Rhodan Gordon

Rhodan Gordon (9 November 1939 – 8 May 2018) was a Black British community activist, who migrated to London from Grenada in the 1960s.[1] He 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.[2] 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.[2]

Biography

Gordon was born in the rural town of Paradise in Saint Andrew's Parish, Grenada, where he attended Grenada Boys' School, before studying agriculture in Trinidad.[1] On graduating, he returned to Grenada, where he worked in government service for 18 months before travelling to Britain for further studies.

In the late 1960s Gordon opened Back-a-yard, a Caribbean café, bookshop and cultural centre at 301–303 Portobello Road in Notting Hill, west London, which like other Black venues would attract police attention.[3][4] In 1970 he was one of the Mangrove Nine, a group of Black activists tried for inciting a riot at a protest against the police targeting of the Mangrove Restaurant, Notting Hill. The trial lasted 55 days, and the jury deliberated for more than eight hours before all defendants were cleared of the main charge – inciting a riot – with Gordon along with Rupert Boyce, Anthony Innis and Altheia Jones-LeCointe receiving suspended sentences for lesser offences, including affray and assaulting police officers.

Gordon went on to run the Black People's Information Centre on the Portobello Road site of Back-a-yard, intended to improve the rights of and resources available to the Black community, offering free legal advice and helping to defend housing tenants facing discrimination.[5][6] He also founded the charity Unity Association, on Lancaster Road, which developed into Unity Training Workshop and Unity Restaurant, aiming to give young people vocational skills training.[1][7] As Amon Saba Saakana has noted: "In 1977 Rhodan was instrumental with others in returning the Notting Hill Carnival to community control when The Notting Hill Carnival Arts Committee was formed and in 1979 was a founder and board member of Notting Hill Carnival Industrial Project training African Caribbean youth in vocational skills relating to carnival arts."[1]

In his last years Gordon returned regularly to Grenada on family business, and following prolonged ill health he died there while waiting to be moved to a hospital in the island's capital, St George's.[1]

In media

Gordon appears in the 1973 Franco Rosso and John La Rose documentary film The Mangrove Nine.[8]

Actor Nathaniel Martello-White portrays Gordon in the Mangrove episode of the 2020 film anthology/television miniseries Small Axe,[7] which was created and directed by Steve McQueen. McQueen's father, Philbert, was a friend of Gordon's since their upbringing in Grenada.[6]

References
  1. Saakana, Amon Saba (29 November 2018). "Rhodan Gordon: From Mangrove 9 to Portobello Self-Help Chief". Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  2. Bunce, Robin; Field, Paul (29 November 2010). "Mangrove Nine: the court challenge against police racism in Notting Hill". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  3. Waters, Rob (2018). Thinking Black: Britain, 1964–1985. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520967205.
  4. "Notting Hill Virtual Black History Walking Tour". Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  5. "Mangrove Nine Screening at the BFI - Michael La Rose's Introduction". George Padmore Institute. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  6. Bakare, Lanre (3 October 2020). "Steve McQueen: 'Our Marlon Brandos are on building sites, or driving buses'". The Guardian.
  7. Arboine, Niellah (11 November 2020). "Where Are The Mangrove 9 Now?". Bustle. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  8. "Black History Month 2016: Mangrove Nine". George Padmore Institute. 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2020. The Mangrove Nine film portrays interviews with the defendants recorded before the final verdicts were delivered at the trial, as well as contemporary comments from Ian Macdonald and others.
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