Leila Hassan Howe is a British editor and activist, who was a founding member of the Race Today Collective. She worked for the Institute of Race Relations and became editor of the Race Today journal in 1986. Hassan was also a member of the Black Unity and Freedom Party and the British Black Panthers. She is co-editor of a collection of writings from Race Today published in 2019.
Career
Hassan was a member of the Race Today Collective from its beginning, and eventually became editor of its journal, Race Today, in 1986. She was deputy editor of the journal from 1973, with Darcus Howe as editor. She was a frequent writer for the journal, examining topics ranging from the Black Power movement in the USA to the lives of black women in the UK. During the 1980s she worked alongside Olive Morris running Race Today's 'Basement Sessions' at Railton Road, where art, culture and politics were discussed. The Race Today Collective was led and organised by a number of women, including Hassan, whose influence on its direction needs further recognition. Women involved in the organisation included Alethea Jones-Lecointe, Barbara Beese and Mala Dhondy. In 1984 Hassan organised for the wives of striking coal miners to come to London to tell their stories to the journal. Hassan also campaigned for Arts Council England to recognise the Notting Hill Carnival as an art form. She was also a co-organiser of the Black People’s Day of Action march following the New Cross Fire of March 1981, in which thirteen young Black people died. Hassan became involved in the Black Power movement in the late 1960s. She worked for the Institute of Race Relations from 1970, as Information Officer. During her time there she helped to overthrow the IRR's paternalistic organisation, moving it from a conservative to a more radical political stance. This change in the IRR came about through a membership vote, in which Hassan had been instrumental in recruiting more members who sympathised with the proposed new direction of the organisation. She was a member of the Black Unity and Freedom Party before she became involved in the collective. A 2013 exhibition about the British Black Panthers at the Photofusion Gallery in Brixton featured an interview with Hassan Howe. Alongside other former Panthers, she acted as a script advisor for John Ridley's 2017 television seriesGuerrilla which examines the movement. In 2019, Hassan Howe co-edited a collection of writings from Race Today, published by Pluto Press, which aimed to introduce new audiences to Britain's black radical politics.
Personal life
Leila Ramadhan Hassan was born on 13 June 1948 in Zanzibar; her family were Muslim and she grew up as a devout member of the faith. Hassan was married to the civil rights activist Darcus Howe, who was her predecessor as editor of Race Today.
