30 years on from Stephen Lawrence, Black Christians are still living with trauma

I was nine years old when Stephen Lawrence was murdered, 30 years ago this April. It was the early 90s, and far-right extremist groups were making a resurgence in many parts of south-east London, including Eltham, where I lived, and where Stephen was killed.

As a West African immigrant family, it was a pretty scary place to be. We lived in fear of skinheads and racist thugs. We learned how to look straight ahead if we were in the proximity of people who looked like they might be National Front or BNP members, so we didn’t draw attention to ourselves.