Baroness Doreen Lawrence: on struggle

Baroness Doreen Lawrence: “When do I get a break?”

Doreen Lawrence joins Shami Chakrabarti in the Speakeasy to talk about courage, exhaustion and the long shadow of injustice.

From the murder of her son Stephen to the Lawrence Inquiry’s landmark finding of institutional racism, Doreen reflects on three decades of struggle: what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how she keeps faith when progress feels painfully slow.

The pair discuss migration and empire, the meaning of equality in 2025, the burden of public expectation, and the discovering she was spied on by police during her family’s campaign for justice.

This is a conversation about persistence, humility and humanity with a woman who never asked to be a campaigner but has become one of Britain’s most powerful moral voices.

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Shami’s Speakeasy is a Bespoken Media Scotland production for Chaotic DoGooders.

Produced and edited by Ailish Hunter.

Artwork by Josh Moir.