Doreen D. Lawrence, née Graham born 24 October 1952 is a British campaigner and writer
who first came to public attention in 1993 as the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager who was murdered in what appeared to be a racial attack in South East London.
Lawrence was born in the Britain crown colony of Jamaica in 1952.
At the age of nine, she emigrated to England. She completed her
education in south-east London, before becoming a bank worker. In 1972,
she married Neville Lawrence; their son Stephen was born in 1974. They
divorced in 1999.
Following the murder of their son in 1993, Doreen and Neville Lawrence believed that the Metropolitan Police investigation was not being conducted in a professional manner, citing incompetence and racism as prime flaws.
In 1999, after years of campaigning, and with the support of many in the community, the media
[ 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'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"
and that this was one of the primary causes of their failure to solve the case.
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 awarded an
for services to community relations.
She founded the
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to promote a positive community legacy in her son's name. Lawrence has been selected to sit on panels within the Home Office
and the Police Service, and she is a member of both the board and the council of
the human rights organisation, as well as being a patron of hate crime charity Stop Hate UK.
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