Leila Hassan Howe 

Leila Hassan Howe has been a significant leader in racial justice and collective politics in the UK. She began her activism in the Black Power movement in the 1970s, when she became a member of the Black Unity and Freedom Party and was part of the ‘coup’ that radicalised the Institute of Race Relations.

With her husband Darcus Howe, she was one of the organisers the Black People’s Day of Action in March 1981: the largest demonstration of Black people in the UK at the time following the deaths of 13 young Black people in the New Cross Fire tragedy.  

Leila was a founding member of the Brixton-based Race Today Collective, and assistant then editor of the phenomenally influential journal Race Today from 1973 until it ceased in 1988. She is Chairperson of the Darcus Howe Legacy Collective, dedicated to preserving the contribution that Darcus made to the British and International movements for change and justice.

In 2019, Leila co-edited Here to Stay, Here to Fight, and in 2023 co-edited a special issue of Race Today – the first since 1988 – designed to bring Britain's radical Black history to new audiences.