Mangrove Nine

Implemented by the civil rights movement in the US, the British Black Panther movement was born in 1968.

Two members of the British radical movement were defendants in the trial of the Mangrove Nine, where the church community hub, the Mangrove Restaurant, was unjustly raided by the police 12 times and a protest march was organised in response in August 1970.

Due to the heavy police presence, violence erupted leading to the arrest of the mangrove nine.

All nine were acquitted of the most serious charge of inciting a riot and the judge acknowledged that this trial had shown evidence of racial hatred from the police.

which was the first such judicial acknowledgement in UK history and paved the way for a stronger 1976 Race Relations Act, which forms the basis of today's equality laws.