*On this date in 1970, the Mangrove Nine incident began in the UK.
These were 150 Black protesters who marched peacefully on the police station in Notting Hill to demonstrate against racial harassment by the police. They were met by 500 officers, whose heavy-handed policing was designed to antagonize them. Nine protesters were charged with incitement to riot.
The resulting 55-day trial of the Mangrove Nine, which took place at London’s Old Bailey, was a landmark in British legal history: it saw Black power take on the might of the British state and win. After eight hours, the jury acquitted all defendants of the main charge, and the trial brought the first judicial acknowledgment of evidence of racial hatred in the Metropolitan Police of England.
