For six years, Neville Lawrence has had to live with the knowledge he will never see his beloved 18-year-old son again.

But if there is one positive thing he hopes will come out of Stephen's tragic loss it is a radical new awareness of the perils of being young and black. And he is determined that, one day, his crusade to bring his son's killers to justice will have helped eradicate the evil of racism for good.

As he took the stand at Varndean College in Brighton yesterday, brandishing a copy of the Macpherson Report in his right hand, it was clear Mr Lawrence meant business.

Without leaving his seat, he announced triumphantly: "This is the result of over six years of hard struggle. For four of them we didn't even really know what had happened to my son."

In an emotional address, Mr Lawrence swept through a range of concerns about the handling of the murder investigation and the findings of the Government's subsequent inquiry. Casting his eyes around the packed college hall, he seemed to be speaking directly to every one of the assembled students.

Ominously, he began: "Some of you in the audience are about the same age as my son when he was killed. I don't want to go into all the details of that itself now because I'm sure you wouldn't want to see me cry."

What you saw was what you got: a proud, bereaved father with a heartfelt desire to give the most painful memory of his life some meaning for other people.

He said: "I have been living in this country for 39 years and I came from a country where colour doesn't matter.

"If any of you ever go to Jamaica, you will understand what I mean. Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Syrians, blacks, we all live there together and it doesn't make any difference. We call each other names but that doesn't mean anything. Here it does. It took me a long time to realise that."

As his talk unfolded, Mr Lawrence illustrated his belief in endemic police racism with an anecdote about his own personal experiences.

He said: "I was stopped when a crime was going on. Then a police officer came over and saw it was me. He almost fainted when he realised.

"Eventually, he said, 'sir, one of your lights isn't working properly'."

Chuckling briefly at the absurdity of this treatment, Mr Lawrence swiftly became serious again. Suddenly, the issue of Stephen's murder, a crime he clearly sees as being of universal significance, was couched in the most personal terms.

He said: "It makes me feel sad to know that my family have to expose ourselves to get to the truth. But I hope by me being here it will make a difference for other black people in later years."

In a question and answer session, Mr Lawrence reiterated this mission statement.

He was scathing about the lack of media attention his son's death drew until months later, when the Press picked up on his meeting with South African President Nelson Mandela.

But when asked if he thought Stephen's killers would ever be convicted, he conceded he would be "happy" if they received 15-year sentences for purgery.

After receiving a standing ovation from his 300-plus listeners, a reinvigorated Mr Lawrence explained to the Argus the reasons for his visit.

He said: "I do race awareness evenings for children who are brought down to London every so often, so the idea of touring came out of that a couple of years ago.

"I want the people I meet to go out and spread the word about tolerating other people. Here in school they are living together but what's important is that they should carry on like that in the world outside."

When asked about recent reported assaults on black people in Sussex, Mr Lawrence expressed his fears of a continued "backlash" from white supremacists angry at the attention given to Stephen.

And he repeated his willingness to sacrifice his own privacy for the greater good of ending racist crimes.

He said: "If people have to use my son's name to get any attention in the media, and that's done fairly, I don't mind at all.

"I'll carry on touring as long as I have to to get the message across. There's no time limit."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.