Leila Hassan Howe (born 13 June 1948) is a British editor and activist, who was a founding member of the Race Today Collective. She worked for the Institute of Race Relations and became editor of the '' Race Today'' journal in 1986. Hassan was also a member of the

Black Unity and Freedom Party In politics and history the Black Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP) (c. 1970 – 1999) was a political organisation that was part of Britain's Black Power and Radical left movements. Birth The BUFP held its first congress in London on 20 July 197 ...

. She is co-editor of a collection of writings from ''Race Today'' published in 2019.

Career

Hassan was a member of the Race Today Collective from its beginning, and eventually became editor of its journal, '' Race Today'', in 1986. She was deputy editor of the journal from 1973, with Darcus Howe as editor. She was a frequent writer for the journal, examining topics ranging from the Black Power movement in the USA to the lives of black women in the UK. During the 1980s she worked alongside

Olive Morris Olive Elaine Morris (26 June 1952 – 12 July 1979) was a Jamaican-born British-based community leader and activist in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. At the age of 17, she claimed she was assaul ...

running ''Race Today's'' "Basement Sessions" at Railton Road, where art, culture and politics were discussed. The Race Today Collective was led and organised by a number of women, including Hassan, whose influence on its direction needs further recognition (according to Robin Bunce and Paul Field, biographers of her husband). Women involved in the organisation included Alethea Jones-Lecointe,

Barbara Beese Barbara Beese (; born 2 January 1946) is a British activist, writer, and former member of the British Black Panthers. She is most notable as one of the Black activists known as the Mangrove Nine, charged in 1970 with inciting a riot, following a p ...

and Mala Dhondy. In 1984 Hassan organised for the wives of striking coal miners to come to London to tell their stories to the journal. Hassan also campaigned for

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

to recognise the

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966

as an art form. Following the

New Cross Fire The New Cross house fire was a conflagration, fire that occurred during a party at a house in New Cross, south-east London, in the early hours of Sunday, 18 January 1981. The blaze killed 13 young black people aged between 14 and 22, and one su ...

in January 1981, in which 13 young Black people died, Hassan was co-organiser of the 20,000-person Black People's Day of Action march through London that took place on 2 March and is now described as "a turning point in black British identity". Hassan became involved in the Black Power movement in the late 1960s. She worked for the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) from 1970, as Information Officer. During her time there she helped to overthrow the IRR's paternalistic organisation, moving it from a conservative to a more radical political stance. This change in the IRR came about through a membership vote, in which Hassan had been instrumental in recruiting more members who sympathised with the proposed new direction of the organisation. She was a member of the

before she became involved in the collective. A 2013 exhibition about British Black Power Movements in Britain at the Photofusion Gallery in Brixton featured an interview with Hassan Howe. Alongside other former Panthers, she acted as a script advisor for John Ridley's 2017 television series '' Guerrilla'', which examines the movement. In 2019, Hassan Howe co-edited ''Here to Stay, Here to Fight'', a collection of writings from ''Race Today'', published by Pluto Press, which aimed to introduce new audiences to Britain's black radical politics.

Personal life

Leila Ramadhan Hassan was born on 13 June 1948 in Zanzibar; her family were Muslim and she grew up as a devout member of the faith. Hassan was married to the civil rights activist Darcus Howe, who was her predecessor as editor of ''Race Today''.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassan, Leila British anti-racism activists Black British women writers 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British women writers Black British activists Black British women academics British women editors Living people 1948 births