Hoping for a more positive future and equal society for all

This happened on the streets of South East London only a mile away from where I was living at the time. Stephen and his family were members of the Methodist Church in Plumstead, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, where I and my family attended for 40 years before moving to Shropshire.

Their son’s murder changed so many people’s lives and views and made us much more aware of what was happening on our streets. It was a meeting between Neville and Doreen with Nelson Mandela after the murder that made our parliament sit up and listen to the views of the black community.

Out of all the national papers it was the Daily Mail who took on a leading role in the campaign for justice. I know by doing this they drew in a wider support group including no doubt from many parts of the country. The family at that time were badly let down by the police who failed to take the death of a young black man seriously.

Some of the changes made due to the Lawrence’s fight for justice are:

• It is now possible with new evidence to have a retrial this is called double jeopardy.

• The report that came out as a result of the failed first trial clearly stated institutional racialism is very much alive in most of our institutions i.e. churches, police, education, local authorities.

• Hate crime is now clearly seen as an important part of our British law system.

I will be attending an event in the next two weeks at St Martins in the Fields in London to mark 25 years since Stephen was so brutally murdered and to look forward to a more positive future and a more equal society for all.

John Goodwin, Shrewsbury