Anna Boyne
On the 22nd April 1993, 150 miles away from the University of Nottingham, Stephen Lawrence was killed in a racially motivated attack.
The murder of a black person was tragically not unusual in 90s Britain. Between 1991 and 2002, the Institute of Race Relations documented 50 racially motivated killings. This is most likely an underestimation.
What was unusual, however, was the way Stephen Lawrence’s murder became a watershed moment in Britain’s history of race relations.
Impact reported hyper local events on campus as well as provided a student perspective on national stories. So why did it take 5 years for them to comment?
Sociologist Simon Cottle analysed the ‘mediatisation’ of Stephen Lawrence through Victor Turner’s four stages of social drama: breach, mounting crisis, redress, and reintegration. This helps explain how and why Impact reported such a significant event.
Breach
On the night of his murder, Stephen had been waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, South London with his friend. Totally unprovoked, the 18-year-old schoolboy was surrounded and attacked by a mob of white boys shouting racist slurs. An ambulance arrived but Stephen was pronounced dead before he could receive treatment at hospital.
That wasn’t the breach.
Most national news outlets were relatively uninterested in the story. It was relegated to less important sections of the paper. Some reported on Stephen’s purity (he came from a religious family and did well at school). Other reported through the lens of a potential violent backlash.
10 days later, Stephen’s parents Doreen and Neville accused the police of mishandling the case. Even a visit from Nelson Mandela did little to garner significant media attention. Most people were unaware- least of all the University of Nottingham’s student newspaper.
In July 1993, that changed. The CPS decided not to prosecute the prime suspects, despite blatant evidence of their guilt.
Mounting crisis
Over the course of 5 years, the Stephen Lawrence case drew unprecedented attention across the nation.
He became “a universalising symbol of racial injustice within white British society.” Simon Cottel (2005)
The image of a good, assimilable immigrant family did much to help draw sympathy.
The Lawrences faced significant challenges throughout legal proceedings. In April 1996, the private prosecution collapsed as evidence had been ruled inadmissible. At the Coroner’s inquest, the 5 suspected murderers refused to answer questions, sparking widespread outrage.
One of the most iconic headlines from this period was published by the Daily Mail on 14th February 1997. It read “MURDERERS: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us.”
Thanks to this moment, the conservative tabloid has claimed responsibility for ensuring justice for Stephen Lawrence. Without their campaigning and bravery risking prison, the police never would have undergone necessary reform and Stephen’s killers would not have later been convicted.
Sound a little off brand for the Mail? Well, it didn’t happen entirely like that.
Historian Brian Cathcart argues there was never a real risk the accused MURDERERS would accept their challenge to sue. This would risk incriminating themselves of a crime they’d so successfully gotten away with.
It’s also likely the Macpherson Inquiry into police handling of Stephen’s case would have happened with or without the Daily Mail’s front page, as public sentiment was already so strong.
Most crucially, Cathcart suggests, what outraged the Daily Mail was not an unprovoked racially motivated murder. Rather, they were most concerned with the thwarting of a justice system.
The Macpherson Inquiry, which the Mail later claimed so much responsibility for bringing about, found evidence of serious failings. Yet the Daily Mail’s reporting lamented findings of ‘institutional racism’ in the police force.
“An irony in the Mail’s insistence that it helped improve race relations is that, at the time, it flatly refused to accept that race had any part in the story except as a motive for the killers.” Brian Cathcart (2017).
Redress
Impact first reported the Stephen Lawrence murder in May 1998. A piece entitled ‘Black and Blue’ provided commentary on the events dating back five years. Published during the Macpherson Inquiry of July 1997- February 1999, it’s a clear example of what Victor Turner describes as society “at its most self-conscious.”
Impact no. 110 May 1998: Black and Blue
The writer Aziz Durrani comments on other racist murders prior to Stephen’s which had flown under the radar, as well as the inquiry’s findings of serious police failings and institutional racism:
“Police have told the inquiry that they were not at fault and that they were not racist. Yet they have no other credible explanation as to why Stephen’s killers were allowed to get away with murder. In fact the inquiry has revealed that the police are indeed riddled with racism, not only at an individual level but also institutional level.”
‘Black and Blue’ was also published in the same month as the fiftieth anniversary of Windrush. This was thanks in large part to a documentary produced by Mike and Trevor Phillips who helped create the Windrush myth (for more information read the first article in this series).
Yet one of the problems with Windrush, is its tendency to brush over British racism. The myth paints a picture of easy transition into a multicultural society, and of black migrants warmly welcomed.
The Stephen Lawrence case, as discussed by Impact’s ‘Black and Blue’ article was a stark reminder to the contrary.
Reintegration
The murder became a “litmus test of the extent to which British society was prepared to move beyond the anachronistic practices of the past, acknowledge institutional racism, and embrace cultural diversity.” Simon Cottle (2005)
At this stage in the mediatised ‘social drama’, British society began implementing changes and coming to terms with its new reality. From February 1999, the Labour government started turning Macpherson’s 70 recommendations into legislation and policy.
Impact no. 122
Testament to Cottle’s theory that Stephen Lawrence became a symbol of British race relations is his appearance in a completely unrelated Impact article. In an interview with rock band Skunk Anansie, the writer comments that ‘talk has ranged from Stephen Lawrence to Skin’s inability to ever become a stalker.’
Impact also interviewed director Nick Kent of ‘The Colour of Justice’– a fair presenting the events of the Macpherson Inquiry that appeared in Nottingham from between September and October of 1999.
Impact writes: “Everyone has heard of the Lawrence case- it grew from a small campaign to a cause celebre, eventually becoming ‘the yardstick for measuring racism in modern Britain’ (The Guardian).”
“And yet very few people actually know the details- from the police failure to give first aid to Stephen at the scene, to their assumption that he and his friend Duwayne Brooks were in a gang.”
Impact no. 123
Interviewee Nick adds: “This play is theatre as an image of society confronting itself- the auditorium becomes a public gallery of the inquiry as the police witness damn themselves, explain, argue, fight back, admit mistakes and apologise, all in their own words.”
A couple of magazine editions later, Impact’s Lucy Pickering reviewed the play. She said: “The Colour of Justice proves that institutionalised racism is far more dangerous than open thuggery.”
“This was the first occasion when the white majority in this country came to understand and identify with the grief and anger of a black British family. They saw past black faces and recognised human suffering.” Brian Cathcart (2017)
Revivification
Sociologist Simon Cottle suggests a fifth phase to the four-part social drama: revivification. Essentially, the Stephen Lawrence case continues to resurface at other critical moments years later.
This included the desecration of Stephen’s memorial stone, a series of bombings wrongfully deemed racially motivated, and Tory politician William Hague facing huge backlash when he suggested the Macpherson report had damaged policing.
In January 2012, Gary Dobson and David Norris were finally convicted for Stephen’s murder. A 2005 change in the law made it possible to retrial previously acquitted suspects. Scientific developments also meant forensic scientists uncovered crucial evidence by re-testing clothing held by investigators since 1993.
Interestingly, there’s no evidence Impact commented on the eventual convictions of Dobson and Norris. During this period, there are a few missing magazine editions which may explain this absence.
In June 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Impact referenced Stephen Lawrence: “The 1999 Macpherson report, released in response to the racially motivated murder of black British teenager Stephen Lawrence, advised for a national curriculum to reflect the diverse population. It found that the current national curriculum excludes Black histories throughout, and omits the vast contributions Black people have made to the UK.”
The article is also one of the earliest mentions of Windrush: “The recent Windrush scandal involving around 50,000 long-term UK residents further highlighted the mistreatment of Black citizens. We must therefore recognise the need to be actively anti-racist and promote change within the UK.”
At Impact, the Windrush myth doesn’t seem to take root until after the 2018 scandal. But at a moment of ‘social drama’, the murder of (another) black man George Floyd, the legacy of Stephen Lawrence persists. He has become a key part of the Windrush story- one the diverges from the happy-go-lucky tale told in 1998. Windrush comes to signify a country still at odds with its multiculturalism 70 years later.
Anna Boyne
This article is part of a series examining how UoN print media fit or contradicted the Windrush narrative. To read the other articles, please click the tag ‘Windrush Project’ below.
Best efforts have been made to contact the original authors who retain copyright. If they come forward and would like articles to be removed, then they will be taken down.
Other articles in the series…
- How Impact Told the Windrush Story
- British Segregation: The Colour Bar
- Out, Out, Disembowel Enoch Powell!
- Roots in Boots, Blaxploitation and the Marcus Garvey
Bibliography
Primary sources
Impact no. 110 May 1998: Black and Blue.
Impact no. 119: Skunk Anansie.
Impact no. 122: Rough justice.
Impact no. 123: The Colour of Justice.
Impact 3 June 2020: Change Must Begin With the National Curriculum
Secondary sources
Cathcart, B., ‘The Daily Mail and the Stephen Lawrence Murder,’ The Political Quarterly 88/4 (2017), pp. 640-651.
Cottle, S., ‘Mediatized Public Crisis and Civil Society Renewal: The Racist Murder of Stephen Lawrence’ Crime, Media, Culture 1/1 (2005), pp. 49-71.
De Montfort University: Stephen Lawrence: A legacy of hope: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/stephen-lawrence-research-centre/timeline.aspx (accessed 27/04/25).
