On 7 June 2020, the statue of the former slave trader Edward Colston was toppled in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest – an act that, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by police in Minnesota, US, reverberated around the country. Eighteen months later, Tom Lamont spent a month at the trial of the four protesters charged with its fall. As he writes, the UK government and others “viewed the toppling as guerrilla work, not just illegal but selfish and dangerous”. Others saw it as an overdue correction to a historical wrong. 

In this definitive inside account, Lamont explores the human drama of a landmark trial, and the knotty questions the case raised about racism, justice, protest and history. 

Written by Tom Lamont and read by Chris Stone.

Read the text version here. It was first published on the New Statesman website on 2 April 2022, and in the magazine on 8 April 2022.

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