Britain has further to go to tackle racism but the Stephen Lawrence murder sparked a "sea change" in attitudes, former home secretary Jack Straw said today.
Straw, who ordered the Macpherson Inquiry into the case in 1997, said progress had been made in the years since the murder.
But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have still got a lot further to go because if you are black or Asian and you are young, your sense of how you are treated is very different and more adverse and is very different from anybody else.
"I think we've probably got most of the legislation we need in place. It's about ensuring people are less tolerant of racism, whether it's explicit - of which I think there is much less these days - or just implicit, lazy, uncaring, intruding remarks made in the heat of the moment, on the football field and so on.
"I think everybody accepts that the terrible murder of Stephen Lawrence and, yes, the inquiry I established, have produced a sea change in British society."
Straw said he was "delighted" to have played his part but paid tribute to the perseverance of the Lawrence family in their fight for justice.