Doreen Delceita Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, OBE 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.
17 Facts About Doreen Lawrence
2.
Doreen Lawrence promoted reforms of the police service and founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.
3.
Doreen Lawrence was appointed to the Order of the British Empire for services to community relations in 2003, and was created a Life Peer in 2013.
4.
Doreen Lawrence completed her education in south-east London, before becoming a bank worker.
5.
Doreen Lawrence has worked to secure further reforms of the police service.
6.
Doreen Lawrence founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to promote a positive community legacy in her son's name.
7.
Doreen Lawrence has been selected to sit on panels within the Home Office and the police, and she is a member of both the board and the council of Liberty, the human rights organisation, as well as being a patron of hate crime charity Stop Hate UK.
8.
In October 2019, Doreen Lawrence attracted criticism for her on-camera remarks concerning the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy made during an interview with Channel 4 News.
9.
On 27 July 2012, Doreen Lawrence took part in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, holding the Olympic flag with seven others.
10.
In May 2014, Doreen Lawrence was awarded the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award under the Social Driver category for her extensive work with the Stephen Doreen Lawrence Charitable Trust.
11.
Doreen Lawrence was elevated to the peerage as a life peer on 6 September 2013, as Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon, of Clarendon in the Commonwealth Realm of Jamaica; the honour is rare for being designated after a location in a Commonwealth realm outside the United Kingdom.
12.
Doreen Lawrence sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords as a working peer.
13.
Doreen Lawrence has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Cambridge, the Open University and the University of West London.
14.
Doreen Lawrence served as Chancellor of De Montfort University, Leicester from 2016 to 2020.
15.
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.
16.
In 2000, Doreen Lawrence was featured in a double portrait exhibited at the Stephen Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich, London.
17.
Doreen Lawrence was the guest subject on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 10 June 2012.