Stephen Lawrence was a black British

Black British

Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...

 teenager from Eltham, southeast London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, who was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993.

After the initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but never convicted. It was suggested during the course of investigation that the murder had a racist

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 motive and that Lawrence was killed because he was black, and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service

Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...

 was affected by issues of race, leading to an inquiry.

In 1999, an inquiry headed by Sir William Macpherson examined the original Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

 investigation and concluded that the force was "institutionally racist

Institutional racism

Institutional racism describes any kind of system of inequality based on race. It can occur in institutions such as public government bodies, private business corporations , and universities . The term was coined by Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s...

".