page_title: Mangrove Nine
section_title: March on Portnall Road
hierarchical_section_title: Mangrove Nine / March on Portnall Road
caption_attribution_description: Catalogue reference: MEPO 31/21 (A23) Barbara Beese was a member of the Black Panthers and one of the original Mangrove Nine. After the march Beese was arrested and charged on a number of accounts. She was found not guilty on all. This image is from the collections of The National Archives. Feel free to share it within the spirit of the Commons. For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection, please contact our image library
context_page_description: The Mangrove Nine were a group of British black activists tried for inciting a riot at a protest, in 1970, against the police targeting of the Mangrove Restaurant, Notting Hill, in west London. Their trial lasted 55 days and involved various challenges by the Nine to the legitimacy of the 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.
context_section_description: The Mangrove Restaurant 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 the black community staged a protest, on 9 August 1970, where 150 people marched to the local police station. Violence between police and protesters led to a series of arrests and 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.
caption: Barbara Beese during the demonstration of 9 August 1970
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