Altheia Jones-LeCointe

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, In 1965, she left Trinidad to complete a PhD in biochemistry at University College London. In an interview with The Guardian, Johnson describes Jones-LeCointe as "perhaps the most remarkable woman I've ever met".

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."

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. A march was organised by local Panthers and community leaders to demand police get their "hands off The Mangrove".

During the march, Jones-LeCointe was coming to the aid of an injured woman when she was seized by three police constables and carried to a van. In her closing speech, Jones-LeCointe pointed out the persecution of the black community by the police in Notting Hill.

In 2017, Jones-LeCointe's role in the British Black Panther Movement gained renewed interest following the release of Sky Atlantic drama miniseries Guerrilla, inspired by the emergence of British Black Power.

Guyanese/English actress Letitia Wright portrays Jones-LeCointe in the Mangrove episode of Steve McQueen's 2020 film anthology/television miniseries Small Axe.

Alongside Ian Macdonald QC – as well as Selma James, who was a witness in the Mangrove Nine case – Jones-LeCointe features in the documentary How the Mangrove Nine Won, a first-hand account of the case, filmed in 2016 and launched in November 2020 by Global Women's Strike as a fundraiser for the Haitian Emergency Relief Fund.

Medical career Jones-LeCointe is a medical researcher and practises as a haematologist in Britain and Trinidad.