This month is the 30th anniversary of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, the case that created a “paradigm shift” on race relations in the UK. (1) As such there’ll be a range of commemorate events spearheaded by the research centre that bears his name at Leicester’s De Montfort University. (2)
The racist murder and subsequent investigation that let two of the killers go free for eighteen years, while the rest remain free to this day, finally brought to ‘mainstream’ attention what the Afrikan community had been saying for generations the police are “institutionally racist” and corrupt, as outlined in the 1999 report by Sir William Macpherson. (3) One example of this was the whistle-blower claim that the police were more interested in finding “dirt” on the Lawrence family and spying on the justice campaign than apprehending the assailants. (4) In spite of the police perennially resisting the “institutionally racist” and corrupt appellation, recent reports by Dame Louise Casey, Dame Rachel de Souza and the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel merely confirm that it continues to be the case. (5)
The police have always found a willing accomplice in the UK press, so it shocked many when in 1997, the Daily Mail, considered by some to have a long history of racist journalism, famously threw its weight behind the Stephen Lawrence Justice campaign with its ‘Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong let them sue us.” (6)
However, recent legal proceedings put the Daily Mail’s proclaimed support for the campaign in a different light. Stephen Lawrence’s mother Baroness Doreen Lawrence is one of a number of high-profile individuals, including the Duke of Sussex, accusing the Mail’s publishers Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) of concealing “wrongdoing” over the alleged unlawful gathering of their private information. Mama Doreen said in her witness statement:
“They were supposed to be our allies and friends, the good people, not the bad.” Her legal representative said in court: “That is nothing short of gaslighting Baroness Lawrence, that’s the form of concealment we are talking about.” (7)
So whatever changes the Stephen Lawrence case has made to the UK’s body politic, Bro. Marc Wadsworth, so instrumental in establishing the Stephen Lawrence campaign by introducing the family to Nelson Mandela, suggests there is still a way to go:
“Racism is still as stark as it was three decades ago. It has morphed into some different forms like Islamophobia and government denial that systemic racism exists, with its revisionist Sewell Report.” (8)
(1) Hugh Muir (03/01/12) The Stephen Lawrence case: how it changed Britain. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jan/03/how-stephen-lawrence-changed-britain
(2) De Montfort University Leicester (01/11/22) DMU announces plans for remembering Stephen Lawrence 30 years on. https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2022/november/dmu-announces-plans-for-remembering-stephen-lawrence-30-years-on.aspx
(3) Nicola Rollock (2009) ‘The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry 10 Years On A Critical Review
of the Literature. https://www.bl.uk/britishlibrary/~/media/bl/global/social-welfare/pdfs/non-secure/s/t/e/stephen-lawrence-inquiry-10-years-on-a-critical-review-of-the-literature.pdf
(4) Tom Pyman (10/11/20) Stephen Lawrence’s parents are losing confidence that ‘spy cops’ probe will reveal the truth about why undercover police targeted their family after their son’s 1993 murder by racist thugs, inquiry hears. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8933179/Stephen-Lawrences-parents-losing-confidence-probe-revealing-spy-cops-targeted-family.html
(5) Kieran Kelly (17/03/23) Met Police ‘riddled with racism, sexism and homophobia’ and has ‘failed to change’, landmark report to claim. hhttps://www.lbc.co.uk/news/metropolitan-police-riddled-racism-sexism-homophobia-report-finds/; Celestina Olulode & Jemma Crew (27/03/23) Police strip-searched children as young as eight. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65081765; Dan Sabbagh (15/06/21) Daniel Morgan murder report: six critical findings in focus. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/15/daniel-morgan-report-six-key-findings-in-focus
(6) Marc Wadsworth (29/11/21) Three decades after Stephen Lawrence murder: racism still rampant. https://www.the-latest.com/three-decades-after-stephen-lawrence-murder-racism-still-rampant
(7) Gemma Peplow (30/03/23) Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen was effectively ‘gaslit’ by Daily Mail, court told – as Harry makes appearance. https://news.sky.com/story/stephen-lawrences-mother-doreen-was-effectively-gaslit-by-daily-mail-court-told-as-harry-makes-appearance-12845819
(8) Wadsworth. Op. Cit.
we ask the question:
Stephen Lawrence 30 years on: What’s Changed?
1) Has justice been attained for Stephen Lawrence?
2) Why do the police/government continue to deny racism?
3) Did the Daily Mail really “gaslight” the Lawrences?
4) What lessons can our community draw from the Lawrence case?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of almost 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Bro. Marc Wadsworth: is a veteran journalist and activist. He came to prominence as a Reporter/presenter for ITV’s Thames News and BBC radio and television. Wadsworth set up and ran a community journalism course for Stonebridge Housing Action Trust in North West London and has run similar training courses for other organisations. Wadsworth has written special reports for national newspapers including The Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Evening Standard. As a freelance foreign correspondent, he has contributed to The Guardian, The Observer and Channel Four News. Wadsworth helped to secure Black Sections (caucuses) within the Labour Party, first tabled in 1983, to further the cause of greater African, Caribbean and Asian political representation. He was then founder of the Anti-Racist Alliance (ARA) in 1991 and helped set up the campaign for justice after the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence. The ARA succeeded in getting human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman to draft a bill to make racial harassment and racial violence specific criminal offences, which proposals became law years later. More recently Bro. Marc was committee member Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC) a pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum. He was expelled by the Labour Party in April 2018 even though it was said that the decision “flies in the face of the evidence that was presented and offends against the principles of natural justice.” In 2021 he received full apologies and substantial damages from the publisher of The Jewish Chronicle for false allegations made against him. .He is also a founder member of Grassroots Black Left and a founder member of the ARA successor organisation The Liberation Movement (https://www.liberationmovement.org.uk/).
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