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April 4, 2017

Tributes paid to writer Darcus Howe who provided a ‘vital voice’ on racial issues in Britain with ‘eloquent ferocity’

By Freddy Mayhew

Tributes have been paid to journalist, writer, broadcaster and civil rights activist Darcus Howe, who has died aged 74.

Howe wrote a regular column in the New Statesman until 2009 and more recently was a columnist in black British newspaper The Voice.

He began his journalism career with the magazine Race Today, which he edited for 11 years and had a column in the Evening Standard in the 90s.

Howe was most famous for his political activism on the issue of racism and rose to prominence during the Mangrove Nine trial.

The Guardian said in an obit: “His aims were radical, and he brought them into the mainstream by articulating fundamental principles in a strikingly outspoken way.”

The paper added: “Howe directed his enormous intellectual energy and skill as a political organiser to ‘bring reason to race’.

“He rejected the politics of soundbites and prejudice, in favour of a politics based on faith in the creativity of migrant and working-class communities.”

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The Times said: “Darcus Howe hated injustice, and he loved a fight.

“A fierce combatant amid the birthing pains of multiracial Britain, he spent his adult life battling against racial inequality, with an eloquent ferocity that made him not only a controversial and strident spokesman for black society, but a vital voice that could not be ignored in the debate about identity and community relations.”

Howe died on 1 April. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2007 and later wrote about it in the Guardian.

He is survived by wife Leila, three sons and four daughters.

Picture: Thames TV/YouTube

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