Darcus Howe, the broadcaster, writer and civil liberties campaigner, has died aged 74. His family announced his death in a statement released on Sunday that read: "Darcus died quietly and unexpectedly in his sleep on the evening of Saturday, April 1st. Our private grief is inseparable from our public pride."
Howe, originally from Trinidad, lived in Brixton, south London, for 30 years and was well known for his Channel 4 series Black on Black and late-night current affairs programme The Devil's Advocate.
In a hugely varied and influential journalistic career, he was also a former editor of Race Today, wrote columns for both the New Statesman and the Voice, and was a former chair of the Notting Hill carnival.
His television work included the multicultural current affairs documentary The Bandung File, which he co-edited with Tariq Ali, and more recently White Tribe, a look at modern day Britain.
He was a member of the British Black Panther Movement and was one of the “Mangrove Nine” who were arrested and charged after protesting against repeated police raids on the Caribbean restaurant Mangrove in Notting Hill, west London, in 1970. At the Old Bailey trial he successfully defended himself against charges of riot and affray.
Guardian service