to leave the country

469
00:24:38,003 --> 00:24:39,843
and he was banned from re-entering.

470
00:24:42,163 --> 00:24:45,483
Soon afterwards,
the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins,

471
00:24:45,563 --> 00:24:47,243
set up a secret police department

472
00:24:47,323 --> 00:24:49,883
specifically to monitor
Black radical groups in Britain.

473
00:24:53,043 --> 00:24:56,683
But the impact of the Black Power message
had been felt by many,

474
00:24:56,763 --> 00:25:00,363
particularly Michael X,
who took the baton and ran with it.

475
00:25:01,003 --> 00:25:02,003
What do you hope to gain from

476
00:25:02,083 --> 00:25:04,403
the sort of inflammatory speech
that you made last night?

477
00:25:04,483 --> 00:25:06,363
I do not make inflammatory speeches.

478
00:25:06,443 --> 00:25:08,723
I simply speak the truth.
I speak the truth,

479
00:25:08,803 --> 00:25:09,883
and when I speak the truth,

480
00:25:09,963 --> 00:25:11,923
white people say
this is inflammatory statements

481
00:25:12,003 --> 00:25:14,763
because they would like
to see Black men

482
00:25:14,843 --> 00:25:16,843
pretend and be Uncle Toms

483
00:25:16,923 --> 00:25:19,483
and aspire solely to go
to the Queen's garden parties.

484
00:25:19,563 --> 00:25:21,683
Well, I don't give a damn about
the Queen's garden parties.

485
00:25:21,763 --> 00:25:23,003
That's not where I want to go.

486
00:25:24,643 --> 00:25:26,843
[narrator]
Michael X's words were calculated

487
00:25:26,923 --> 00:25:30,563
to shake up enduring colonial attitudes
around Black subservience.

488
00:25:31,763 --> 00:25:33,243
But when he made a statement,

489
00:25:33,323 --> 00:25:35,443
that called for the killing
of any white man

490
00:25:35,523 --> 00:25:37,963
seen to physically abuse
a Black woman,

491
00:25:38,043 --> 00:25:39,883
the state decided to prosecute him.

492
00:25:42,443 --> 00:25:43,803
He became the first person

493
00:25:43,883 --> 00:25:47,883
to be sent to prison
under the UK's 1965 Race Relations Act.

494
00:25:47,963 --> 00:25:52,083
A law which had been designed to protect
Britain's Black and Asian populations

495
00:25:52,163 --> 00:25:53,283
from discrimination.

496
00:25:54,923 --> 00:25:58,163
Watching very closely
how the state dealt with Michael X

497
00:25:58,243 --> 00:26:00,443
was Darcus Howe,
a legal student,

498
00:26:00,523 --> 00:26:03,603
who had arrived in Britain
from Trinidad in 1961.

499
00:26:05,603 --> 00:26:08,363
What struck me
about Michael X was,

500
00:26:08,443 --> 00:26:12,363
I used to like to hear Black people
say things that were brave and bold.

501
00:26:12,643 --> 00:26:16,603
Even though if it didn't make sense,
because we were too quiet.

502
00:26:17,963 --> 00:26:22,683
And almighty Darcus, yes,
his photograph came up in the darkroom,

503
00:26:22,763 --> 00:26:24,243
and I was very impressed with it.

504
00:26:24,323 --> 00:26:29,803
The leader, well-educated,
as we know,

505
00:26:29,883 --> 00:26:32,523
Darcus has been an incredible person.

506
00:26:32,603 --> 00:26:35,563
He-He never talked down to people.

507
00:26:35,643 --> 00:26:37,963
And he doesn't insult anybody,

508
00:26:38,683 --> 00:26:43,443
And he were determined that, you know,
things should change in this country.

509
00:26:45,603 --> 00:26:47,323
[narrator]
Darcus was heavily influenced

510
00:26:47,403 --> 00:26:49,163
by his uncle, C.L.R. James,

511
00:26:49,243 --> 00:26:51,843
a renowned Trinidadian writer
and intellectual.

512
00:26:51,923 --> 00:26:56,403
His politically charged books inspired
a new generation of Black Power activists.

513
00:26:57,803 --> 00:27:01,203
Is there a measure of
racial prejudice in the police?

514
00:27:01,283 --> 00:27:03,123
[narrator]
When Darcus was invited to speak

515
00:27:03,203 --> 00:27:04,643
on a BBC television program,

516
00:27:04,723 --> 00:27:07,963
which highlighted the numerous cases
of police framing Black people

517
00:27:08,043 --> 00:27:11,763
for crimes they had not committed,
he seized the opportunity.

518
00:27:12,763 --> 00:27:15,923
The policeman who frames
the Black man is doing so

519
00:27:16,003 --> 00:27:20,883
with a confidence that the system
is going to give him a conviction,

520
00:27:20,963 --> 00:27:24,363
which reproduces
a lack of confidence in the Black man.

521
00:27:24,683 --> 00:27:27,403
[reporter]
Why do so few people complain?

522
00:27:27,483 --> 00:27:29,243
Who is going to take up a case,

523
00:27:29,323 --> 00:27:32,523
when you have that whole weight
of the system against you?

524
00:27:32,603 --> 00:27:36,083
And-And-And the West Indian,
the Black West Indian isn't doing this,

525
00:27:36,163 --> 00:27:38,043
and I don't think one should
ask him to do this either.

526
00:27:38,123 --> 00:27:40,443
Darcus was a lawyer by training,
you know,

527
00:27:40,523 --> 00:27:44,123
and, of course,
he contributed very strongly.

528
00:27:44,203 --> 00:27:46,283
But it's presented out of context.

529
00:27:47,123 --> 00:27:48,083
[narrator]
The program caused

530
00:27:48,163 --> 00:27:50,363
a storm of controversy,
and on live television,

531
00:27:50,443 --> 00:27:55,203
Darcus confronted the Deputy Commissioner
of the Metropolitan police, Robert Mark.

532
00:27:55,283 --> 00:27:58,123
It's a complete disrespect
for the way of life,

533
00:27:58,203 --> 00:28:01,123
historical and present-day
of Black people.

534
00:28:01,203 --> 00:28:03,243
[Darcus Howe]
Educated in the world of reason,

535
00:28:03,323 --> 00:28:07,123
I was equipped
with a certain confidence.

536
00:28:07,203 --> 00:28:09,963
And I knew what was happening in America.

537
00:28:10,043 --> 00:28:11,323
I had been there,

538
00:28:11,403 --> 00:28:14,883
and I wasn't going to come back here
and put up with that crap.

539
00:28:14,963 --> 00:28:19,083
A policeman is only racist
in that he is part of a racist society.

540
00:28:19,163 --> 00:28:23,883
And you cannot ask the policeman
to change his racist clothing,

541
00:28:23,963 --> 00:28:27,323
if you don't change the society,
and that is the only solution.

542
00:28:27,403 --> 00:28:30,523
The Black community says,
"Stop it, and stop it now."

543
00:28:33,683 --> 00:28:35,003
[reporter]
The violent death

544
00:28:35,083 --> 00:28:38,203
of America's negro apostle of
nonviolence.

545
00:28:38,283 --> 00:28:40,563
The Reverend Martin Luther King is dead,

546
00:28:40,643 --> 00:28:42,323
killed by an assassin's bullet.

547
00:28:42,403 --> 00:28:44,123
Compounding the tragedy,

548
00:28:44,203 --> 00:28:47,443
there's now rioting in the streets
of many American cities.

549
00:28:48,483 --> 00:28:49,883
[narrator]
While the voices of Black Power

550
00:28:49,963 --> 00:28:51,763
were causing a stir in the UK,

551
00:28:51,843 --> 00:28:55,203
the progress of the Civil Rights struggle
was dealt a devastating blow

552
00:28:55,283 --> 00:28:58,123
when Martin Luther King was
assassinated in America.

553
00:28:58,203 --> 00:29:00,963
[♪ Nina Simone:
"Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)"]

554
00:29:12,683 --> 00:29:16,283
It affected me very deeply
that Martin Luther King is dead,

555
00:29:16,363 --> 00:29:18,683
but, um, I feel that
his name will live on,

556
00:29:18,763 --> 00:29:22,523
and that, um, what he had to do,
we'll continue to do it.

557
00:29:51,563 --> 00:29:56,003
In this country,
in 15 or 20 years' time,

558
00:29:56,083 --> 00:30:00,963
the Black man will have
the whip hand over the white man.

559
00:30:01,963 --> 00:30:03,883
[narrator]
Two weeks after King's assassination,

560
00:30:03,963 --> 00:30:06,123
the Conservative MP,
Enoch Powell,

561
00:30:06,203 --> 00:30:08,603
in a bid to position himself
as party leader,

562
00:30:08,683 --> 00:30:10,963
delivered a speech that put
race and immigration

563
00:30:11,043 --> 00:30:12,883
back at the center
of the political debate.

564
00:30:16,083 --> 00:30:21,483
We must be mad,
literally mad, as a nation...

565
00:30:22,563 --> 00:30:28,563
to be permitted the annual inflow
of some 50,000 dependents.

566
00:30:29,683 --> 00:30:35,283
The discrimination and the deprivation,
the sense of alarm,

567
00:30:35,363 --> 00:30:40,323
and the resentment
lie not with the immigrant population...

568
00:30:40,403 --> 00:30:42,043
[chanting]
We don't want to be replaced!

569
00:30:42,123 --> 00:30:45,603
...but with those among whom
they have come.

570
00:30:45,683 --> 00:30:47,403
And are still coming.

571
00:30:47,483 --> 00:30:53,483
This is why to enact legislation of
the kind before parliament at this moment

572
00:30:53,563 --> 00:30:57,843
is to risk throwing a match
onto gunpowder.

573
00:30:57,923 --> 00:31:01,723
What the great British public think
is that he is telling the truth

574
00:31:01,803 --> 00:31:03,723
on behalf of his constituents.

575
00:31:03,803 --> 00:31:06,083
A gunpowder--
well, gunpowder to me

576
00:31:06,163 --> 00:31:08,283
means Guy Fawkes Day
and blowing up Parliament.

577
00:31:08,363 --> 00:31:11,923
Gunpowder also can mean
the assassination of Martin Luther King.

578
00:31:12,003 --> 00:31:13,443
It could do, yes.

579
00:31:19,443 --> 00:31:20,963
[narrator]
Enoch Powell was speaking out

580
00:31:21,043 --> 00:31:24,643
against a new expanded
1968 Race Relations Act

581
00:31:24,723 --> 00:31:27,843
that attempted to prevent discrimination
in housing and employment.

582
00:31:29,243 --> 00:31:30,963
As a former Health Secretary,

583
00:31:31,043 --> 00:31:34,403
Powell had once championed
the recruitment of people

584
00:31:34,483 --> 00:31:37,403
from the Caribbean to come
to Britain to work in the NHS.

585
00:31:39,283 --> 00:31:42,163
His re-casting of immigrants
as an invading force

586
00:31:42,243 --> 00:31:46,003
now struck fear into the hearts
of Black and Asian communities.

587
00:31:47,083 --> 00:31:52,083
It was a watershed because
we knew that there was this attitude

588
00:31:52,163 --> 00:31:56,243
in the Tory Party,
and he thought to himself

589
00:31:56,323 --> 00:32:00,603
that he would speak about
the rivers of blood.

590
00:32:00,683 --> 00:32:06,043
It wasn't at all welcome,
but he put it out in the open,

591
00:32:06,123 --> 00:32:09,963
and we could now
fight against it openly.

592
00:32:10,043 --> 00:32:11,763
Men like Michael De Freitas.

593
00:32:11,843 --> 00:32:15,163
Exactly what
Michael De Freitas has said.

594
00:32:15,243 --> 00:32:17,723
It's really equivalent to what
Mr. Enoch Powell said,

595
00:32:17,803 --> 00:32:20,003
but Mr. Michael De Freitas
goes in jail.

596
00:32:20,523 --> 00:32:21,483
Now, why?

597
00:32:23,243 --> 00:32:24,763
There must be a reason,

598
00:32:24,843 --> 00:32:28,883
and the only reason that I can see
is that one is Black and one is white.

599
00:32:31,723 --> 00:32:33,483
[narrator]
The Black and Asian population

600
00:32:33,563 --> 00:32:36,203
of the country was now over a million,
and for many of them,

601
00:32:36,283 --> 00:32:38,643
the fickle attitudes
of British politicians

602
00:32:38,723 --> 00:32:41,043
could not be allowed
to pass without a fight.

603
00:32:42,963 --> 00:32:45,763
Black Power groups started
to form all over Britain

604
00:32:45,843 --> 00:32:51,843
in cities such as London, Manchester,
Birmingham, Leicester, Cardiff, and Leeds.

605
00:32:53,043 --> 00:32:58,043
Black is a symbol for me of
the opposition against oppression.

606
00:32:59,403 --> 00:33:01,243
I had two friends
who were both poets,

607
00:33:01,323 --> 00:33:03,523
one of them was called
Farrukh Dhondy.

608
00:33:03,603 --> 00:33:08,723
It seemed that they were going to be
involved with the Black Panther movement.

609
00:33:09,803 --> 00:33:15,803
The way that I was first introduced to
an actual organization of Black Power,

610
00:33:15,883 --> 00:33:19,963
which I wanted to join,
was Alexandra Palace,

611
00:33:20,043 --> 00:33:22,083
where there was a large conference

612
00:33:22,163 --> 00:33:27,403
of all the radical organizations
of Asians and blacks.

613
00:33:27,483 --> 00:33:30,203
[male activist]
And we can never regard them

614
00:33:30,283 --> 00:33:31,883
as revolutionaries...

615
00:33:31,963 --> 00:33:36,003
I went, and a lot of the speakers
were bullshit rhetoric,

616
00:33:36,083 --> 00:33:38,443
but Althea Jones.

617
00:33:38,523 --> 00:33:40,443
[Althea]
To us, Black people...

618
00:33:40,523 --> 00:33:42,683
She spoke very eloquently,

619
00:33:42,763 --> 00:33:45,963
and she said she was from
the Black Panther movement.

620
00:33:47,843 --> 00:33:49,443
[narrator]
Althea Jones LeCointe

621
00:33:49,523 --> 00:33:52,403
came to England from Trinidad
to study biochemistry

622
00:33:52,483 --> 00:33:54,003
at University College, London.

623
00:33:54,603 --> 00:33:57,723
She was a fierce opponent of
state-sponsored racism

624
00:33:57,803 --> 00:33:59,323
in Britain's former colonies,

625
00:33:59,403 --> 00:34:02,403
and soon became leader
of the Black Panther movement.

626
00:34:03,723 --> 00:34:07,003
The camera is there to protect
and to help and to show.

627
00:34:07,483 --> 00:34:08,963
This is Althea.

628
00:34:09,043 --> 00:34:13,923
Althea is one of the most striking,
strong, determined young women.

629
00:34:14,443 --> 00:34:17,763
Despite a protest from that section
of the British population,

630
00:34:17,843 --> 00:34:22,163
your government is prepared to continue
supporting the racism and repression

631
00:34:22,243 --> 00:34:24,363
that the South African
regime represents.

632
00:34:24,603 --> 00:34:27,323
Our brothers and sisters
in the townships in South Africa,

633
00:34:27,403 --> 00:34:29,723
our brothers and sisters who
are fighting right now

634
00:34:29,803 --> 00:34:32,043
in Zimbabwe
and taking these words...

635
00:34:32,123 --> 00:34:36,363
I became a member of the Black Panther
movement as a consequence

636
00:34:36,443 --> 00:34:39,403
of hearing Althea LeCointe Jones,

637
00:34:39,483 --> 00:34:42,443
the leader of the Black Panthers
in Brixton, speak.

638
00:34:42,523 --> 00:34:45,963
She was bright,
she was articulate,

639
00:34:46,043 --> 00:34:48,843
and I decided I wanted
to go to meetings,

640
00:34:48,923 --> 00:34:52,803
to-to find out more about
this Black Panther movement.

641
00:34:52,883 --> 00:34:54,683
[Althea]
This is what the system's getting at.

642
00:34:54,763 --> 00:34:57,683
Our generation
can't tolerate schools

643
00:34:57,763 --> 00:35:00,083
that only prepare us
to do the menial tasks.

644
00:35:00,163 --> 00:35:02,043
[Jean Ambrose]
It was in Southeast London.

645
00:35:02,123 --> 00:35:05,363
The organization was called
Black Unity and Freedom Party.

646
00:35:05,443 --> 00:35:07,923
There were predominantly
young men,

647
00:35:08,003 --> 00:35:10,203
and, at the meeting,
we had a speaker.

648
00:35:10,283 --> 00:35:11,923
It was like an awakening.

649
00:35:13,363 --> 00:35:16,443
And I just went back,
all full of excitement

650
00:35:16,523 --> 00:35:19,163
about what I had heard and seen,

651
00:35:19,243 --> 00:35:23,963
and invited my school friends
to come with me the following week.

652
00:35:24,043 --> 00:35:26,043
There were lots of us.
It was a young movement.

653
00:35:26,123 --> 00:35:28,123
A young movement
of young men and women.

654
00:35:28,923 --> 00:35:30,603
There were the Fasimbas.

655
00:35:30,683 --> 00:35:33,923
There was the Black Liberation Front,
Black Panthers.

656
00:35:34,003 --> 00:35:36,083
I came to join the Black Unity
and Freedom Party

657
00:35:36,163 --> 00:35:38,403
because I was ready
to join a movement.

658
00:35:38,483 --> 00:35:41,123
[male speaker]
We need more Black symbols,

659
00:35:41,203 --> 00:35:42,683
Black Tories...

660
00:35:42,763 --> 00:35:46,403
March 1970, I joined
the Black Power organization,

661
00:35:46,483 --> 00:35:47,603
the Fasimbas.

662
00:35:48,283 --> 00:35:50,843
I walked into the room,
and I saw a sea of Black faces.

663
00:35:50,923 --> 00:35:53,323
The first time that
I had experienced that.

664
00:35:56,003 --> 00:35:57,123
I was overwhelmed.

665
00:35:57,723 --> 00:35:59,923
The best armor we have
against the prejudice...

666
00:36:00,003 --> 00:36:02,203
Listened to the speaker speak,

667
00:36:02,283 --> 00:36:04,883
said we had been exploited
for centuries.

668
00:36:04,963 --> 00:36:06,803
Now time for us to unite.

669
00:36:06,883 --> 00:36:09,763
He said, "Black Power,
Black Power, Black Power."

670
00:36:09,843 --> 00:36:11,843
[cheering and applause]

671
00:36:11,923 --> 00:36:14,203
I felt the hairs on the back
of my neck stand up.

672
00:36:14,283 --> 00:36:17,283
I found something I could belong to,
something I believe in.

673
00:36:19,163 --> 00:36:22,043
It was Black people standing up
for the first time,

674
00:36:22,123 --> 00:36:25,043
in a way that was
extremely militant.

675
00:36:25,123 --> 00:36:26,323
It wasn't begging.

676
00:36:26,403 --> 00:36:28,323
It wasn't trying to show
we were equal.

677
00:36:28,403 --> 00:36:30,243
It was saying,
"We know we're equal,

678
00:36:30,323 --> 00:36:31,603
and we're not putting up with it."

679
00:36:31,683 --> 00:36:33,483
That's the attraction
for all of us.

680
00:36:33,963 --> 00:36:37,043
We were all part of a huge
movement of belief.

681
00:36:37,123 --> 00:36:39,523
I mean, Black Unity and Freedom Party
people knew people

682
00:36:39,603 --> 00:36:41,203
in Black Liberation Front.

683
00:36:41,283 --> 00:36:43,843
We knew people in the Panthers.
We all knew each other.

684
00:36:44,843 --> 00:36:47,643
My wife was a member of
the Black Panther movement.

685
00:36:47,723 --> 00:36:50,163
Um, I was BLF,
she was Black Panther,

686
00:36:50,243 --> 00:36:52,083
so we came together,
we got married,

687
00:36:52,163 --> 00:36:54,523
so there was that kind of synergy.

688
00:36:54,603 --> 00:36:57,243
We were just part of
a bigger Black movement

689
00:36:57,323 --> 00:36:59,643
and wanted to, you know,
do what we had to do.

690
00:36:59,723 --> 00:37:00,923
Demonstrate. Demand.

691
00:37:01,683 --> 00:37:03,763
[protesting and chanting]

692
00:37:03,843 --> 00:37:05,603
[narrator]
This feeling of solidarity

693
00:37:05,683 --> 00:37:08,323
and increasing membership saw
Black Power groups

694
00:37:08,403 --> 00:37:11,963
staging large demonstrations
against police harassment.

695
00:37:12,363 --> 00:37:15,803
What are we here for?
What do we want?

696
00:37:15,883 --> 00:37:18,643
I got involved with
the Black Liberation Front

697
00:37:18,723 --> 00:37:21,683
because it was a doer organization.

698
00:37:23,003 --> 00:37:26,923
The main focus of
the Black Power movement

699
00:37:27,003 --> 00:37:31,883
of that era was education
and social programs.

700
00:37:31,963 --> 00:37:33,003
That's what we were about.

701
00:37:33,083 --> 00:37:36,083
There was nothing devious
about what we were doing.

702
00:37:37,963 --> 00:37:39,163
[narrator]
With immigrant communities

703
00:37:39,243 --> 00:37:42,163
feeling stigmatized by politicians
and the press,

704
00:37:42,243 --> 00:37:44,963
these activists were standing up
for their rights

705
00:37:45,043 --> 00:37:47,883
in housing, education, and policing.

706
00:37:49,563 --> 00:37:53,363
Rhodan Gordon, a community activist,
originally from Grenada,

707
00:37:53,443 --> 00:37:57,563
set up a Black citizens advice center
in the heart of Notting Hill.

708
00:37:57,643 --> 00:38:00,323
It was called the Black Peoples'
Information Centre,

709
00:38:00,403 --> 00:38:03,803
and Black self-empowerment
was the organization's objective.

710
00:38:04,283 --> 00:38:07,523
We started off with
the Back-Ah-Yard restaurant.

711
00:38:07,603 --> 00:38:10,443
It was an advice and action center

712
00:38:10,523 --> 00:38:16,323
around the issues of housing,
education and legal services,

713
00:38:16,403 --> 00:38:20,603
and it was fundamentally
a Black Power institution.

714
00:38:20,683 --> 00:38:23,083
I felt that there was
a bigger picture here.

715
00:38:23,163 --> 00:38:25,363
♪ Young, gifted and black ♪

716
00:38:25,443 --> 00:38:27,203
Times were changing.

717
00:38:27,283 --> 00:38:30,643
Marcia was singing,
"Young, gifted, and Black."

718
00:38:30,723 --> 00:38:33,803
♪ To be young, gifted, and Black ♪

719
00:38:33,883 --> 00:38:38,523
♪ Open your heart to what I mean ♪

720
00:38:38,603 --> 00:38:42,123
It was just a different time.
It-It felt good.

721
00:38:42,203 --> 00:38:45,043
It felt like you could express yourself.

722
00:38:45,123 --> 00:38:49,123
And I had an afro.
The style of the day was afro.

723
00:38:49,203 --> 00:38:51,563
I wore all the-the African gowns.

724
00:38:51,643 --> 00:38:53,323
And I remember
I went into school once

725
00:38:53,403 --> 00:38:56,723
and asked the teacher
why we couldn't have Black history.

726
00:38:56,803 --> 00:39:01,363
[♪ Carl Douglas:
"Kung Fu Fighting"]

727
00:39:04,523 --> 00:39:07,643
Wednesday, we used to have
an advanced karate class.

728
00:39:07,723 --> 00:39:10,883
Martial arts were very important to us
because it gave you confidence.

729
00:39:10,963 --> 00:39:12,363
Enormous amount of confidence.

730
00:39:12,443 --> 00:39:13,723
Black power for us men.

731
00:39:13,803 --> 00:39:16,283
We weren't going to take
any rubbish.

732
00:39:16,363 --> 00:39:18,323
We weren't anymore
going to be victims.

733
00:39:18,403 --> 00:39:19,763
I felt great.

734
00:39:19,843 --> 00:39:22,123
[♪ Niney the Observer: "Blood And Fire"]

735
00:39:29,763 --> 00:39:32,723
The musical soundtrack to
the Black Power movement

736
00:39:32,803 --> 00:39:35,123
was Jamaica reggae tunes,
you know.

737
00:39:43,803 --> 00:39:47,683
Tunes like "Blood and Fire" by Niney,

738
00:39:47,763 --> 00:39:50,203
which was kinda apocalyptic.

739
00:39:50,283 --> 00:39:52,323
[♪ "Blood and Fire" continues]

740
00:39:52,403 --> 00:39:54,203
Talked about Black redemption.

741
00:39:54,283 --> 00:39:57,563
I was, like many youth
of my generation,

742
00:39:57,643 --> 00:40:01,603
swept along by the wave
of new consciousness,

743
00:40:01,683 --> 00:40:06,363
and all that has to be seen in the
context of the anti-apartheid struggle,

744
00:40:06,443 --> 00:40:10,243
the struggle for independence
in African territories.

745
00:40:10,323 --> 00:40:12,883
[♪ "Blood and Fire" continues]

746
00:40:20,363 --> 00:40:24,003
We all saw American athletes
give the Black Power salute

747
00:40:24,083 --> 00:40:26,163
in Mexico, 1968.

748
00:40:26,243 --> 00:40:29,003
♪ Let it burn, let it burn ♪

749
00:40:29,083 --> 00:40:31,523
That had a major impact on my life.

750
00:40:31,603 --> 00:40:35,003
Some could hear the screams worldwide.

751
00:40:35,083 --> 00:40:38,443
Black people around the world
reacted to that.

752
00:40:40,203 --> 00:40:42,123
[narrator]
This spirit of revolution,

753
00:40:42,203 --> 00:40:44,643
combined with the possibility
of real cultural change,

754
00:40:44,723 --> 00:40:47,763
was inspiring people
like Linton Kwesi Johnson.

755
00:40:49,083 --> 00:40:53,643
The Black Panther Movement
had a profound effect on me

756
00:40:53,723 --> 00:40:59,083
and helped me to look at myself
in time and space, if you like.

757
00:40:59,683 --> 00:41:03,123
It was there for the first time
I discovered Black literature.

758
00:41:03,203 --> 00:41:06,483
It was a-a revelation because
as a schoolboy,

759
00:41:06,563 --> 00:41:10,683
I wasn't even aware
that Black people wrote books.

760
00:41:10,763 --> 00:41:16,163
One of the books was a book called
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois,

761
00:41:16,243 --> 00:41:20,323
and it was that book that stirred
something within me,

762
00:41:20,403 --> 00:41:24,403
that got me writing poetry,
and there were also records.

763
00:41:24,483 --> 00:41:28,603
But one record, in particular,
by The Last Poets.

764
00:41:34,363 --> 00:41:38,803
African American poetry,
they were talking about revolution,

765
00:41:38,883 --> 00:41:41,043
you know, they were just telling it
like it is.

766
00:41:41,123 --> 00:41:43,843
[♪ The Last Poets:
"When the Revolution Comes"]

767
00:41:43,923 --> 00:41:45,083
And I thought to myself,

768
00:41:45,163 --> 00:41:47,643
well, this is the kind of poetry
I want to write,

769
00:41:47,723 --> 00:41:51,923
but from a Caribbean perspective,
or roots.

770
00:41:53,403 --> 00:41:54,603
[narrator]
But as a new generation

771
00:41:54,683 --> 00:41:57,243
of young Black people were exploring
their identity in Britain,

772
00:41:57,323 --> 00:42:00,563
relations with the police
were deteriorating.

773
00:42:03,123 --> 00:42:09,403
In those days, it was clear to
the Black youth of my generation

774
00:42:09,483 --> 00:42:14,763
that the Metropolitan Police force
had declared war

775
00:42:14,843 --> 00:42:17,043
against the youth of my generation.

776
00:42:18,723 --> 00:42:22,083
The canteen culture,
the racist culture,

777
00:42:22,163 --> 00:42:24,843
is so ingrained in the police.

778
00:42:24,923 --> 00:42:26,723
The police was the enemy.

779
00:42:28,803 --> 00:42:30,043
[Linton Kwesi Johnson on recording]

780
00:42:46,403 --> 00:42:47,963
Look out! Look out! Look out!

781
00:42:49,243 --> 00:42:50,803
Wi feel bad

782
00:42:50,883 --> 00:42:52,483
Look sad

783
00:42:52,723 --> 00:42:54,163
Smoke weedan

784
00:42:54,363 --> 00:42:56,163
And if yu eye sharp

785
00:42:56,483 --> 00:42:57,883
Read the violence inna wi

786
00:42:57,963 --> 00:43:00,363
We goin' smash this guy
with the bad, bad blood

787
00:43:00,443 --> 00:43:02,163
Look out! Look out! Look out!

788
00:43:03,403 --> 00:43:05,203
[Moss] There's an old saying that

789
00:43:05,283 --> 00:43:08,643
the community gets
the policing it deserves.

790
00:43:08,723 --> 00:43:11,123
When I was a sergeant,
I was at Brixton,

791
00:43:11,203 --> 00:43:16,203
and what was surprising to me

792
00:43:16,283 --> 00:43:20,203
was the almost, like,
boisterous hostility

793
00:43:20,283 --> 00:43:22,883
you faced as a police officer
on the street.

794
00:43:23,283 --> 00:43:25,403
[commotion and honking]

795
00:43:28,683 --> 00:43:30,963
If you're called to an incident,

796
00:43:31,043 --> 00:43:35,123
you have to exert your authority,
you have to take charge,

797
00:43:35,203 --> 00:43:38,483
and sometimes, in Brixton,
this wasn't possible.

798
00:43:38,563 --> 00:43:43,563
And so, not believing that I would
do a professional job,

799
00:43:43,643 --> 00:43:47,203
you know,
who had the prejudice?

800
00:43:47,283 --> 00:43:52,163
We had that spirit,
that tradition of defiance

801
00:43:52,243 --> 00:43:56,123
from our experiences,
going about our daily lives,

802
00:43:56,203 --> 00:43:59,923
the racial profiling,
harassment, and treatment.

803
00:44:00,003 --> 00:44:03,683
That war that the police
had declared against us

804
00:44:03,763 --> 00:44:06,043
manifested itself in all kinds of ways.

805
00:44:06,123 --> 00:44:10,363
Being arrested for sus, attempting
to steal from persons unknown.

806
00:44:11,123 --> 00:44:13,923
The raids on our--on our parties.

807
00:44:14,003 --> 00:44:17,163
[♪ Gregory Isaacs:
"Black Liberation Struggle"]

808
00:44:17,243 --> 00:44:20,043
A war of attrition against
sound systems,

809
00:44:20,123 --> 00:44:24,563
that provided the nexus
for our culture of resistance

810
00:44:24,643 --> 00:44:26,443
through reggae music and so on.

811
00:44:28,603 --> 00:44:31,603
[♪ "Black Liberation Struggle" continues]

812
00:44:31,683 --> 00:44:35,283
[Moss] One of the
conflict points, if you like,

813
00:44:35,363 --> 00:44:38,483
was sort of noisy parties
on a Saturday night.

814
00:44:38,563 --> 00:44:41,163
A house full of two or three
hundred Black people.

815
00:44:49,283 --> 00:44:53,403
[Phillips] There wasn't any music
entertainment to suit our tastes,

816
00:44:53,483 --> 00:44:54,883
and half the time,
we weren't welcome,

817
00:44:54,963 --> 00:44:57,843
so we created these house parties.

818
00:45:00,803 --> 00:45:02,483
The West Indians
love to have parties.

819
00:45:02,563 --> 00:45:04,043
Big parties, small parties,

820
00:45:04,123 --> 00:45:08,123
and the person holding the party
would buy all the stuff,

821
00:45:08,203 --> 00:45:10,923
and then people who came
to the party would pay,

822
00:45:11,003 --> 00:45:12,963
and that is technically illegal.

823
00:45:13,043 --> 00:45:16,203
I mean, it's a nothing-crime,
but it was technically illegal.

824
00:45:16,763 --> 00:45:18,683
[Moss] The police have
to uphold the law,

825
00:45:18,763 --> 00:45:25,003
and white people didn't
have noisy parties in Brixton.

826
00:45:25,083 --> 00:45:26,723
If it had been
a white people's party,

827
00:45:26,803 --> 00:45:27,843
they wouldn't have been raiding it.

828
00:45:27,923 --> 00:45:29,523
Oh, yeah, it was racism.

829
00:45:29,603 --> 00:45:31,683
Mostly there was just
a little squad that did it,

830
00:45:31,763 --> 00:45:33,083
but for some reason,

831
00:45:33,163 --> 00:45:36,723
this one night,
they were going to raid about six houses,

832
00:45:36,803 --> 00:45:39,003
and they wanted volunteers,

833
00:45:39,083 --> 00:45:40,563
so we volunteered.

834
00:45:40,643 --> 00:45:42,683
It was exciting.
Plainclothes, you know. Wow.

835
00:45:42,763 --> 00:45:46,203
Went into this house, and there was
loads of West Indians there

836
00:45:46,283 --> 00:45:48,043
having a big party,

837
00:45:48,123 --> 00:45:52,003
and I remember
one of the police officers,

838
00:45:52,083 --> 00:45:53,923
they bashed down
the living room door.

839
00:45:54,523 --> 00:45:57,803
And, I mean, I said,
"Why'd you do that?"

840
00:45:59,723 --> 00:46:01,123
It was an absolute melee,

841
00:46:01,203 --> 00:46:02,483
and they were arresting people,

842
00:46:02,563 --> 00:46:05,283
and a police officer
got hit over the head.

843
00:46:06,323 --> 00:46:10,643
And we ended up dragging about
half a dozen of these West Indians

844
00:46:10,723 --> 00:46:12,363
back to the station in the van.

845
00:46:12,443 --> 00:46:14,283
And then after that,

846
00:46:14,363 --> 00:46:17,883
the one man they thought had-had-had
smashed a beer can

847
00:46:17,963 --> 00:46:20,803
over the police officer's head,
they took him into a cell.

848
00:46:20,883 --> 00:46:22,603
And this one police officer
from Kilburn,

849
00:46:22,683 --> 00:46:25,123
a really big fella,
just beat him up.

850
00:46:25,203 --> 00:46:28,523
And I just remember
standing there, watching.

851
00:46:28,603 --> 00:46:31,083
He was bleeding,
and-and he was just...

852
00:46:31,603 --> 00:46:32,643
and he was pleading,

853
00:46:32,723 --> 00:46:34,683
and he was just saying,
"No, stop it."

854
00:46:34,763 --> 00:46:39,203
I-I-I don't remember, he was just,
he was just asking them to stop it

855
00:46:39,283 --> 00:46:40,563
and asking God to help him.

856
00:46:40,643 --> 00:46:43,923
That's all I remember,
and-and-and I thought,

857
00:46:44,003 --> 00:46:46,043
"I-I didn't join the police
to beat people up."

858
00:46:52,803 --> 00:46:54,123
[sighs]

859
00:46:56,083 --> 00:47:00,043
And I was just very upset about it,
and I was kind of ashamed I was there.

860
00:47:00,123 --> 00:47:02,683
But I didn't do anything.
I didn't say anything.

861
00:47:02,763 --> 00:47:04,403
I didn't have the courage to do that.

862
00:47:04,483 --> 00:47:06,923
I mean, in a perfect world,
I would have stepped in

863
00:47:07,003 --> 00:47:09,843
and said, "Stop this right now,
otherwise, I will report everybody."

864
00:47:09,923 --> 00:47:13,603
But I was a young police officer
on probation.

865
00:47:14,963 --> 00:47:17,603
It-It never even occurred to me
to do that.

866
00:47:17,683 --> 00:47:22,083
I just-- I didn't know what to do.
I just didn't know what to do.

867
00:47:24,203 --> 00:47:25,403
[narrator]
With brutal treatment

868
00:47:25,483 --> 00:47:26,483
at the hands of the police

869
00:47:26,563 --> 00:47:28,283
a constant source of outrage,

870
00:47:28,363 --> 00:47:31,283
the Black Power movement
needed strong leadership.

871
00:47:33,803 --> 00:47:35,563
And as far as
the press were concerned,

872
00:47:35,643 --> 00:47:38,683
Michael X was the movement's
de facto leader.

873
00:47:40,363 --> 00:47:41,683
Now released from prison,

874
00:47:41,763 --> 00:47:45,563
Michael X's talent for self-promotion
had garnered him financial support

875
00:47:45,643 --> 00:47:48,243
from celebrities such as
John Lennon and Yoko Ono,

876
00:47:48,323 --> 00:47:49,643
who auctioned off their hair

877
00:47:49,723 --> 00:47:52,123
to raise funds
in the name of Black Power.

878
00:47:52,923 --> 00:47:54,203
[reporter]
I don't want to sound unkind,

879
00:47:54,283 --> 00:47:55,643
but don't you think that, um,

880
00:47:55,723 --> 00:47:58,203
this may have been pursued
as just another "Lennon stunt"?

881
00:47:58,283 --> 00:47:59,883
Well, we tried to keep it quiet.

882
00:47:59,963 --> 00:48:02,203
-It'd be nice if it did.
-I don't care. It came useful for this.

883
00:48:02,643 --> 00:48:04,283
[narrator]
But Michael X's past

884
00:48:04,363 --> 00:48:05,723
revealed another side to him.

885
00:48:05,803 --> 00:48:08,523
[Dhondy] Michael X,
he was quite charismatic,

886
00:48:08,603 --> 00:48:11,963
but he was basically a hustler.

887
00:48:12,043 --> 00:48:15,803
[Desmond Gittens] Michael X, in his early
times, was a strong-arm man

888
00:48:15,883 --> 00:48:19,803
for a landlord that rented,
to poor people, bad housing.

889
00:48:19,883 --> 00:48:22,683
Why will you not take the rent
from this man here?

890
00:48:23,683 --> 00:48:25,203
I don't own the property.

891
00:48:25,683 --> 00:48:27,243
But your name is on the rent book.

892
00:48:28,083 --> 00:48:29,923
[narrator]
Michael X set up a new group

893
00:48:30,003 --> 00:48:31,243
called the Black Eagles,

894
00:48:31,323 --> 00:48:33,883
and with it, a radical commune
in North London,

895
00:48:33,963 --> 00:48:35,483
which he called the Black House.

896
00:48:36,723 --> 00:48:39,843
And he had recruited one of the
most powerful voices in the movement.

897
00:48:41,883 --> 00:48:47,243
A group of friends were returning
with me from Speakers' Corner,

898
00:48:47,323 --> 00:48:51,763
and, as we were going along,
two Black guys started selling

899
00:48:51,843 --> 00:48:55,243
their newspapers called
The Black Eagle.

900
00:48:55,323 --> 00:48:58,963
So, my friend Shahid bought a paper,
and this guy asked me,

901
00:48:59,043 --> 00:49:00,603
"Would you like to buy a paper?"

902
00:49:00,683 --> 00:49:02,003
I said, "I'll share his."

903
00:49:02,083 --> 00:49:05,643
This guy said,
"Will you share his prison sentence?"

904
00:49:05,723 --> 00:49:09,563
And that was Darcus Howe.
A loose cannon.

905
00:49:10,043 --> 00:49:15,003
At the time, Darcus was looking for
a place to-to settle,

906
00:49:15,083 --> 00:49:18,603
and Michael X,
the so-called leader of the Black Eagles,

907
00:49:18,683 --> 00:49:21,323
he depended on Darcus,
who was more political.

908
00:49:21,403 --> 00:49:24,323
He depended on him
to give him a kudos.

909
00:49:24,403 --> 00:49:25,683
He wasn't an intellectual.

910
00:49:25,763 --> 00:49:27,203
He didn't know much
about Black Power.

911
00:49:27,283 --> 00:49:29,203
He would take things,
and then use it.

912
00:49:29,763 --> 00:49:30,803
[Darcus Howe]
The press

913
00:49:30,883 --> 00:49:33,283
made him the militant activist he was,

914
00:49:33,363 --> 00:49:36,683
and he had a remarkable capacity
to raise money

915
00:49:36,763 --> 00:49:39,923
from the likes of John Lennon
and Sammy Davis.

916
00:49:40,003 --> 00:49:43,203
Michael never organized
any large numbers of people

917
00:49:43,283 --> 00:49:46,683
in pursuit of any right,
civil or human.

918
00:49:46,763 --> 00:49:50,883
Michael was a hippy
with a commune always,

919
00:49:50,963 --> 00:49:53,523
and I was the Prime Minister
of his commune at one time.

920
00:49:53,603 --> 00:49:57,123
Michael, he was still involved
in criminal activity,

921
00:49:57,203 --> 00:49:59,843
and it bled into the Black Eagles
and the Black House.

922
00:50:01,123 --> 00:50:03,083
[reporter]
Do you think that the Black House

923
00:50:03,163 --> 00:50:04,443
could have succeeded?

924
00:50:04,683 --> 00:50:05,923
Yes, it could.

925
00:50:07,123 --> 00:50:09,603
[reporter]
Why don't you think it did succeed?

926
00:50:09,683 --> 00:50:12,523
Because Michael was putting
every single cent he could get

927
00:50:12,603 --> 00:50:13,923
in his own pocket.

928
00:50:14,003 --> 00:50:15,563
He didn't care about Black people.

929
00:50:16,523 --> 00:50:17,843
[narrator]
Faced with allegations

930
00:50:17,923 --> 00:50:19,123
of violence and corruption,

931
00:50:19,203 --> 00:50:21,123
the Black Eagles fell apart,

932
00:50:21,203 --> 00:50:24,363
and the Black House was burned down
in mysterious circumstances.

933
00:50:25,763 --> 00:50:30,123
Facing arrest for extortion,
Michael X fled to Trinidad.

934
00:50:30,923 --> 00:50:32,923
Darcus Howe remained
in West London,

935
00:50:33,003 --> 00:50:36,483
where the British Black Power movement
was about to face its biggest challenge.

936
00:50:39,723 --> 00:50:42,603
Darcus was wise enough
to kind of leave,

937
00:50:42,683 --> 00:50:46,083
and ended up working
with Frank on the Mangrove.

938
00:50:46,163 --> 00:50:48,003
[muffled commotion]

939
00:50:50,883 --> 00:50:52,483
[narrator]
Frank Crichlow's Mangrove Restaurant

940
00:50:52,563 --> 00:50:54,643
was located in the heart
of Notting Hill.

941
00:50:57,003 --> 00:50:59,563
The Caribbean community
had put down roots here

942
00:50:59,643 --> 00:51:02,203
since the turmoil
of the 1958 race riots,

943
00:51:02,283 --> 00:51:04,803
and now celebrated the rapidly-growing
Notting Hill Carnival,

944
00:51:04,883 --> 00:51:08,083
which showcased
the pride of Caribbean culture.

945
00:51:10,563 --> 00:51:12,523
Frank Crichlow was
a local restaurateur,

946
00:51:12,603 --> 00:51:14,003
originally from Trinidad,

947
00:51:14,083 --> 00:51:16,723
who had set up the Mangrove
to serve Caribbean food.

948
00:51:19,683 --> 00:51:21,563
He had no idea that
his new business venture

949
00:51:21,643 --> 00:51:25,203
was about to become the focal point
of the British Black Power struggle.

950
00:51:28,523 --> 00:51:30,643
The Mangrove quickly
proved its appeal,

951
00:51:30,723 --> 00:51:33,963
attracting a diverse range of customers,
including celebrities

952
00:51:34,043 --> 00:51:39,403
like Sammy Davis Junior, Bob Marley,
Nina Simone, and Vanessa Redgrave,

953
00:51:39,483 --> 00:51:42,083
who were keen to be a part
of the new Caribbean scene.

954
00:51:43,483 --> 00:51:46,203
And it became
an unofficial community center,

955
00:51:46,283 --> 00:51:50,043
with outspoken Black power activist
Darcus Howe working behind the bar.

956
00:51:51,043 --> 00:51:55,123
You have a society with
a million and a half Black people

957
00:51:55,203 --> 00:51:56,603
on the sidelines.

958
00:51:56,883 --> 00:51:59,643
That is what you have.
Everything goes on.

959
00:51:59,723 --> 00:52:02,603
Parliament goes on,
the economy goes on,

960
00:52:02,683 --> 00:52:05,643
everything goes on,
and all they need Black people for

961
00:52:05,723 --> 00:52:08,523
is to produce whenever
they want them to produce.

962
00:52:08,803 --> 00:52:11,323
Apart from that,
you stand on the sidelines,

963
00:52:11,403 --> 00:52:15,163
rotting, dying, festering.

964
00:52:15,803 --> 00:52:20,563
The Black youths today had been
through so much police harassment,

965
00:52:20,643 --> 00:52:24,683
being hounded by police officers.

966
00:52:24,763 --> 00:52:26,443
Police is bad news.

967
00:52:26,523 --> 00:52:29,883
Police in the Black community
are bad news.

968
00:52:32,963 --> 00:52:35,083
[Phillip]
The police are watching all of us!

969
00:52:35,163 --> 00:52:38,923
Every night I leave the Ladbroke Grove,
I had a search.

970
00:52:39,003 --> 00:52:44,523
If you come off All Saints Road,
you are guaranteed to get a search.

971
00:52:47,003 --> 00:52:48,163
[narrator]
All Saints Road,

972
00:52:48,243 --> 00:52:50,403
where the Mangrove restaurant
was situated,

973
00:52:50,483 --> 00:52:53,043
was considered a high-crime area
by the police.

974
00:52:55,323 --> 00:52:57,643
[Moss] The briefings we had

975
00:52:57,723 --> 00:52:59,603
for the Notting Hill Situation

976
00:52:59,683 --> 00:53:05,123
was that they had their fair share
of rising drug crime...

977
00:53:06,043 --> 00:53:11,403
rising street robberies,
and the center of activity

978
00:53:11,483 --> 00:53:15,883
was all around All Saints Road
and the Mangrove Club,

979
00:53:15,963 --> 00:53:20,723
so the Mangrove club was
raided on numerous occasions.

980
00:53:21,843 --> 00:53:23,403
[narrator]
Local people were convinced

981
00:53:23,483 --> 00:53:26,683
that the Mangrove was being
unfairly targeted by police officers.

982
00:53:28,883 --> 00:53:33,643
When Frank opened the restaurant,
the police approach him.

983
00:53:34,683 --> 00:53:37,363
This policeman,
everybody knows him, Pulley,

984
00:53:37,443 --> 00:53:39,883
he don't forget a face,
and he know everybody,

985
00:53:39,963 --> 00:53:41,083
and then he had a way,

986
00:53:41,163 --> 00:53:43,763
he would talk with these accents
he would put on.

987
00:53:43,843 --> 00:53:46,283
"What's happening?
Open up na."

988
00:53:46,363 --> 00:53:48,403
And talk like he was a Jamaican.

989
00:53:48,483 --> 00:53:52,403
It was a racist thing that
they can take liberty with us,

990
00:53:52,483 --> 00:53:54,363
but Frank wasn't having it.

991
00:53:54,923 --> 00:53:59,603
Pulley was a notorious police constable
from Notting Hill Gate Police Station.

992
00:53:59,683 --> 00:54:01,643
He was absolutely racist,

993
00:54:01,723 --> 00:54:05,283
because all he did was harass
Black youngsters.

994
00:54:05,363 --> 00:54:09,963
He was very well-known
for being that kind of a policeman.

995
00:54:10,043 --> 00:54:12,523
[reporter] "Hands off
the Mangrove," says the slogan.

996
00:54:12,603 --> 00:54:15,123
A favorite haunt of West Indians,
and which has been subject to

997
00:54:15,203 --> 00:54:17,323
frequent visits by the police.

998
00:54:17,403 --> 00:54:19,283
No charges have ever been brought.

999
00:54:19,803 --> 00:54:21,923
[Darcus Howe]
I was working at the till,

1000
00:54:22,003 --> 00:54:23,283
and the police,

1001
00:54:23,363 --> 00:54:26,843
they said that there was
marijuana being sold there.

1002
00:54:26,923 --> 00:54:28,203
There was none!

1003
00:54:28,283 --> 00:54:31,963
There were three raids on the restaurant,
ostensibly for drugs.

1004
00:54:32,043 --> 00:54:33,363
Nothing was found!

1005
00:54:33,963 --> 00:54:35,923
[Darcus Howe]
They want it closed down.

1006
00:54:36,003 --> 00:54:38,123
So they started raiding the place.

1007
00:54:38,203 --> 00:54:40,723
Because there was nobody

1008
00:54:40,803 --> 00:54:43,723
to take on the police at that time.

1009
00:54:45,683 --> 00:54:47,323
[narrator]
The constant raids on the Mangrove

1010
00:54:47,403 --> 00:54:49,963
meant that Frank's customers
started to stay away.

1011
00:54:51,243 --> 00:54:53,283
It was complete harassment

1012
00:54:53,363 --> 00:54:54,483
on this restaurant.

1013
00:54:54,563 --> 00:54:57,563
Complete harassment
on a Black business.

1014
00:54:58,363 --> 00:55:01,643
And they end up by destroying it.

1015
00:55:01,723 --> 00:55:04,603
Destroying it because
they would raid on a Friday night,

1016
00:55:04,683 --> 00:55:05,923
which is the busiest night,

1017
00:55:06,003 --> 00:55:08,083
and people got fed up
and stopped coming.

1018
00:55:08,563 --> 00:55:10,643
Frank used to walk around the block,

1019
00:55:10,723 --> 00:55:13,483
just looking to see if
the police van or truck.

1020
00:55:13,563 --> 00:55:15,643
It caused a kind of battle thing.

1021
00:55:16,363 --> 00:55:19,163
[Darcus Howe] I was sitting
downstairs of the Mangrove.

1022
00:55:19,243 --> 00:55:21,643
Frank was talking to
a member of parliament

1023
00:55:21,723 --> 00:55:24,243
about how the police
were raiding the restaurant.

1024
00:55:25,243 --> 00:55:29,243
So I sat listening to this,
and a young terror I was.

1025
00:55:29,323 --> 00:55:32,963
After they left, I said,
"Frank, let's have a demonstration,

1026
00:55:33,043 --> 00:55:36,323
and we're going to march
to every police station in the area."

1027
00:55:36,923 --> 00:55:39,083
You know, I want to fight,
I want to fight.

1028
00:55:39,163 --> 00:55:41,403
I need to fight
to express something.

1029
00:55:42,523 --> 00:55:43,643
[reporter] Mm-hmm.

1030
00:55:43,723 --> 00:55:46,083
I need to argue.
I need to scream!

1031
00:55:46,163 --> 00:55:49,763
That is the situation
that British society has placed me in.

1032
00:55:51,403 --> 00:55:52,603
[narrator]
With feelings of anger

1033
00:55:52,683 --> 00:55:54,123
rising within the community,

1034
00:55:54,203 --> 00:55:57,523
the Black Panther Movement,
led by Althea Jones LeCointe,

1035
00:55:57,603 --> 00:56:00,363
stepped in to help
organize a peaceful protest.

1036
00:56:02,243 --> 00:56:04,163
I believe the Mangrove,
what they seek to do

1037
00:56:04,243 --> 00:56:05,843
is not to close down a restaurant,

1038
00:56:05,923 --> 00:56:09,803
but to close down what they see
as an area where Black people

1039
00:56:09,883 --> 00:56:14,043
can collectively put up
some kind of resistance

1040
00:56:14,123 --> 00:56:16,883
to day-to-day harassment
by the police.

1041
00:56:18,163 --> 00:56:19,643
[narrator]
But some locals doubted

1042
00:56:19,723 --> 00:56:21,803
whether the protest
would remain peaceful.

1043
00:56:23,843 --> 00:56:29,363
Demonstration, I agree with it,
but me and Frank fell out over it

1044
00:56:29,443 --> 00:56:34,963
because I went in there,
and I see them writing up these placards.

1045
00:56:35,043 --> 00:56:39,883
"The Pigs," "Police Harassment,"
and then I see them stapling it

1046
00:56:39,963 --> 00:56:43,043
onto some flimsy piece of wood,
so I said to Frank, I said,

1047
00:56:43,123 --> 00:56:44,683
"Frank, what you doing?"

1048
00:56:44,763 --> 00:56:48,523
I said, "Frank, you need some
two by two to defend we-self."

1049
00:56:49,803 --> 00:56:52,363
He went mad, he said,
"Listen, every time you come here,

1050
00:56:52,443 --> 00:56:53,723
you're preaching violence."

1051
00:56:53,803 --> 00:56:56,843
I was into violence

1052
00:56:56,923 --> 00:57:00,483
because I used to feel so hurt inside

1053
00:57:00,563 --> 00:57:03,083
when I see liberties
taken with people.

1054
00:57:03,803 --> 00:57:05,723
[distant clamoring,
indistinct speech]

1055
00:57:05,803 --> 00:57:08,523
[narrator] On Sunday 9th
of August 1970,

1056
00:57:08,603 --> 00:57:12,043
a crowd of over a hundred people
gathered outside the Mangrove Restaurant

1057
00:57:12,123 --> 00:57:13,203
to show their support.

1058
00:57:15,043 --> 00:57:18,963
Darcus Howe stood on the roof of a car
to address the crowd.

1059
00:57:19,043 --> 00:57:21,483
[Darcus Howe on recording]
It has been for some time now

1060
00:57:21,563 --> 00:57:23,963
that Black people
have been caught up

1061
00:57:24,043 --> 00:57:27,763
in complaining to police
about police, yeah,

1062
00:57:27,843 --> 00:57:31,403
complaining to magistrate
about magistrate.

1063
00:57:31,483 --> 00:57:32,723
[laughter]

1064
00:57:32,803 --> 00:57:35,603
Complaining to politicians
about politicians.

1065
00:57:35,683 --> 00:57:38,283
[♪ B.B. Seaton: "I Want Justice"]

1066
00:57:40,843 --> 00:57:43,443
[narrator] The protestors,
now numbering about 150,

1067
00:57:43,523 --> 00:57:46,203
set off with the intention
of peacefully marching past

1068
00:57:46,283 --> 00:57:48,403
several police stations in the area.

1069
00:57:48,483 --> 00:57:51,523
[♪ "I Want Justice" continues]

1070
00:58:05,523 --> 00:58:11,483
Up to that time, blacks hadn't moved
to that kind of militancy before...

1071
00:58:11,963 --> 00:58:15,683
but the police,
in their relations with blacks every day,

1072
00:58:15,763 --> 00:58:18,163
had prepared blacks to revolt,

1073
00:58:18,243 --> 00:58:22,083
and we called the demonstration
to express politically

1074
00:58:22,163 --> 00:58:24,643
what was at large socially.

1075
00:58:26,643 --> 00:58:27,803
[narrator]
By the time the demonstrators

1076
00:58:27,883 --> 00:58:29,403
reached Notting Hill Police Station,

1077
00:58:29,483 --> 00:58:33,003
there were over 500 plainclothes
and uniformed police officers

1078
00:58:33,083 --> 00:58:34,443
surrounding the marches.

1079
00:58:35,763 --> 00:58:38,323
With the protestors
vastly outnumbered by police,

1080
00:58:38,403 --> 00:58:41,323
resentment on both sides
was at fever pitch.

1081
00:58:42,763 --> 00:58:44,563
[Darcus Howe]
What I want activists to do,

1082
00:58:44,643 --> 00:58:46,123
what this is going to continue to be

1083
00:58:46,203 --> 00:58:49,763
is a concerted, determined attempt

1084
00:58:49,843 --> 00:58:53,163
to prevent any infringement
on our rights.

1085
00:58:53,243 --> 00:58:56,963
[chanting]
Hands off Black people!

1086
00:58:57,723 --> 00:59:00,323
We went to Notting Hill Police Station,

1087
00:59:00,403 --> 00:59:01,723
by which time

1088
00:59:01,803 --> 00:59:05,283
it had accumulated
in the minds of the policemen

1089
00:59:05,363 --> 00:59:09,763
who were on that demonstration
that we had taken that issue too far.

1090
00:59:09,843 --> 00:59:15,043
They believed, what are these cheeky
West Indians doing on the street,

1091
00:59:15,123 --> 00:59:18,043
challenging our authority
with such confidence?

1092
00:59:18,563 --> 00:59:22,363
[crowd chanting]
Hands off Black people!

1093
00:59:22,443 --> 00:59:26,323
On our way to
Harrow Road Police Station,

1094
00:59:26,403 --> 00:59:28,683
there was trouble.

1095
00:59:28,763 --> 00:59:31,203
[Phillip]
We see a bus with police.

1096
00:59:31,283 --> 00:59:34,083
Police and dem jump on the bus,

1097
00:59:34,163 --> 00:59:35,603
fighting start.

1098
00:59:35,683 --> 00:59:38,963
[♪ Peter Tosh:
"Them A Fi Get A Beaten"]

1099
01:00:26,123 --> 01:00:28,123
[narrator] The police strategy
at the demonstration

1100
01:00:28,203 --> 01:00:30,323
raised concerns amongst activists.

1101
01:00:32,523 --> 01:00:33,843
[male activist]
Immigration bill!

1102
01:00:33,923 --> 01:00:35,523
[narrator]
A new conservative government

1103
01:00:35,603 --> 01:00:37,203
was pushing
a harsher immigration policy

1104
01:00:37,283 --> 01:00:38,323
through Parliament,

1105
01:00:38,403 --> 01:00:40,883
and the fear was that
the sensational news

1106
01:00:40,963 --> 01:00:44,523
about riots in Notting Hill
will be used to justify it.

1107
01:00:45,323 --> 01:00:48,723
I believe that's why
that attack was launched,

1108
01:00:48,803 --> 01:00:53,203
and why subsequent to that attacks
by the police are being launched.

1109
01:00:53,283 --> 01:00:56,243
This thing was
blown out of all proportion,

1110
01:00:56,323 --> 01:00:59,883
was that the government
had certain things in mind

1111
01:00:59,963 --> 01:01:04,043
for Black people in relation
to the population as a whole.

1112
01:01:04,123 --> 01:01:07,763
Where have you heard anywhere
of a demonstration

1113
01:01:07,843 --> 01:01:12,683
in a community of about 150 people
hitting the Manchester Guardian,

1114
01:01:12,763 --> 01:01:14,043
The Yorkshire Post.

1115
01:01:14,123 --> 01:01:17,923
That thing is projected to the population
for a particular reason.

1116
01:01:18,003 --> 01:01:20,723
They wanted to justify
the Immigration Bill.

1117
01:01:20,803 --> 01:01:23,603
They wanted to justify
saying that Black people

1118
01:01:23,683 --> 01:01:25,123
had to register with the police,

1119
01:01:25,203 --> 01:01:29,203
that Black people had to
ask permission to have certain jobs,

1120
01:01:29,283 --> 01:01:30,603
and to move from place to place.

1121
01:01:30,683 --> 01:01:32,643
They wanted to justify
these kinds of measures.

1122
01:01:34,323 --> 01:01:37,643
[Darcus Howe] The police,
Special Branch, Scotland Yard,

1123
01:01:37,723 --> 01:01:40,803
and Reginald Maulding, the Home Secretary,

1124
01:01:40,883 --> 01:01:44,363
and political people, all of them, met

1125
01:01:44,443 --> 01:01:45,963
and decided to put us in jail.

1126
01:01:46,043 --> 01:01:48,243
I thought this is a hell of a thing,

1127
01:01:48,323 --> 01:01:51,083
this is serious trouble.

1128
01:01:53,923 --> 01:01:55,403
[narrator]
For the nine people arrested

1129
01:01:55,483 --> 01:01:57,163
following the Mangrove Demonstration,

1130
01:01:57,243 --> 01:01:59,283
it seemed like the whole
machinery of the state

1131
01:01:59,363 --> 01:02:01,043
was now set against them

1132
01:02:01,123 --> 01:02:04,843
and the idea of Black Power in Britain
was being unfairly demonized.

1133
01:02:06,203 --> 01:02:07,683
[reporter]
The Mangrove Nine,

1134
01:02:07,763 --> 01:02:10,003
two women, seven men,

1135
01:02:10,083 --> 01:02:11,763
31 charges.

1136
01:02:12,443 --> 01:02:15,563
[Gittens] Some of
the more vocal people

1137
01:02:15,643 --> 01:02:19,643
like Rhodan, Darcus, Frank,

1138
01:02:19,723 --> 01:02:22,723
Altheia, Barbara Beese.

1139
01:02:22,803 --> 01:02:24,083
They were targeted.

1140
01:02:24,163 --> 01:02:27,763
That was a method
of actually decapitating

1141
01:02:27,843 --> 01:02:30,563
the Black Power leadership,

1142
01:02:30,643 --> 01:02:32,363
the effective ones.

1143
01:02:34,003 --> 01:02:35,603
[narrator]
The trial of the Mangrove Nine

1144
01:02:35,683 --> 01:02:38,643
began in October 1971
at the Old Bailey.

1145
01:02:40,643 --> 01:02:43,683
Representing one of the nine defendants
was Ian MacDonald,

1146
01:02:43,763 --> 01:02:46,483
a young barrister,
who was to become a pioneer

1147
01:02:46,563 --> 01:02:49,043
of anti-racist legal practice in Britain.

1148
01:02:50,523 --> 01:02:54,323
[Ian MacDonald]
The Mangrove Nine came in '71,

1149
01:02:54,403 --> 01:02:59,443
and it was really an attempt
to put on trial the leadership

1150
01:02:59,523 --> 01:03:01,683
of the Black Panther Movement,

1151
01:03:01,763 --> 01:03:05,643
which was one of the largest, um,
mass movements of Black youth

1152
01:03:05,723 --> 01:03:07,803
that there has ever been
in this country.

1153
01:03:07,883 --> 01:03:10,123
They were charged with affray,

1154
01:03:10,203 --> 01:03:12,483
they were charged with
assault on police,

1155
01:03:12,563 --> 01:03:15,443
and then they were charged with riot
at the last minute.

1156
01:03:17,283 --> 01:03:19,403
[narrator]
Now facing up to five years in prison,

1157
01:03:19,483 --> 01:03:23,443
Darcus Howe demanded an all-Black jury,
citing the Magna Carta,

1158
01:03:23,523 --> 01:03:27,363
a medieval charter that asserted
the right of citizens to be judged

1159
01:03:27,443 --> 01:03:29,763
without prejudice
by a jury of their peers.

1160
01:03:30,843 --> 01:03:33,403
[MacDonald]
It was really a kind of statement

1161
01:03:33,483 --> 01:03:35,243
that they were making,

1162
01:03:35,323 --> 01:03:38,963
that they weren't going
to be forced by

1163
01:03:39,043 --> 01:03:42,883
any kind of racist part of the court.

1164
01:03:42,963 --> 01:03:46,043
The structure of the court
is such that, uh,

1165
01:03:46,123 --> 01:03:51,483
there is a tendency for that jury
to identify, uh, with the judge.

1166
01:03:51,563 --> 01:03:54,363
Ian Macdonald, he wasn't saying
what the other lawyers were saying,

1167
01:03:54,443 --> 01:03:55,403
and they knew that.

1168
01:03:55,483 --> 01:03:57,963
He attacked
the whole structure of the court,

1169
01:03:58,043 --> 01:04:00,883
He tell the jury how the judge
keep them under control.

1170
01:04:00,963 --> 01:04:03,803
He tell the jury how the judge
keep us under control.

1171
01:04:03,883 --> 01:04:06,043
He tell the jury
how the judge sit on high,

1172
01:04:06,123 --> 01:04:07,723
everybody have to bow to him.

1173
01:04:07,803 --> 01:04:11,883
He don't have to bow to nobody,
and he exposed that whole structure,

1174
01:04:11,963 --> 01:04:15,043
and how it meant to psychologically
terrorize ordinary people.

1175
01:04:15,923 --> 01:04:17,563
[narrator]
Defying legal convention,

1176
01:04:17,643 --> 01:04:21,083
Darcus and Altheia decide to
represent themselves in court

1177
01:04:21,163 --> 01:04:23,723
so they could spell out
their case to the jury,

1178
01:04:23,803 --> 01:04:25,403
that the police were lying,

1179
01:04:25,483 --> 01:04:27,563
and they had been motivated
by racism.

1180
01:04:27,643 --> 01:04:29,643
[Altheia]
Since we've come here,

1181
01:04:29,723 --> 01:04:32,643
we have suffered a long chain
of abuses by the police,

1182
01:04:32,723 --> 01:04:35,403
with the active knowledge
and support of the British state.

1183
01:04:35,963 --> 01:04:38,723
[Darcus Howe] This case
is about a real situation

1184
01:04:38,803 --> 01:04:42,643
involving people who are prepared
to come to say what that situation is.

1185
01:04:43,843 --> 01:04:45,203
[narrator]
Darcus wanted to convey

1186
01:04:45,283 --> 01:04:49,003
this real situation to
white working-class members of the jury,

1187
01:04:49,083 --> 01:04:52,203
who he believed they were more likely
than their middle-class counterparts

1188
01:04:52,283 --> 01:04:55,003
to have experienced
everyday police injustice.

1189
01:04:56,243 --> 01:04:57,243
[Darcus Howe]
At the end of the day,

1190
01:04:57,323 --> 01:04:59,603
I knew there were white people
I could convince.

1191
01:05:00,123 --> 01:05:04,043
Ordinary whites, working whites,
that I could speak to

1192
01:05:04,123 --> 01:05:07,843
about what their police
was doing to me, and win.

1193
01:05:10,603 --> 01:05:16,123
I remember attending demonstrations
at the Mangrove Nine trial.

1194
01:05:16,203 --> 01:05:19,443
Darcus, you know,
he had style, and he had flair.

1195
01:05:19,523 --> 01:05:21,803
[Darcus Howe]
I am interested in the truth.

1196
01:05:21,883 --> 01:05:23,643
You come from Brixton,
you are unemployed,

1197
01:05:23,723 --> 01:05:26,803
you steal something,
not a single lawyer in this country

1198
01:05:26,883 --> 01:05:28,523
is going to talk about
your unemployment,

1199
01:05:28,603 --> 01:05:30,803
is going to talk
about the housing condition,

1200
01:05:30,883 --> 01:05:33,203
is going to talk about the pressures
under which you live.

1201
01:05:33,283 --> 01:05:35,203
And that is central
to your case,

1202
01:05:35,283 --> 01:05:38,043
and central to the case
of every Black person in this country.

1203
01:05:38,803 --> 01:05:42,643
[Dhondy] Darcus bought
his lawyer's skills to bear

1204
01:05:42,723 --> 01:05:46,963
about the cross-examination
which he gave the police.

1205
01:05:47,043 --> 01:05:49,283
Darcus was extremely flamboyant.

1206
01:05:49,363 --> 01:05:53,803
He would use quotations from
Shakespeare in defending himself.

1207
01:05:53,883 --> 01:05:57,643
You know, "The time is out of joint,
O cursed spite,

1208
01:05:57,723 --> 01:06:01,363
that nine West Indians
were born to put it right."

1209
01:06:01,443 --> 01:06:03,603
[♪ Derrick Morgan:
"Conquering Ruler"]

1210
01:06:03,683 --> 01:06:07,123
The Mangrove trial generated
a lot of publicity

1211
01:06:07,203 --> 01:06:12,123
and Darcus and Altheia
used it as a platform

1212
01:06:12,203 --> 01:06:16,003
to publicize the discrimination
that we felt.

1213
01:06:17,243 --> 01:06:20,643
I think this is why more and more
people should defend themselves.

1214
01:06:20,723 --> 01:06:23,603
However inadequately,
some of the truth will get through.

1215
01:06:23,683 --> 01:06:26,843
[♪ "Conquering Ruler" continues]

1216
01:06:33,523 --> 01:06:36,123
[reporter]
Radford Darcus Howe, not guilty.

1217
01:06:36,923 --> 01:06:39,043
Frank Crichlow, not guilty.

1218
01:06:39,123 --> 01:06:40,123
Not guilty.

1219
01:06:40,203 --> 01:06:41,803
[narrator]
All of the Mangrove Nine

1220
01:06:41,883 --> 01:06:44,203
were found not guilty of riot
and were spared prison.

1221
01:06:44,283 --> 01:06:47,043
The police had been
humiliated in court.

1222
01:06:47,523 --> 01:06:51,083
Crucially, the presiding judge
said in his summary

1223
01:06:51,163 --> 01:06:54,203
that he had found evidence
of racial hatred on both sides.

1224
01:06:55,803 --> 01:06:59,323
It was the first official acknowledgment
from anybody in the British state

1225
01:06:59,403 --> 01:07:02,043
that there was racism
in the police force.

1226
01:07:03,283 --> 01:07:05,323
[MacDonald]
It was a watershed trial

1227
01:07:05,403 --> 01:07:07,523
because it was the beginning

1228
01:07:07,603 --> 01:07:12,643
of a realization that the police
didn't behave like gentlemen,

1229
01:07:12,723 --> 01:07:17,643
and all the rest of it,
by the establishment in this country.

1230
01:07:18,443 --> 01:07:21,283
That was a historic victory.

1231
01:07:21,363 --> 01:07:24,763
It was a sense of what Black Power
was all about.

1232
01:07:24,843 --> 01:07:26,203
Black Power really meant

1233
01:07:26,283 --> 01:07:29,563
the only way you are going
to effectively challenge racism

1234
01:07:29,643 --> 01:07:32,843
was to organize yourselves
and fight back.

1235
01:07:35,163 --> 01:07:36,403
[narrator]
The Mangrove victory

1236
01:07:36,483 --> 01:07:39,123
created a sense of possibility
as other Black activists

1237
01:07:39,203 --> 01:07:41,123
were making progress in their struggle.

1238
01:07:41,883 --> 01:07:43,683
[Leila Hassan Howe]
You know, we were young radicals.

1239
01:07:43,763 --> 01:07:45,323
We were going to change the world.

1240
01:07:45,403 --> 01:07:48,363
We'd seen the big protests against
the Vietnam war,

1241
01:07:48,443 --> 01:07:49,603
which was revolutionary.

1242
01:07:49,683 --> 01:07:52,163
We'd seen the women's liberation
movement come to the fore,

1243
01:07:52,243 --> 01:07:54,643
and that was revolutionary,
so, for us,

1244
01:07:54,723 --> 01:07:56,283
yeah, we were about revolution.

1245
01:07:56,363 --> 01:07:59,283
[♪ Bob Marley & The Wailers:
"Coming In From The Cold"]

1246
01:07:59,363 --> 01:08:00,763
[narrator]
In South London,

1247
01:08:00,843 --> 01:08:03,163
Black Panther member Olive Morris

1248
01:08:03,243 --> 01:08:05,763
worked alongside other notable
Black and Asian women

1249
01:08:05,843 --> 01:08:08,083
to create a pioneering
feminist movement

1250
01:08:08,163 --> 01:08:09,363
for women of color.

1251
01:08:09,443 --> 01:08:11,523
[♪ "Coming In From The Cold" continues]

1252
01:08:11,603 --> 01:08:17,603
Olive Morris was the most fearless
Black woman I have ever met.

1253
01:08:18,363 --> 01:08:22,003
And we created the first
Brixton Black women's group.

1254
01:08:23,363 --> 01:08:24,683
[narrator]
Olive also led the Black community's

1255
01:08:24,763 --> 01:08:26,683
fightback against
poor housing conditions

1256
01:08:26,763 --> 01:08:29,243
through her involvement
with the Squatting Movement.

1257
01:08:30,403 --> 01:08:32,843
She was a woman
with a lot of guts,

1258
01:08:32,923 --> 01:08:36,323
and she saw squatting
as a political movement.

1259
01:08:38,323 --> 01:08:40,363
[narrator]
Darcus Howe found a new platform,

1260
01:08:40,443 --> 01:08:42,963
editing in a magazine with
the Race Today Collective.

1261
01:08:44,283 --> 01:08:48,203
He was joined there by poet and activist
Linton Kwesi Johnson.

1262
01:08:49,803 --> 01:08:53,523
The Black Parents Movement challenged
racism within the education system

1263
01:08:53,603 --> 01:08:57,323
by creating supplementary schools
to improve teaching for their children.

1264
01:08:58,203 --> 01:08:59,883
Being Black,
being confident,

1265
01:08:59,963 --> 01:09:03,003
being assured of who you are
and what you believe in,

1266
01:09:03,083 --> 01:09:05,243
that's what
the Black Power movement did.

1267
01:09:06,163 --> 01:09:08,003
[narrator]
Much of the energy of the movement

1268
01:09:08,083 --> 01:09:11,123
was devoted to forcing the state
to acknowledge equal rights.

1269
01:09:12,003 --> 01:09:14,563
But there was a growing backlash
for those involved.

1270
01:09:14,643 --> 01:09:16,963
The police continued
to raid the Mangrove

1271
01:09:17,043 --> 01:09:19,483
and harass its owner,
Frank Crichlow.

1272
01:09:20,083 --> 01:09:22,043
[Crichlow]
I think I suffered very badly

1273
01:09:22,123 --> 01:09:23,923
for what has happened.

1274
01:09:25,003 --> 01:09:29,883
I have been arrested on nearly
every year in the '70s.

1275
01:09:29,963 --> 01:09:33,163
I was on bail--you can easily say
I was on bail for ten years.

1276
01:09:33,243 --> 01:09:34,723
One case after the other.

1277
01:09:35,923 --> 01:09:38,283
Don't ask me what kept me going.

1278
01:09:38,763 --> 01:09:44,283
Um, I think that I was standing up
for my rights,

1279
01:09:44,363 --> 01:09:46,683
and that's where I got
my strength from.

1280
01:09:47,323 --> 01:09:49,163
[reporter]
Police took two alleged Panthers

1281
01:09:49,243 --> 01:09:52,123
with them as hostages
and as shields.

1282
01:09:52,203 --> 01:09:54,323
[narrator]
The early '70s saw governments

1283
01:09:54,403 --> 01:09:57,523
on both sides of the Atlantic
cracking down on Black Power.

1284
01:09:58,243 --> 01:10:00,563
They saw these groups
as a hotbed of criminality

1285
01:10:00,643 --> 01:10:01,843
and potential terrorism.

1286
01:10:01,923 --> 01:10:03,163
[rapid gunfire]

1287
01:10:03,243 --> 01:10:06,723
In America, the Black Panthers
were ruthlessly eliminated

1288
01:10:06,803 --> 01:10:08,843
by the FBI and the police.

1289
01:10:08,923 --> 01:10:10,963
[reporter] Yet as
Panther raids go these days,

1290
01:10:11,043 --> 01:10:12,403
it was unique in that no one,

1291
01:10:12,483 --> 01:10:14,523
policeman or Panther,
got killed.

1292
01:10:15,403 --> 01:10:17,243
[narrator]
The UK government continued to spy

1293
01:10:17,323 --> 01:10:18,683
on Black Power groups,

1294
01:10:18,763 --> 01:10:22,363
concerned that some might be
planning acts of violent insurrection.

1295
01:10:23,083 --> 01:10:25,123
In their sights was
a North London group

1296
01:10:25,203 --> 01:10:26,883
called the Black Liberation Front,

1297
01:10:26,963 --> 01:10:30,363
who had established close links
with the American Black Panthers.

1298
01:10:30,843 --> 01:10:35,803
[Abbas] We reproduced an article
in Grassroots, our newspaper,

1299
01:10:35,883 --> 01:10:40,843
which was from the Black Panther
newspaper in the United States.

1300
01:10:40,923 --> 01:10:47,043
And in it was an article about
how to put together a bomb.

1301
01:10:49,963 --> 01:10:53,243
Now you've got to remember,
the Panther newspaper

1302
01:10:53,323 --> 01:10:58,603
was freely available not only in America,
but also in the UK.

1303
01:10:59,643 --> 01:11:01,683
[narrator] Publishing
bomb-making instructions

1304
01:11:01,763 --> 01:11:03,523
was the all the state needed
to prosecute

1305
01:11:03,603 --> 01:11:05,523
one of the Black Liberation
Front's leaders,

1306
01:11:05,603 --> 01:11:07,483
known as Tony Sonares.

1307
01:11:07,963 --> 01:11:11,283
[Ansel Wong] Even though the
publication is a collective effort,

1308
01:11:11,363 --> 01:11:16,963
Tony was arrested for incitement
to, um, racial hatred and to murder

1309
01:11:17,043 --> 01:11:19,003
and was found guilty.

1310
01:11:19,083 --> 01:11:21,243
[Abbas]
It was a mistake,

1311
01:11:21,323 --> 01:11:24,843
and it was a mistake not done by Tony.

1312
01:11:24,923 --> 01:11:28,083
He had nothing to do
with that article appearing.

1313
01:11:28,163 --> 01:11:33,003
Tony took the fall because the police
insisted he was in charge

1314
01:11:33,083 --> 01:11:35,083
of the newspaper
at that moment in time.

1315
01:11:35,963 --> 01:11:38,483
[narrator]
Despite the bomb article being a reprint

1316
01:11:38,563 --> 01:11:41,563
from a publication already
in circulation in the UK,

1317
01:11:41,643 --> 01:11:45,363
Tony would be held in prison
for several months for this offense.

1318
01:11:46,003 --> 01:11:49,803
We were then put under
surveillance by Special Branch.

1319
01:11:49,883 --> 01:11:52,363
[Abbas]
In the early days of phone tapping,

1320
01:11:52,443 --> 01:11:56,523
you could hear
the phone being tapped,

1321
01:11:56,603 --> 01:12:00,883
and I have had conversations
I have had on the phone read back to me.

1322
01:12:00,963 --> 01:12:04,523
[Abbas] In every Black organization,

1323
01:12:04,603 --> 01:12:05,723
there's no doubt,

1324
01:12:05,803 --> 01:12:10,003
there were people who were
working for the security services.

1325
01:12:11,763 --> 01:12:13,683
[narrator] As the
Black Liberation Front struggled

1326
01:12:13,763 --> 01:12:16,283
to survive the imprisonment
of one of its leaders,

1327
01:12:16,363 --> 01:12:19,243
it rallied support from other
Black Power groups.

1328
01:12:20,243 --> 01:12:22,803
Winston Trew was a member
of the Fasimbas,

1329
01:12:22,883 --> 01:12:24,963
a youth group in
the Black Power movement

1330
01:12:25,043 --> 01:12:28,723
which encouraged community work,
education, and self-defense.

1331
01:12:29,523 --> 01:12:32,083
On the morning of 16th of March 1972,

1332
01:12:32,163 --> 01:12:35,643
I had gone to sign on, as normal,
at Peckham Labor Exchange.

1333
01:12:35,723 --> 01:12:39,923
In the evening, we had a meeting
to go and see the Black Liberation Front.

1334
01:12:42,003 --> 01:12:47,963
We had left the meeting at about 10:15,
took the train from Manor House,

1335
01:12:48,043 --> 01:12:49,363
changed at Leicester Square,

1336
01:12:49,443 --> 01:12:53,323
got the northern line
to Oval underground station.

1337
01:12:54,643 --> 01:12:58,043
The bottom of the escalator was very,
very crowded, so we decided to walk up.

1338
01:12:59,883 --> 01:13:02,323
Halfway up the escalator,
there were two men in front of us,

1339
01:13:02,403 --> 01:13:03,723
wouldn't let us pass.

1340
01:13:04,483 --> 01:13:07,363
When we got to the top,
two men suddenly turned round and said,

1341
01:13:07,443 --> 01:13:08,923
"Get over there!
Get over there!"

1342
01:13:09,003 --> 01:13:10,283
"What do you want?"

1343
01:13:10,363 --> 01:13:12,643
"We are police."
I said, "So? Where's your ID?"

1344
01:13:14,763 --> 01:13:17,043
[narrator] Winston and
his three Fasimba colleagues

1345
01:13:17,123 --> 01:13:19,243
were arrested for allegedly
stealing handbags

1346
01:13:19,323 --> 01:13:21,083
and assaulting police officers.

1347
01:13:22,443 --> 01:13:24,603
[Trew] The detective
in charge of our arrest

1348
01:13:24,683 --> 01:13:27,243
was called Detective Sergeant
Derek Ridgewell.

1349
01:13:27,323 --> 01:13:30,603
After we were arrested
and taken in the police station,

1350
01:13:30,683 --> 01:13:33,283
I said to them, "We've got
a right to a phone call."

1351
01:13:33,363 --> 01:13:34,763
He ran over to me,
looked at my face,

1352
01:13:34,843 --> 01:13:38,603
and said to me, "You blacks
got no bloody rights."

1353
01:13:41,163 --> 01:13:42,963
[narrator]
Winston was facing the very thing

1354
01:13:43,043 --> 01:13:45,883
he and other Black Power groups
had campaigned against,

1355
01:13:45,963 --> 01:13:49,043
being fitted up
by corrupt police officers.

1356
01:13:49,843 --> 01:13:53,803
The charge had said there's
a head-on collision of evidence.

1357
01:13:53,883 --> 01:13:57,803
Either defendants are lying,
or the police are lying.

1358
01:13:57,883 --> 01:14:00,123
Now what jury is going
to say that the police are lying?

1359
01:14:00,403 --> 01:14:02,123
When they announced
the guilty verdict,

1360
01:14:02,203 --> 01:14:03,883
I was in a state of shock.

1361
01:14:03,963 --> 01:14:06,603
I couldn't believe it,
but I had to believe it.

1362
01:14:06,683 --> 01:14:11,163
I woke up the following morning
in wormwood scrubs, 9th of November.

1363
01:14:11,243 --> 01:14:13,963
The 9th of November was
the birthday of my oldest son.

1364
01:14:14,883 --> 01:14:17,443
I felt like crap.

1365
01:14:20,923 --> 01:14:22,083
[narrator]
Building on the example

1366
01:14:22,163 --> 01:14:23,483
of the Mangrove Nine,

1367
01:14:23,563 --> 01:14:26,683
Winston and his friends
quickly became known as the Oval Four

1368
01:14:26,763 --> 01:14:28,803
and captured media attention.

1369
01:14:29,563 --> 01:14:30,923
[reporter]
Back at the Oval station,

1370
01:14:31,003 --> 01:14:34,123
Ridgewell had arrested
a group of Black youths,

1371
01:14:34,203 --> 01:14:36,523
the group that became known
as the Oval Four.

1372
01:14:36,603 --> 01:14:38,163
[narrator]
When a BBC journalist

1373
01:14:38,243 --> 01:14:40,203
started investigating
Winston's case,

1374
01:14:40,283 --> 01:14:43,883
it was revealed that Detective
Sergeant Derek Ridgwell's testimony

1375
01:14:43,963 --> 01:14:46,803
was directly contradicted
by eyewitnesses.

1376
01:14:47,843 --> 01:14:50,323
They claim that after getting off
a train at the Oval,

1377
01:14:50,403 --> 01:14:53,323
three of the youths
jostled an elderly passenger,

1378
01:14:53,403 --> 01:14:56,203
while Trew ran his hand
over the man's pocket.

1379
01:14:56,283 --> 01:14:59,963
Ridgewell claimed that he saw Trew
put his hand into the pocket

1380
01:15:00,043 --> 01:15:01,563
of another elderly passenger,

1381
01:15:01,643 --> 01:15:04,403
but the police didn't
produce either victim,

1382
01:15:04,483 --> 01:15:08,163
and the only witnesses were
the anti-mugging squad themselves.

1383
01:15:08,243 --> 01:15:10,323
But Mrs. O'Connor,
the woman who intervened

1384
01:15:10,403 --> 01:15:13,163
and tried to break up the fight,
says otherwise.

1385
01:15:13,243 --> 01:15:17,083
He definitely hadn't got a handbag
at that stage when I saw him.

1386
01:15:18,963 --> 01:15:20,883
[narrator]
The media account of Winston's case

1387
01:15:20,963 --> 01:15:24,003
helped him to appeal
and his sentence was reduced.

1388
01:15:25,203 --> 01:15:28,083
But the judge did not
overturn the conviction,

1389
01:15:28,163 --> 01:15:30,083
leaving Winston with
a criminal record.

1390
01:15:31,243 --> 01:15:34,963
It later emerged that Derek Ridgewell
was a corrupt police officer

1391
01:15:35,043 --> 01:15:38,883
whose tactic was to arrest Black men
for crimes they had not committed.

1392
01:15:40,403 --> 01:15:42,363
On this occasion,
Ridgewell's actions

1393
01:15:42,443 --> 01:15:45,243
had helped to destroy
a Black Power organization.

1394
01:15:46,803 --> 01:15:51,483
So I came out of prison,
July 1973.

1395
01:15:51,563 --> 01:15:54,843
People were so shocked by
what happened to the four of us,

1396
01:15:54,923 --> 01:15:57,283
the Fasimbas closed,
they disbanded.

1397
01:15:57,363 --> 01:16:01,443
I lost confidence in myself.
I became turned inwards.

1398
01:16:01,523 --> 01:16:02,843
It was hell.

1399
01:16:06,763 --> 01:16:08,723
[narrator] The British press
had for a long time,

1400
01:16:08,803 --> 01:16:12,523
used Michael X's activities
to tarnish the image of Black Power.

1401
01:16:12,883 --> 01:16:16,403
Despite his absence from the UK,
he was still reported on

1402
01:16:16,483 --> 01:16:18,723
as if he were the movement's
overall leader.

1403
01:16:19,243 --> 01:16:22,403
But Michael X had been arrested
4,000 miles away

1404
01:16:22,483 --> 01:16:25,163
after two bodies were found
buried in shallow graves

1405
01:16:25,243 --> 01:16:27,123
on his commune in Trinidad.

1406
01:16:30,683 --> 01:16:33,083
All he was after, Michael X,

1407
01:16:33,163 --> 01:16:35,843
was taking money from people.

1408
01:16:35,923 --> 01:16:37,283
He was slightly mad,

1409
01:16:37,363 --> 01:16:39,683
and he murdered
poor Gail Benson,

1410
01:16:39,763 --> 01:16:43,683
a woman who had gone
following his charisma.

1411
01:16:44,763 --> 01:16:46,603
[reporter]
As Michael X is taken into custody,

1412
01:16:46,683 --> 01:16:49,363
the search goes on for the sort of clues
that might help unravel

1413
01:16:49,443 --> 01:16:52,243
this murder mystery at
his burnt-out home at Arriva,

1414
01:16:52,323 --> 01:16:53,683
16 miles from the capital.

1415
01:16:53,763 --> 01:16:56,323
In the burnt-out shell
of Malik's house,

1416
01:16:56,403 --> 01:16:58,683
there is a great deal
of Black Power literature,

1417
01:16:58,763 --> 01:17:00,123
but there is a strong feeling here

1418
01:17:00,203 --> 01:17:03,123
that Malik was using his connections
with the Black Power movement

1419
01:17:03,203 --> 01:17:04,923
as a cover for other activities.

1420
01:17:05,363 --> 01:17:08,123
The one hard fact Malik
will have to explain

1421
01:17:08,203 --> 01:17:12,403
is how two bodies brutally murdered
came to be buried in his garden.

1422
01:17:12,483 --> 01:17:14,923
[Dhondy] Michael X
made the biggest noise of all

1423
01:17:15,003 --> 01:17:17,683
and had the least effect on

1424
01:17:17,763 --> 01:17:21,323
any reform or change or progress

1425
01:17:21,403 --> 01:17:24,083
in the lives of Black people in Britain.

1426
01:17:24,163 --> 01:17:25,483
[reporter]
His lawyer says

1427
01:17:25,563 --> 01:17:27,843
the only money he's had
towards the defense case

1428
01:17:27,923 --> 01:17:31,723
has come from John Lennon and Yoko
Ono, who are friends of Michael X.

1429
01:17:32,643 --> 01:17:34,043
[narrator]
But this time,

1430
01:17:34,123 --> 01:17:36,723
Michael X's celebrity friends
couldn't help him.

1431
01:17:36,803 --> 01:17:40,843
He was found guilty of murder by
Trinidadian court and sentenced to death.

1432
01:17:42,163 --> 01:17:46,123
On the 16th of May, 1975,
he was hanged in Trinidad for murder.

1433
01:17:49,683 --> 01:17:51,803
The fall of Michael X
showed how vulnerable

1434
01:17:51,883 --> 01:17:54,083
the Black Power cause
was to being hijacked

1435
01:17:54,163 --> 01:17:58,403
and the fine line between
revolutionary ideas and criminal deeds.

1436
01:18:00,483 --> 01:18:03,243
I think one of the issues for
the Black Power movement

1437
01:18:03,323 --> 01:18:07,243
was that you were really
an open church to any and everybody,

1438
01:18:07,323 --> 01:18:10,603
and there are groups of people
within the BLF

1439
01:18:10,683 --> 01:18:15,043
who did certain things that were
very much on the fringes of criminality,

1440
01:18:15,123 --> 01:18:17,923
on the edge of subversion
and terrorism.

1441
01:18:18,003 --> 01:18:19,163
[reporter]
The siege started

1442
01:18:19,243 --> 01:18:20,603
just before two this morning

1443
01:18:20,683 --> 01:18:22,243
when police surrounded the restaurant.

1444
01:18:22,323 --> 01:18:26,723
Take everything out of your pockets,
and put it on the counter! Move!

1445
01:18:27,203 --> 01:18:29,963
[narrator]
On the 28th of September, 1975,

1446
01:18:30,043 --> 01:18:33,083
three armed men claiming to be
from the Black Liberation Front

1447
01:18:33,163 --> 01:18:36,443
entered a restaurant in Knightsbridge
and demanded money.

1448
01:18:36,923 --> 01:18:39,123
When police quickly arrived
on the scene,

1449
01:18:39,203 --> 01:18:42,243
the gunmen took six members
of staff hostage,

1450
01:18:42,323 --> 01:18:44,723
and a standoff began
that would become known

1451
01:18:44,803 --> 01:18:46,603
as the Spaghetti House Siege.

1452
01:18:46,683 --> 01:18:51,563
The ensuing events would be turned into
an iconic film by director Horace Ove.

1453
01:18:51,763 --> 01:18:53,683
It was a total surprise.

1454
01:18:53,763 --> 01:18:59,083
It is not part and parcel of,
or-or action that we wanted to endorse.

1455
01:18:59,403 --> 01:19:02,243
We now can confirm that there are,
in fact, three gunmen.

1456
01:19:03,763 --> 01:19:05,443
[narrator]
The three gunmen were identified as

1457
01:19:05,523 --> 01:19:09,003
Wesley Dick, Anthony Munroe,
and Frank Davis.

1458
01:19:09,083 --> 01:19:12,363
They were all regular attendees
at Black Power meetings.

1459
01:19:12,803 --> 01:19:14,483
All three claimed to be members,

1460
01:19:14,563 --> 01:19:18,683
but there was a doubtful issue
about who is a member of the BLF

1461
01:19:18,763 --> 01:19:20,043
because we didn't have membership.

1462
01:19:20,123 --> 01:19:22,403
Nobody paid any money
to become a member.

1463
01:19:22,883 --> 01:19:26,283
[Abbas] I knew one,
but he wasn't a member.

1464
01:19:26,363 --> 01:19:30,283
He was an interested young person.

1465
01:19:30,363 --> 01:19:31,443
[reporter]
The scene outside

1466
01:19:31,523 --> 01:19:32,763
the Spaghetti House restaurant

1467
01:19:32,843 --> 01:19:35,083
is taking on something
of an air of permanence.

1468
01:19:35,163 --> 01:19:38,043
As the traffic flows past
just a few feet away,

1469
01:19:38,123 --> 01:19:41,123
the police have erected
a scaffold and tarpaulin canopy

1470
01:19:41,203 --> 01:19:44,803
that completely hides
the building from public gaze.

1471
01:19:44,883 --> 01:19:47,763
My instinct was,
this is criminal activity.

1472
01:19:47,843 --> 01:19:52,883
My instinct was,
"You can't--you can't do this. Surrender."

1473
01:19:52,963 --> 01:19:55,683
On the other side,
I was getting political pressures

1474
01:19:55,763 --> 01:19:58,163
to say these are freedom fighters.

1475
01:19:58,243 --> 01:20:00,443
These are people
taking up the struggle.

1476
01:20:00,523 --> 01:20:02,923
You can't ask them to surrender.

1477
01:20:03,003 --> 01:20:05,403
[narrator]
The siege rolled on for five days

1478
01:20:05,483 --> 01:20:07,083
with crowds gathering
outside to watch.

1479
01:20:08,083 --> 01:20:09,003
Inside the restaurant,

1480
01:20:09,083 --> 01:20:12,163
the three gunmen,
led by 24-year-old Wesley Dick,

1481
01:20:12,243 --> 01:20:14,283
were making
politically-motivated demands...

1482
01:20:16,083 --> 01:20:20,123
but police commissioner Robert Mark
was quick to point out the problem.

1483
01:20:21,123 --> 01:20:25,483
I have, in fact, asked for the release
of, uh, two prisoners,

1484
01:20:25,563 --> 01:20:27,203
who have completed
their sentences.

1485
01:20:28,403 --> 01:20:30,803
[reporter] These people are not
in prison, is that correct?

1486
01:20:30,883 --> 01:20:32,243
[overlapping commotion]

1487
01:20:32,323 --> 01:20:33,643
[reporter #2] But you can see,
as was said earlier--

1488
01:20:33,723 --> 01:20:37,323
But it is--but it is right to say that
that is only one of their demands,

1489
01:20:37,403 --> 01:20:39,363
and their demands
are very confusing.

1490
01:20:39,443 --> 01:20:43,443
Because the brothers were asking
for someone from the BLF

1491
01:20:43,523 --> 01:20:46,443
to go down,
to talk to them,

1492
01:20:46,523 --> 01:20:50,203
so that their demands
could be made in public,

1493
01:20:50,283 --> 01:20:55,123
Ansel and Tony, in their wisdom,
decided to send me,

1494
01:20:55,203 --> 01:20:59,643
and what they sent me to
was the strangest situation

1495
01:20:59,723 --> 01:21:01,403
I have ever been in
in my life.

1496
01:21:01,483 --> 01:21:03,963
You couldn't even tell
it was a restaurant

1497
01:21:04,043 --> 01:21:07,043
because the police vans
and cars and everything

1498
01:21:07,123 --> 01:21:10,003
blocked off the whole
of Knightsbridge,

1499
01:21:10,083 --> 01:21:14,923
and I was taken in,
downstairs to a basement...

1500
01:21:15,603 --> 01:21:17,883
surrounded by policemen,

1501
01:21:17,963 --> 01:21:21,363
and I was shouting up
to a hole in the wall.

1502
01:21:21,443 --> 01:21:25,963
They are asking me to ask you
to give yourselves up...

1503
01:21:26,923 --> 01:21:29,643
which is the only way they'd let us
speak to them.

1504
01:21:31,003 --> 01:21:34,483
We couldn't get out
what they wanted to say.

1505
01:21:34,563 --> 01:21:37,203
The police confiscated it immediately,

1506
01:21:37,283 --> 01:21:41,163
so they handed, um,
a-a written statement out,

1507
01:21:41,243 --> 01:21:43,523
but I got to view it for 30 seconds.

1508
01:21:43,843 --> 01:21:45,923
[reporter]
It's obvious from the careful surveying

1509
01:21:46,003 --> 01:21:46,923
of the whole building

1510
01:21:47,003 --> 01:21:49,003
that's been going on that
the police are considering

1511
01:21:49,083 --> 01:21:52,123
and drawing up plans to cope
with all possibilities.

1512
01:21:52,203 --> 01:21:54,883
I have never understood
Spaghetti House.

1513
01:21:54,963 --> 01:21:58,923
Everybody in the BLF thought
it was a criminal act gone wrong.

1514
01:21:59,643 --> 01:22:01,643
[reporter]
Just before four o'clock this morning,

1515
01:22:01,723 --> 01:22:04,923
ambulances began arriving
at Spaghetti House Restaurant.

1516
01:22:05,003 --> 01:22:09,443
Minutes later, the six exhausted
but unhurt Italian hostages were led out.

1517
01:22:09,843 --> 01:22:12,043
Shortly afterwards,
handcuffed to detectives,

1518
01:22:12,123 --> 01:22:14,963
came two of the captors,
who'd surrendered peacefully.

1519
01:22:15,043 --> 01:22:17,843
Seconds later,
the third gunman shot himself.

1520
01:22:19,123 --> 01:22:20,683
[Dhondy] He didn't kill himself.

1521
01:22:20,763 --> 01:22:22,523
He was taken to hospital,

1522
01:22:22,603 --> 01:22:25,683
straightened out,
tried, and jailed.

1523
01:22:26,483 --> 01:22:29,283
[Wong] Consequences
of that siege, for me,

1524
01:22:29,363 --> 01:22:32,123
it really knocked me back,
in terms of my own understanding,

1525
01:22:32,203 --> 01:22:34,283
belief and commitment
to the BLF.

1526
01:22:34,363 --> 01:22:36,563
Something that I could not support.

1527
01:22:38,203 --> 01:22:39,443
[narrator] The confusion over,

1528
01:22:39,523 --> 01:22:40,683
the Spaghetti House Siege

1529
01:22:40,763 --> 01:22:42,163
proved to be a turning point,

1530
01:22:42,243 --> 01:22:45,643
exposing the messy realties
of revolutionary politics.

1531
01:22:46,323 --> 01:22:48,963
The radical energy of
the British Black Power movement

1532
01:22:49,043 --> 01:22:50,123
appeared to be waning.

1533
01:22:50,323 --> 01:22:51,403
[Leila Hassan Howe]
By then,

1534
01:22:51,483 --> 01:22:53,403
the Black Power movement
was in decline in Britain.

1535
01:22:53,483 --> 01:22:56,643
Definitely, we were a hodgepodge
of different ideologies,

1536
01:22:56,723 --> 01:22:59,523
and of course, the government did
respond to the change in Black Power

1537
01:22:59,603 --> 01:23:02,163
because they co-opted
many of the Black Power people.

1538
01:23:02,243 --> 01:23:05,603
Money was being poured into
the Black community for projects

1539
01:23:05,683 --> 01:23:08,363
to try and defuse the demands
that were being made.

1540
01:23:08,443 --> 01:23:11,883
So, if your demand was
for decent housing for young Black men,

1541
01:23:11,963 --> 01:23:14,003
they would give you
money for a hostel.

1542
01:23:14,083 --> 01:23:16,523
So the demand for decent housing
was defused

1543
01:23:16,603 --> 01:23:18,163
'cause they didn't get
decent housing.

1544
01:23:18,243 --> 01:23:19,243
They got a hostel.

1545
01:23:19,323 --> 01:23:21,203
But the hostel was run
by a Black person.

1546
01:23:21,283 --> 01:23:25,843
[Gutzmore] Nothing in the nature
of social movements

1547
01:23:25,923 --> 01:23:27,443
exists forever.

1548
01:23:28,363 --> 01:23:32,203
If you have hundreds
of Black young people,

1549
01:23:32,283 --> 01:23:34,523
militant, eager,
wanting to do something,

1550
01:23:34,603 --> 01:23:36,363
what do you actually get them to do?

1551
01:23:36,443 --> 01:23:38,883
So, they march,
they attend meetings,

1552
01:23:38,963 --> 01:23:41,323
and then you run out
of things to do.

1553
01:23:42,283 --> 01:23:46,443
The achievement of the movement
was that it represented

1554
01:23:46,523 --> 01:23:51,443
a population that was not prepared
to put up with what British society

1555
01:23:51,523 --> 01:23:53,203
had defined it should do.

1556
01:23:54,083 --> 01:23:56,963
I think Black Power said,
"We're not going back home.

1557
01:23:57,043 --> 01:23:59,843
Britain belongs to us.
We're here to stay,

1558
01:23:59,923 --> 01:24:02,443
and we're going to fight for
our rights, here in this country."

1559
01:24:02,523 --> 01:24:03,963
That's what Black Power did.

1560
01:24:05,883 --> 01:24:07,323
[narrator]
Black Power had moved on,

1561
01:24:07,403 --> 01:24:08,683
and so had the country.

1562
01:24:09,643 --> 01:24:10,803
The Notting Hill Carnival,

1563
01:24:10,883 --> 01:24:13,803
which began as a response
to racism of the 1950s,

1564
01:24:13,883 --> 01:24:17,643
was now a global attraction with
a quarter of a million people attending.

1565
01:24:19,443 --> 01:24:23,803
A new Race Relations Act in 1976
made it illegal to discriminate

1566
01:24:23,883 --> 01:24:25,803
in housing or in education,

1567
01:24:25,883 --> 01:24:29,043
two of the key concerns
that motivated Black Power.

1568
01:24:31,003 --> 01:24:35,523
But the police remained legally exempt
from anti-racist legislation,

1569
01:24:35,603 --> 01:24:38,323
and at the Carnival in 1976,

1570
01:24:38,403 --> 01:24:40,283
they now faced a new generation
of young people

1571
01:24:40,363 --> 01:24:42,763
who had grown up with
the Black Power message

1572
01:24:42,843 --> 01:24:45,563
and would not back down
in the face of police brutality.

1573
01:24:49,283 --> 01:24:52,883
[Gutzmore] The Notting Hill
1976 Carnival,

1574
01:24:53,963 --> 01:24:57,683
the Metropolitan Police tried, by force,

1575
01:24:57,763 --> 01:24:59,843
to police the carnival
into submission.

1576
01:24:59,923 --> 01:25:01,643
How many policemen
are you using this year?

1577
01:25:01,723 --> 01:25:04,443
Approximately about fourteen hundred.

1578
01:25:05,083 --> 01:25:07,723
And last year,
it said that there were only sixty.

1579
01:25:10,443 --> 01:25:12,723
[narrator]
As tensions around the carnival mounted,

1580
01:25:12,803 --> 01:25:16,763
Darcus Howe warned of the risk
of using the same policing tactics

1581
01:25:16,843 --> 01:25:18,603
deployed at the Mangrove protest.

1582
01:25:19,523 --> 01:25:21,363
If there is a risk
on carnival day,

1583
01:25:21,443 --> 01:25:24,323
then it's going to be
an explosion of the kind

1584
01:25:24,403 --> 01:25:25,963
that hasn't been seen
in this country before.

1585
01:25:26,043 --> 01:25:27,363
I say that with no joy.

1586
01:25:27,923 --> 01:25:29,043
[narrator] And he was right.

1587
01:25:29,123 --> 01:25:32,083
Heavy-handed policing
resulted in a riot

1588
01:25:32,163 --> 01:25:34,123
that was the biggest seen
on British soil

1589
01:25:34,203 --> 01:25:35,683
since the second world war.

1590
01:25:37,083 --> 01:25:40,363
It signaled a new era of confrontation
with the police,

1591
01:25:40,443 --> 01:25:42,283
where organized protest gave way

1592
01:25:42,363 --> 01:25:45,363
to spontaneous outbursts
of anger and rioting.

1593
01:25:45,443 --> 01:25:48,483
For many Black people,
these were known as uprisings.

1594
01:25:50,243 --> 01:25:54,003
[Abbas] People talk about
the United States in terms of racism,

1595
01:25:54,083 --> 01:25:56,243
as though it was so much better here.

1596
01:25:56,323 --> 01:25:58,003
You've got to remember,

1597
01:25:58,083 --> 01:26:01,443
who were the pilgrims to America?

1598
01:26:01,523 --> 01:26:03,083
They were Brits.

1599
01:26:03,163 --> 01:26:05,363
OK? All over Africa,

1600
01:26:05,443 --> 01:26:09,403
who was in the forefront, besides
the Portuguese, of slavery?

1601
01:26:09,483 --> 01:26:10,883
It was the British.

1602
01:26:12,523 --> 01:26:14,603
[glass shattering]

1603
01:26:15,563 --> 01:26:17,843
[narrator]
Fifty years after the Mangrove protests,

1604
01:26:17,923 --> 01:26:21,043
relations between the police
and Black people remain problematic.

1605
01:26:21,843 --> 01:26:25,363
The police are no different
towards young Black men

1606
01:26:25,443 --> 01:26:28,243
than they were to me
when I was a teenager.

1607
01:26:28,323 --> 01:26:30,563
They don't beat you up
in the police station anymore

1608
01:26:30,643 --> 01:26:32,483
because all things are recorded.

1609
01:26:33,243 --> 01:26:34,603
But they still tell lies.

1610
01:26:34,683 --> 01:26:37,523
They'll still verbally
deny your rights.

1611
01:26:41,683 --> 01:26:44,363
What kind of country do we live in?

1612
01:26:45,323 --> 01:26:46,683
[chanting "Black Lives Matter"]

1613
01:26:47,283 --> 01:26:50,403
I have been in
the Black Power movement

1614
01:26:50,483 --> 01:26:52,723
and proud to have been in it.

1615
01:26:52,803 --> 01:26:56,843
I am very conscious
of the color of my skin

1616
01:26:56,923 --> 01:27:00,603
because I won't deny
the color of my skin.

1617
01:27:01,003 --> 01:27:05,563
I'm 70 years of age,
and I was born in Britain.

1618
01:27:06,203 --> 01:27:10,323
And to this day, people ask me
where I come from.

1619
01:27:10,403 --> 01:27:12,083
To this day!

1620
01:27:13,363 --> 01:27:18,003
This is a v-- a very strange country.

1621
01:27:25,523 --> 01:27:27,603
[Trew] On the 5th of December,
I walked into the Court of Appeal,

1622
01:27:27,683 --> 01:27:30,443
with my wife before
the Lord Chief Justice

1623
01:27:30,523 --> 01:27:32,323
to have our convictions overturned.

1624
01:27:32,403 --> 01:27:35,523
He quashed the convictions.
I was so happy.

1625
01:27:35,603 --> 01:27:38,283
I was even seen smiling.
I was so happy.

1626
01:27:38,363 --> 01:27:42,043
Today the Lord Chief Justice has told me
exactly what I wanted to hear.

1627
01:27:42,123 --> 01:27:44,643
He said he is only sorry
this has taken so long

1628
01:27:44,723 --> 01:27:47,203
for this injustice to be remedied.

1629
01:27:48,043 --> 01:27:49,563
[interviewer]
How long had it taken?

1630
01:27:49,643 --> 01:27:52,123
It had taken me 47 years.

1631
01:27:53,843 --> 01:27:58,523
That's where my Black activism
comes in. I was not giving up.

1632
01:28:00,963 --> 01:28:04,403
[Johnson] I think that the youngsters
in the Black Lives Matter movement

1633
01:28:04,483 --> 01:28:08,323
need to appraise themselves
of what has gone before,

1634
01:28:08,403 --> 01:28:11,363
so that they can draw some lessons

1635
01:28:11,443 --> 01:28:14,643
from the battles
that we fought and won.

1636
01:28:15,763 --> 01:28:17,003
[narrator]
The story of Britain's

1637
01:28:17,083 --> 01:28:19,123
Black Power movement has,
until recently,

1638
01:28:19,203 --> 01:28:20,403
been largely overlooked,

1639
01:28:20,483 --> 01:28:22,763
but to ignore this history

1640
01:28:22,843 --> 01:28:25,643
is to risk not learning
key lessons from the past.

1641
01:28:26,723 --> 01:28:30,403
The Black Power story reveals
the struggle faced by British citizens

1642
01:28:30,483 --> 01:28:32,043
to be treated fairly by the state

1643
01:28:32,123 --> 01:28:35,283
and their willingness to fight back
when they weren't.

1644
01:28:36,323 --> 01:28:40,283
Black Power in Britain showed that
with unity and self-empowerment,

1645
01:28:40,363 --> 01:28:42,603
it was possible to take a stand

1646
01:28:42,683 --> 01:28:44,003
and bring about change.

1647
01:28:45,923 --> 01:28:48,283
[♪ Linton Kwesi Johnson:
"Time Come"]