7 lessons for the Church on the 30th anniversary of the Stephen Lawrence murder

As Britain marks the 30th anniversary of the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence, Richard Reddie highlights seven key points in continuing the fight for racial justice in our Church and in society

Stephen Lawrence was studying for his A Levels when he attacked and killed by five white assailants in Eltham, southeast London, on 22 April 1993. The Metropolitan Police’s subsequent investigation into catching his killers has become notorious for its incompetence, and led to the damning McPherson Report in 1999 which condemned the Met as “institutionally racist”.

That tragedy also led to the government passing the Race Relations (Amendment) Act (2000). Equally, it witnessed the Lawrence family’s prolonged justice campaign that eventually saw a change in British law regarding the rule on double jeopardy. Stephen’s death has since become a watershed moment for race relations in this country, and is often regarded as the barometer by which we judge matters of racial equity.