THE terrifying spectre of race hate reared its ugly head outside a public inquiry held in the heart of London this week.

For centuries this country has been rightly proud of its reputation as a bastion of democracy and tolerance.

But those values were sadly missing when two cultures of hate and ignorance crashed into each other in full view of a grieving families still waiting for justice and the answers to scores of questions surrounding their son's death.

Britain has long had the misguided habit of adopting the latest trends and fads to come from across the Atlantic.

We have been forced to watch America's bitter and ultimately pointless race war run its course for the last 150 years.

The savage and abhorrent killing of James Byrd in Texas, not a place known as a Liberal stronghold, should have brought a pause for reflection in the blighted South of the United States.

Instead it has led to an increasingly bitter stand-off between the divided communities of whites and blacks. The Ku Klux Klan's insensitive decision to stage a rally outside the court where those accused of Mr Byrd's murder will stand trial has turned the town of Jasper into a battleground.

Heavily-armed Black Muslims and members of the New Black Panther Party have flooded the town and surely it is a matter of time before tragedy strikes. The small town killing carries disturbing echoes of the brutal slaying of Stephen Lawrence in south London and the subsequent search for the truth. Five young men swaggered into the hearing surrounded by a baying mob of 300, egged on by the antics of the intimidating Nation of Islam activists.

The inquiry heard evidence that the men accused of Stephen Lawrence's murder were well-known racists and troublemakers. Instead of shaming the accused the angry mob seemed to fill the five men with even more arrogance and loathing for their accusers.

Perhaps we have become too complacent and the events following Stephen Lawrence's murder have come as a timely reminder to us all.

This sad tale of a brutal killing and botched investigation has dragged on for five years and still manages to make the front pages of our national papers.

But maybe this saga, where all the main characters - with the exception of the Lawrence family - seem to be completely without conscience and morals could turn out to be an important and lasting morality tale.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.