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 various challenges by the Nine to the legitimacy of the British judicial process. They were all acquitted of the most serious charges and the trial became the first judicial acknowledgement of behaviour motivated by racial hatred within the Metropolitan Police.

March on Portnall Road

The Mangrove restaurant, opened in 1968 by Trinidad-born Frank Crichlow, was an important meeting space for the Black community in the Notting Hill area, including for Black intellectuals and activists. It was repeatedly raided by the police, on grounds of drug possession, despite a lack of evidence. In response, on 9 August 1970, the Black community staged a protest, where 150 people marched to the local police station.

Violence between police and protesters led to a series of arrests; after considering a variety of options, including inciting racial hatred under the Race Relations Act and deportation under new immigration rules, they were tried for incitement to riot. The case was thrown out by the presiding magistrate, who found that evidence from 12 police officers showed they equated Black radicalism with criminal intent, but the Director of Public Prosecutions reinstated the charges and the Mangrove Nine were re-arrested in a series of dawn raids.

The Mangrove Nine

The Mangrove Nine were:

Barbara Beese

Rupert Boyce

Frank Crichlow

Rhodan Gordon

Darcus Howe

Elton Anthony Carlisle Inniss , aka Anthony Carlisle Innis, was born in Morvant, Trinidad, in 1947, into a wealthy and educated family. He was sent to England to get an education, and there met his Irish wife.