[patwynnfan]

Civil rights activist Darcus Howe has died aged 74, his biographer has said. The writer and broadcaster campaigned for black rights for more than 50 years and organised the 1981 Black People's March after the New Cross fire in which 13 black teenagers died. His biographer Robin Bunce said Mr Howe "died peacefully in his sleep" at his Streatham home on Saturday and that his wife Leila Hassan confirmed the news. In 2009, Mr Howe wrote in The Guardian about his prostate cancer diagnosis. "Long live the NHS", he wrote, after describing how his treatment had been successful following the 2007 diagnosis. Mr Howe was born on 26 February 1943 in Trinidad, where his father was a vicar and his mother a teacher. He came to the UK in 1961. Mr Howe, who lived in Brixton for more than 30 years, started his journalism career with the magazine Race Today, where he was editor for 11 years, and more recently he was a Voice Newspaper columnist. He made his name in the British Black Panthers, successfully challenging racism in the police during the Mangrove Nine trial at the Old Bailey in the early 1970s. As a journalist he contributed to a wide range of newspapers and had a regular column in the left-wing New Statesman magazine. He began his broadcasting career in the 1980s, presenting shows for the BBC, LWT and Channel 4. In 2003 he wrote and presented the controversial series White Tribe, which explored the idea of Englishness and involved travelling around the country. The campaigner also spoke out after the London riots in the summer of 2011, which were sparked by the shooting of Mark Duggan.