"The racism of adolescents was a world of its own, policed from within through criticism of anyone who flirted with inter-racial friendships, and of those `wiggers' - `white niggers' who came near to embracing black youth culture . . ."
"Many white children encountered black people of their own age only when they reached secondary school at the age of eleven or twelve . . ."
"Eltham was predominantly white, but it bordered, to the west, on the more racially mixed areas of inner London and, to the east, on the middle-class white suburbia of Kent. A youth in Eltham could see himself or herself holding a line: they shall not pass . . ."
Stephen Lawrence, aged 18, was murdered in Eltham on April 22nd, 1993. None of the five white racists accused has ever been convicted.
The Metropolitan Police, accused of neglect, incompetence and worse, has seen its reputation dragged through the mire.
Now, almost six years on, a British people uniquely united in sympathy for a black family, expect. And there is little doubt that when Sir William Macpherson delivers his report at the end of this month, it will provide a defining moment for British policing and for British justice.
The words above, from The case of Stephen Lawrence, by Brian Cathcart, appear in the programme for The Colour of Justice - a dramatisation of the Macpherson inquiry set to move from the Tricycle to the Theatre Royal, Stratford, next week, before a short run in London's Victoria Palace.
The Victoria Palace, with a capacity of some 1,600, is currently host to Annie. Before that, the musical Buddy played to packed houses for the best part of nine years.
Richard Norton-Taylor's Colour of Justice is set for an initial run of 10 days, and it will be fascinating to see how it tours after that.
For this obviously is not tragi-musical. The set is unchanging. There is precious little movement, presenting a challenge one imagines even to a quality acting team.
The drama is in the words, and key exchanges - distilled by Richard Norton-Taylor from 11,000 pages of inquiry transcripts to about 100 - selected to reflect "the interlocking threads which ran throughout the inquiry - police incompetence, conscious or unconscious racism and stereotyping, and the hint of corruption in the background."
The exchanges between Jeremy Clyde's Michael Mansfield QC, the other lawyers and a succession of police officers are compelling, haunting, challenging - relieved occasionally by an audience laugh of recognition of the stereotyping of the kind so easily recognised yet still so casually invoked.
But there is no laughter when the tensions between the Lawrence family and the police are laid bare, as Det Chief Supt William Illsley tries to explain how he folded up - rather than, as Mrs Lawrence alleged, screwed up - the piece of paper she handed him at an early stage containing the names of the suspects.
No laughter when Edmund Lawson QC questions Linda Bethel, one of the first police officers to attend the murder scene, about the failure to locate the source of Stephen's bleeding or to administer first aid pending the arrival of an ambulance.
Or when he puts to her: "The suggestion has been made publicly that perhaps an explanation . . . was `police officers not wishing to dirty their hands with a black man's blood'."
Only pure horror as Michael Mansfield questions Jamie Acourt who, in common with the other suspects, was told the High Court had ruled he could not be prosecuted for anything he admitted or said to the inquiry, although he could be prosecuted for perjury.
Acourt had seen a police surveillance video featuring a number of the other suspects but could not remember it was peppered with racial comments. The topic under discussion was football.
Mansfield presses one particular passage: "Luke Knight complaining about the commentators wanting the Cameroons, `f...ing niggers', to win. Your brother says, `Makes you sick, doesn't it?' Neil Acourt says, while picking up a knife from a window ledge in the room and sticking it into the arms of a chair, `You rubber-lipped c..t. I reckon that every nigger should be chopped up, mate, and they should be left with nothing but f...ing stumps.' Now Jamie, have you forgotten that?"
Acourt replies: "Yes, I have, yeah."
Mansfield: "Right. Shocked are you? An honest reply, please."
Acourt: "I ain't shocked. It is nothing to do with me. I ain't shocked."
And only silence for Doreen Lawrence's statement on the last day: "The inquiry into my son's murder has shown the public at large how black people have been and still are being treated by those who say they treat everyone alike. If black people were treated the same, my son's killers would be behind bars."