wadsworth and the ara played a considerable role in the campaign for justice in the wake of the murder of stephen lawrence, a black teenager. it organised a peaceful anti-racist demonstration of 3,500 people in central london on 16 october 1993, the same day the anl organised a rival, larger and more militant demonstration in welling, near to the scene of the murder. the rivalry between anti-racist organisations soon alienated the lawrence family: doreen lawrence later wrote that "the various groups that had taken an interest in stephen's death were tearing each other apart and were in danger of destroying our campaign, which we wanted to keep focused and dignified". doreen and neville lawrence wrote to both the anl and the ara to demand that they "stop using stephen's name".