Civil rights activist Darcus Howe dies

Civil rights activist Darcus Howe has died aged 74, his biographer has said.

The writer and presenter campaigned for black rights for more than 50 years, wrote for various publications and is praised for having brought a “radical voice”.

His biographer Robin Bunce said Mr Howe died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday.

Mr Howe was born on 26 February 1943 in Trinidad, and came to the UK in 1961.

He started his journalism career in and around 1968 at The Hustler, a magazine produced in Notting Hill, according to Dr Bunce.

He was editor for more than a decade at Race Today magazine, and more recently was a columnist for The Voice newspaper.

Mr Howe also wrote a regular column for the New Statesman, as well as having a column in the Evening Standard in the 1990s. The activist, who was a member of the British Black Panthers, also worked in broadcasting, doing work for the BBC and Channel 4.

Mr Howe wrote about his 2007 prostate cancer diagnosis and the treatment that followed in an article for The Guardian in 2009.

He said: “Long live the NHS. The campaign to persuade black men to get tested for prostate cancer starts here.”