More than 30,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square on Monday evening to pay tribute to Professor Jason Arday, the former Cambridge academic who was found dead in Battersea on Friday. Organised by campaign group Stand Up to Racism, the vigil heard from speakers including MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler, crossbench peer Lord Simon Woolley, and Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project.
Lord Woolley's tribute and 'public execution' claim
Lord Woolley, a friend and peer, described the press coverage of Prof Arday as a “public execution” and a “lynching”, drawing cheers from the crowd. He revealed that during a meal just days before his death, Prof Arday told him, “they’re hounding me to death”, adding that he “couldn’t see a way out”.
Lord Woolley said: “We held him in our arms. We told him he was loved. He held Diane’s (Abbott) hands, and he said, ‘I love you, but’, he said, ‘they’re hounding me to death, and I cannot see a way out’.” He also said: “This wonderful man. Never stole a bag of crisps. He was exonerated from plagiarism. But the dogs of hell, the hounds of hell, sought to pursue any inaccuracy that they could say Jason is a bad man, Jason doesn’t deserve to be in Cambridge. For them, Jason doesn’t deserve to be alive. There needs to be some reckoning. There needs to be some justice.”
Diane Abbott's speech and media campaign
Ms Abbott said Prof Arday was the subject of a “vicious” and “bitter” campaign by people who did not believe a black man should be a Cambridge professor. She said: “He must have felt that if he resigned, the attacks on him would stop, but in fact they got even worse. From his resignation to his suicide last week was just three weeks, but the newspapers printed 249 articles about him. This was a vicious campaign, but it wasn’t just a campaign against the professor; it was a campaign against all of us, and that’s why it is so important to come together and fight for justice for Professor Jason Arday.”
One attendee held a cardboard sign reading “249 articles in 22 days”, believed to reference analysis by NewsCord, an AI-based media analysis company. More than 90,000 people, including Ms Abbott, Green Party leader Zack Polanski, and presenter Jameela Jamil, have signed a Good Law Project petition seeking an inquiry into coverage of Prof Arday, which says his death followed “two weeks of relentless harassment”.
Family statement and public response
Sir Patrick Vernon, who led the campaign for a national Windrush Day, set up a GoFundMe page that has collected more than £170,000 in donations. The crowd, dressed mostly in black, held flowers and signs reading “Rest in power Jason Arday”, with calls for “justice” ringing out. A large sign reading “Racism in the mainstream media is responsible for Jason Arday’s death” moved through the masses. Performances came from singers Beverley Knight and Jermaine Jackman.
The vigil concluded with a statement from Prof Arday’s family, read by MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy: “This has been an incredibly painful time for our family, and we are still coming to terms with the tragic loss of our beloved Jason. What has become clear over the past 72 hours is the profound impact he had on people. We are grateful to all who have created light in this dark time through kindness, generosity and solidarity. Your presence here to remember him this evening means a lot to us, and while we cannot be there in person, please know that we stand with you in spirit. The public cruelty Jason was subjected to was too much for any man to bear. The outpouring of love, support and grief since his death mean so much to us. Although it is bittersweet, now kindness is needed in life, not just in death. We’ll never know what might have been different had he experienced more of it while he was still here.”
Flowers were laid at the foot of Nelson’s Column as attendees left the square. Prof Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, resigned from his post as professor of sociology of education last week after allegations of plagiarism were made against him. He was 41 years old.
