‘Houses would get petrol bombed’: UK race riots evoke memories of the 1970s

Leila Hassan Howe, pictured in this archive photograph on the left, believes the 'political class' has allowed racism to thrive [Courtesy of Race Collective]

London, United Kingdom – As a 16-year-old schoolgirl in her classroom at Plaistow Grammar School in London’s East End, Leila Hassan Howe, now 76, can still remember being made to feel unwelcome.

She had returned from Zanzibar to live with her English mother in the United Kingdom, where she was born in 1948. Her father had moved back to the East African nation, and for a time she lived with him.