Richard Sudan reflects on the legacy of Stephen Lawrence, 31 years on
Today marks the 31st anniversary of the brutal murder of Stephen Lawrence at the hands of White supremacist thugs, in Eltham, South East London. The area where the unprovoked attack took place was known as a hotbed of White supremacist activity, while the gang of White men – two convicted of murder, and four accused between them, had a proven history and track record of carrying out racist attacks towards Black and non-White people. Many view anti-Black lynchings purely as an American pastime, or associated only with countries in which slavery was visible. This analysis often gives Britain a pass. As a nation, we collectively pat ourselves on the back for ending slavery when in fact this country, and its institutions including the Royal family, were primary beneficiaries of the Black holocaust. And so we must be clear: Stephen’s murder was a modern lynching, by any measure, and took place in a country which didn’t have an empire, but was an empire built from the exploitation of Black people. This system funded by the forced labor of our ancestors and family constructed a social and legal system which has always viewed Black people as less than human and treated Black communities as second-class citizens in a so-called first-class democracy.
This context is important because the murder of Stephen Lawrence is often viewed as an aberration of British society rather than a direct consequence of it. Britain was never intended to produce justice, equality, or accountability for Black people. In this sense, the lynching of Charles Wooten by a White mob in Liverpool in 1919; the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993; and the ongoing injustice faced by the Windrush generation, and their descendants, are all interconnected.
As we honor Stephen Lawrence today, and pay tribute to his family’s committed pursuit of justice, we must counter the narrative which suggests that the teenager’s murder took place in an atmosphere which is ancient history and that subsequently Britain is, or is swiftly becoming, a post-racial society. Nothing could be further from the truth, and here’s why.
“Stephen’s murder was a modern lynching, by any measure, and took place in a country which didn’t have an empire, but was an empire built from the exploitation of Black people”
Both the right and to an extent the left, often suggest that the UK government’s diverse cabinet and first non-White prime minister are evidence of racial progress. Those blinded by the optics, however, are ignoring the material reality and conditions on the ground. Britain is more unequal than ever, and the disparities evidenced in education, health outcomes, employment, and poverty levels, all disproportionately impact Black communities. The UK could have the Blackest cabinet ever, the most ethnically diverse parliament in history, but it means nothing so long as racism remains firmly entrenched in every facet of life.
Indeed, many in our communities are seduced by power or confuse proximity to power with power itself. Stephen Lawrence’s murder, however, reminds us that the battle for justice continues on two main fronts and that we must never relent from the struggle first embarked on by our ancestors. Firstly, the kind of racist thugs who murdered Stephen have always been a feature of British life. The tradition, therefore, of confronting and facing down that fascism, in the street, whenever it manifests itself is vital. But the main lesson and warning we can take from the Stephen Lawrence case is about the racist, corrupt, and dire nature of UK policing.
The first investigation into Stephen’s murder failed with the police accused of ignoring vital evidence and racially profiling Stephen’s family and Stephen’s friend Duwayne Brooks who was also attacked but escaped. Some have also suggested that one of the killers, David Norris, benefited from his father Clifford Norris’ influence as a gangland leader, protecting his son by paying off corrupt investigators to botch the case. Matthew White was the sixth suspect in Stephen’s murder and came to the attention of police investigators in 1993, but the Met is accused of failing to investigate him. White never faced trial and died in 2021. The initial trial of five of the suspects saw each of them acquitted in an outcome which infuriated the public. A private prosecution launched by the Lawrence family also failed to jail the White supremacist killers. It was only in 2012, due to advancements in forensic technology, that two of Stephen’s killers, David Norris and Gary Dobson were eventually jailed after Stephen’s blood and fibers from his clothing irrefutably linked them to Stephen’s murder. This only happened because of the tireless campaigning by Stephen’s parents Doreen and Neville Lawrence and their legal team’s pursuit for justice.
It also only happened because a landmark report revealed the failings of the investigation and recommended that the double jeopardy law, preventing those acquitted from being re-tried a second time, be scrapped for serious crimes. But there was another key finding from the Macpherson report which we need to remind ourselves of today, more than ever. The report concluded that institutional racism within the police had played a serious role in the failure of the initial investigation to catch Stephen’s killers. The analysis was important because it vindicated what Black communities in the UK had always known and experienced. It’s since been dubbed as one of the most landmark moments in modern British criminal justice history and so-called race relations. The reality a quarter of a century on from the 1999 Macpherson report, however, is that nothing has changed.
“Stephen Lawrence was killed because he was Black and the system failed to secure accountability for him and his family because they are Black”
The same Metropolitan Police, which some might say was potentially complicit in allowing Stephen Lawrence’s killers to evade justice, remains rotten to the core. Just last year, the Casey Review reported once more, that the Metropolitan Police are institutionally racist. Furthermore, the Met is led by a Commissioner, Mark Rowley, who thinks it’s unhelpful to use the term institutional and is a strong proponent of the ‘few bad apples’ argument. We are going backward, not forward. This is deeply alarming, considering the fact that significantly more officers are on London’s streets than there were at the time of Stephen Lawrence’s death in 1993. The warning signs have long been available. Recently, the National Black Police Association (NBPA) president, Andy George, even stated that the Met should be broken up; Black people should not join; and that the force is beyond reform.
The only meaningful way to honor and remember Stephen Lawrence is to continue the radical rich Black tradition of organizing, resisting, and demanding an end to racist policing and policing without consent. The plain reality is, that the social and systemic conditions, which caused Stephen Lawrence’s murder to happen, and to remain unaccounted for within the law, remain as prevalent as ever. Neither political party is demonstrating signs of the political will to do anything about this. In fact, some might argue they are doing the precise opposite. Stephen Lawrence was killed because he was Black and the system failed to secure accountability for him and his family because they are Black. The only way to lift up Stephen’s name, 31 years after his death, is for all of us to continue challenging this unjust state of affairs by any means and for as long as necessary.
Rest in Power, Stephen Lawrence.