Leader of Black Lives Matter UK ‘blacked up’ and pretended to be ‘in the minstrels’
Oxford University student Adam Elliott-Cooper, 29, daubed himself with mud on the Caribbean island of St Lucia
A LEADER of protest group Black Lives Matter UK once “blacked up” his face with mud to be “in the minstrels”.
Nine members were charged after bringing London City Airport to a halt on Tuesday.
The all-white group protested against “racist climate change”, calling their action “white allyship under black leadership”.
Now it has emerged the public face of the movement once impersonated white US actor Al Jolson, who used “blackface” make-up in 1927 film The Jazz Singer.
Oxford student Adam Elliott-Cooper, 29, daubed his face with mud at a spring on the Caribbean island of St Lucia and copied Jolson’s “jazz hands” dance moves.
The mixed-race activist bragged in a Facebook post: “The natural sulphur at the springs is supposed 2 be good for your skin.
"But me and my brother decided we could make better use of it if we pretended we were in the minstrels.”
When someone asked if he was trying to be black, Elliott-Cooper replied: “I was going for the dark skinned asian look.”
The post-grad geography student, whose family live in a £500,000 home in Wood Green, North London, has represented Black Lives Matter UK on Radio 4’s Today programme and Channel 4 news.
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He is studying groups like BLM for his thesis on race issues in modern Britain.
And while BLM does not support any political party, Elliott-Cooper is a huge backer of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He also claimed England was on the “brink of fascism” after voting for Brexit.
But he appears to have remained tight-lipped since nine of his BLM comrades launched a six-hour demonstration on the runway of East London’s City Airport.
They have all been charged with aggravated trespass and being unlawfully airside, which can lead to three months’ jail.
The group, which includes a former member of Oxford University’s croquet club and a vicar’s daughter, will appear before Westminster JPs next week.
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