{{Short description|British activist and writer (born 1946)}} {{Infobox person | name = Barbara Beese | image = Battle for Freedom at the Old Bailey poster (24819736411) (cropped).jpg | caption = | birth_name = | other_names = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1946|1|2|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_place = | occupation = Activist and writer | known_for = Member of the British Black Panthers and one of the Mangrove Nine | partner = Darcus Howe | children = Darcus Beese | parents = }} [[File:Photograph of Barbara Beese, August 9th 1970 (24284954734).jpg|thumb|Beese during the Mangrove Nine demonstration of 9 August 1970]] '''Barbara Beese''' ({{IPAc-en|'|b|i:|z}}; born 2 January 1946) is a British activist, writer, and former member of the British Black Panthers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/04/guerrilla-black-power-uk-michael-x-egbuna-mangrove-nine/|title=The Real Guerrillas|first=Paul|last=Field|journal=Jacobin|date=14 April 2017|access-date=6 February 2018|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>Qasim, Wail (11 April 2017), [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/guerilla-freida-pinto-casting-criticism-asian-black-women-black-power-movement-uk-a7677811.html "Freida Pinto's casting as the only lead female character in Guerilla erases women from the history of Black Power"], ''The Independent''.</ref> She is most notable as one of the Black activists known as the Mangrove Nine, charged in 1970 with inciting a riot, following a protest against repeated police raids of The Mangrove, a Caribbean restaurant in Notting Hill, west London. They were all acquitted of the most serious charges and the trial became the first judicial acknowledgement of behaviour (the repeated raids) motivated by racial hatred, rather than legitimate crime control, within the Metropolitan Police.
==Black Panthers and activism== Beese came to public attention in 1970 as one of the Mangrove Nine, who on 9 August that year marched to the police station in Notting Hill, London, to protest against police raids of The Mangrove, a restaurant run by Frank Crichlow, which was a meeting place for the Black community in the area.<ref name=Mangrove>{{Cite news |title=Mangrove Nine: the court challenge against police racism in Notting Hill |last1=Bunce |first1=Robin |first2=Paul |last2=Field |date=29 November 2010 |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/nov/29/mangrove-nine-40th-anniversary |access-date=6 February 2018}}</ref> Violent clashes between the police and the Black marchers led to charges and an important trial that is said to have "changed racial justice in the UK forever".<ref name=Mangrove /> Beese was one of those arrested and charged on a number of counts, and she was found not guilty of all charges.<ref>Brook, Pete (4 February 2018), [https://timeline.com/cops-raided-a-1970s-london-cafe-britains-black-power-movement-ff855e7b23f0 "When cops raided a hip 1970s London cafe, Britain's Black Power movement rose up"], Timeline, ''Medium''.</ref>
She contributed to the journal ''Race Today'' on a number of topics, including education.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Black British Intellectuals and Education: Multiculturalism's Hidden History |last=Paul |first=Warmington |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor and Francis |isbn=9781317752363 |location=Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon |oclc=871224341}}</ref>
==Personal life== Beese had a relationship with fellow British Black Panther and Mangrove Nine activist Darcus Howe, with whom she had a son, Darcus Beese.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Woman With the Afro: The Story of Barbara Beese |first=Jan |last=Fuscoe |work=Byline Times |date=29 September 2020 |quote=I made contact with Barbara’s son Darcus (named after his father and the well-known activist Darcus Howe), who confirmed that the image was of his mother and that he was the boy, aged around five years old at the time. |url=https://bylinetimes.com/2020/09/29/the-woman-with-the-afro-the-story-of-barbara-beese/ |access-date=16 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=People of Today 2017 |last=Hume |first=Lucy |publisher=Debrett's |location=London |date=2017 |isbn=9781999767037 |oclc=1007310029 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NcHMwAEACAAJ |access-date=6 February 2018 |via=Google Books}}{{Page needed|date=November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/books/2024/05/07/its-one-beese-of-a-book/|title=It's one Beese of a book|first=Joel|last=Campbell|newspaper=The Voice|date=7 May 2024}}</ref><ref name="O'Hagan Guardian">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/04/darcus-beese-barbara-beese-island-records-ceo-black-panthers-mangrove-nine-darcus-howe|title=Interview {{!}} Darcus Howe's son Darcus Beese and his activist mother, Barbara: 'He was imbued with the spirit of the struggle|first=Sean|last=O'Hagan|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 August 2024|access-date=2 June 2025}}</ref>
== In popular media == Beese appears in the 1973 Franco Rosso and John La Rose documentary film ''The Mangrove Nine''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black History Month 2016: ''Mangrove Nine'' |publisher=George Padmore Institute |date=4 March 2016 |quote=The Mangrove Nine film portrays interviews with the defendants recorded before the final verdicts were delivered at the trial, as well as contemporary comments from Ian Macdonald and others. |url=http://black-history-month.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=501%3Amangrove-nine&catid=69%3Auk-events&Itemid=101 |access-date=24 November 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035311/http://black-history-month.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=501%3Amangrove-nine&catid=69%3Auk-events&Itemid=101 |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref><ref name="O'Hagan Guardian" />
Actress Rochenda Sandall portrays Beese in the ''Mangrove'' episode of Steve McQueen's 2020 film anthology/television miniseries ''Small Axe''.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Where Are The Mangrove 9 Now? |first=Niellah |last=Arboine |magazine=Bustle |date=11 November 2020 |url=https://www.bustle.com/entertainment/what-happened-to-the-mangrove-nine |access-date=24 November 2020}}</ref>
==See also== * Altheia Jones-LeCointe
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beese, Barbara}} Category:British women activists Category:Living people Category:1946 births Category:African and Black nationalism in the United Kingdom Category:Black British activists