Photograph of Barbara Beese, August 9th 1970 (24284954734)

Barbara Beese (; born 2 January 1946) is a British activist, writer, and former member of the

British Black Panthers The British Black Panthers (BBP) or the British Black Panther movement (BPM) was a Black Power organisation in the United Kingdom that fought for the rights of black people and racial minorities in the country. The BBP were inspired by the US ...

. She is most notable as one of the Black activists known as the

Mangrove Nine The Mangrove Nine were a group of British black activists tried for inciting a riot at a 1970 protest against the police targeting of The Mangrove, a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, West London. Their trial lasted 55 days and involved vari ...

, charged in 1970 with inciting a riot, following a protest against repeated police raids of

The Mangrove The Mangrove was a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, London, England. It was founded in 1968 and run by civil rights activist Frank Crichlow, eventually closing in 1992. It is known for the trial of a group of British black activists dubbed ...

, a

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

restaurant in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road M ...

, west London. They were all acquitted of the most serious charges and the trial became the first judicial acknowledgement of behaviour (the repeated raids) motivated by racial hatred, rather than legitimate

crime control Crime control refers to methods taken to reduce crime in a society. Crime control standardizes police work. Crime prevention is also widely implemented in some countries, through government police and, in many cases, private policing methods such ...

, within the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Black Panthers and activism

Beese came to public attention in 1970 as one of the

, who on 9 August that year marched to the police station in

, London, to protest against police raids of

, a restaurant run by Frank Crichlow, which was a meeting place for the Black community in the area. Violent clashes between the police and the Black marchers led to charges and an important trial that is said to have "changed racial justice in the UK forever". Beese was one of those arrested and charged on a number of counts, and she was found not guilty of all charges. She contributed to the journal ''

Race Today ''Race Today'' was a monthly (later bimonthly) British political magazine. Launched in 1969 by the Institute of Race Relations, it was from 1973 published by the ''Race Today'' Collective, which included figures such as Darcus Howe, Farrukh Dh ...

'' on a number of topics, including education.

Personal life

Beese had a relationship with fellow British Black Panther and Mangrove Nine activist

Darcus Howe Leighton Rhett Radford "Darcus" Howe (26 February 1943 – 1 April 2017)"Civil ...

, with whom she had a son, Darcus Beese.

In popular media

Beese appears in the 1973

Franco Rosso Franco Rosso (29 August 1941 – 9 December 2016)Bill Douglas Centre"Franco Rosso 1942-2016" ''Babylon'', 27 December 2016.Martin Stellman"Franco Rosso obituary" ''The Guardian'', 2 January 2017. was an Italian-born film producer and director b ...

and

John La Rose John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

documentary film ''The Mangrove Nine''. Actress

Rochenda Sandall Rochenda Sandall (born 1988) is a British actress who played Lisa McQueen in ''Line of Duty'', and has featured in other productions including '' Small Axe'' and ''Doctor Who''. Biography Rochenda Sandall was born in about 1988 in Grimsby, a ...

portrays Beese in the ''Mangrove'' episode of

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

's 2020 film anthology/television miniseries '' Small Axe''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beese, Barbara British women activists Living people 1946 births African and Black nationalism in the United Kingdom Black British activists

Black Panthers and activism

Personal life

In popular media

See also

References