Doreen Delceita Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, OBE (néeGraham; born 1952), is a British Jamaican campaigner and the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993. She promoted reforms of the police service and founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. Lawrence was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to community relations in 2003, and was created a life peer in 2013.[2]
On the first national Stephen Lawrence Day on 22 April 2019, she described how she had worked for 26 years hoping for "an inclusive society for everyone to live their best life, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, religion, disability or background".[3]
Early and personal life
Lawrence was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1952.[4][5] At the age of nine, she emigrated to the United Kingdom. She completed her education in south-east London, before becoming a bank worker. In 1972, she married Neville Lawrence. Together they had three children: Stephen (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993); Stuart, born in 1977; and Georgina, born in 1982.[6] The couple divorced in 1999.[7]
Following the murder of their son Stephen in 1993, Doreen and Neville Lawrence claimed that the Metropolitan Police investigation was not being conducted in a professional manner, citing incompetence and racism as prime flaws.[8] In 1994 the Lawrences initiated a private prosecution of five of the suspects, but the evidence was insufficient, resulting in their acquittal, and no prospect of subsequent conviction due to the double jeopardy law. In 1999, after years of campaigning, and with the support of many in the community, the media[9] and politics, a wide-ranging judicial inquiry was established by Jack Straw, the Home Secretary. Chaired by Sir William MacPherson, the inquiry was to investigate the circumstances of Stephen Lawrence's death. The public inquiry was the subject of intense media interest which became international when it concluded that the Metropolitan Police was "institutionally racist."[10] The report also recommended changes in the double jeopardy law, which were passed in 2003 and came into effect in 2005. In 2010, after a review of the forensic and other evidence started in 2006, two of the murderers were re-arrested and tried and found guilty in 2011-12.
Public life
In the aftermath of the inquiry, Lawrence continued to campaign for justice for her son as well as for other victims of racist crime. She has worked to secure further reforms of the police service. In 2003, she was appointed OBE[11][12] for services to community relations.
She founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust[13] to promote a positive community legacy in her son's name. Lawrence has been selected to sit on panels within the Home Office[14] and the police, and she is a member of both the board and the council of Liberty,[15] the human rights organisation, as well as being a patron of hate crime charity Stop Hate UK.[16]
In April 2020, she was appointed as race relations advisor to the Labour Party.[19]
Controversy
In October 2019, Lawrence attracted criticism for her on-camera remarks concerning the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy made during an interview with Channel 4 News.[20][21][22][23] She was quoted as saying: "Had that been a block full of white people in there, they would have done everything to get them out as fast as possible and make sure that they do what they needed to do."[24] A public petition was raised demanding an apology.[24][25] She later apologised for her remarks.[24][26]
In April 2014, she was named as Britain's most influential woman in the BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Power List 2014.[5]
In May 2014, Lawrence was awarded the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award under the Social Driver category for her extensive work with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.[28]
Lawrence was elevated to the peerage as a life peer on 6 September 2013, as Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, of Clarendon in the Commonwealth Realm of Jamaica;[29] the honour is rare for being designated after a location in a Commonwealth realm outside the United Kingdom.[30] She sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords as a working peer.[31]
Chris Ofili's 1998 painting No Woman No Cry is a portrait of Doreen Lawrence crying; in each tear is an image of her son Stephen. It was part of Ofili's Turner Prize exhibition, and now hangs in the Tate Gallery.[34]
