Altheia Jones-LeCointe (born 9 January 1945) is a Trinidadian physician and research scientist also known for her role as a leader of the British Black Panther Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Jones-LeCointe came to public attention in 1970 as one of the nine protestors, known as the Mangrove Nine, arrested and tried on charges that included conspiracy to incite a riot, following a protest against repeated police raids of The Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill, 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.
Early life and education
Born Altheia Jones in 1945 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, she was one of the three daughters of Viola Jones, a Port of Spain dressmaker and clothes shop proprietor, and Dunstan Jones, the principal of a government school. Her parents also held local leadership roles in the People's National Movement during her childhood. She attended St George's College in Barataria, where she was regarded by her chemistry teacher as "a vibrant, sparkling girl of exceptional ability". In 1965, she left Trinidad to complete a PhD in biochemistry at University College London.
Political activism
While studying in London, Jones-LeCointe became involved in community organising against racism and for the rights of people of African and Asian heritage in the UK. She worked as a teacher and organiser in the Universal Coloured People's Association (UCPA).
Leadership of the British Black Panther Movement
After the arrest and departure of Obi Egbuna in 1968, Jones-LeCointe became a central and leading figure of the British Black Panther Movement. She recruited a central core of activists into the movement, including Darcus Howe and Eddie LeCointe. Eddie LeCointe, her husband, was also a leading figure of the British Black Panther Movement.
Jones-LeCointe was a Panther teacher; she spoke at schools and taught classes in anti-colonialism. Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson joined the Black Panther Youth league after seeing Jones-LeCointe debate at his sixth-form. In an interview with The Guardian, Johnson describes Jones-LeCointe as "perhaps the most remarkable woman I've ever met".
Notable achievements
Jones-LeCointe played a key role in ensuring that defending black women and girls was at the core of the movement. This included building structures into the organisation to ensure that men suspected of the abuse or exploitation of women were interrogated and punished if found guilty. W. Chris Johnson, writing in Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges (edited by Miescher, Mitchell and Shibusawa, 2015), states: "Jones-LeCointe's authority, and her energetic pursuit of justice, unsettled Panthers who did not see anti-sexism as an intrinsic part of revolutionary praxis."
Under her leadership, the Panthers' influence and reach in the community increased considerably. They produced a newspaper, Freedom News; led campaigns against police brutality and discrimination in employment, housing and education; and ran sessions to encourage black people to study books by radical authors. By the 1970s, Jones-LeCointe had led the recruitment of more than 3,000 people to the British Black Panther Movement.
Influence and impact
Jones-LeCointe is considered by academics and her contemporaries to be the leader of the British Black Panther Movement. According to the British Black Panthers' official photographer Neil Kenlock: "Althea (sic) never called herself the leader, but she led us." Jones-LeCointe says: "I don't know how I've suddenly become 'a leader, she recalls, "we didn't recognize those categories ... we believed in collective leadership."
As part of the Mangrove Nine, Jones-LeCointe and her fellow activists successfully defended themselves and for the first time, spoke about racism in the Metropolitan Police on an official platform - the courtroom. Their arguments and their win, led to the formation of the notable 1976 Race Relations Act.
The Mangrove Nine
Jones-LeCointe was one of the nine protesters arrested and tried in what has since been described as "Britain's most influential black power trial", and by Bryan Knight of The Guardian as "one [of] the most significant legal cases in British history."
In 1969 and 1970, The Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill became the target of repeated police raids. The police claimed the restaurant was a hub for criminal activity, despite a lack of evidence found. A march was organised by local Panthers and community leaders to demand police get their "hands off The Mangrove".