[5] He continually challenged the prejudices of the judge, as well as the prosecution and their witnesses, and what amounted to institutional racism in the justice system was given judicial recognition for the first time, including acknowledgement of behaviour (the repeated raids) motivated by racial hatred, rather than legitimate crime control, within the Metropolitan Police.
[5][6][7] He later wrote in Race Today: "The Mangrove Nine trial was a watershed because we learnt through experience how to confront the power of the court, because the defendants refused to play the role of 'victim' and rely on the so called 'expertise' of the lawyer.
[1] In another landmark case, that in 1981 of the "Bradford 12" – a group of Asian youths charged with manufacturing home-made milk-bottle petrol bombs when faced with attacks by racists from the National Front – Macdonald successfully argued for their acquittal by the jury on the grounds of a community's right to act in collective self-defence.
[11][12] The Institute of Race Relations noted: "Ian's concern for justice led him to activism in the anti-apartheid movement as well as close collaboration with Black feminists and educationalists, and with trades unionists in defence of workers' rights.
'"[13] Hailsham ceased to be Lord Chancellor in 1987, having held the post longer than anyone else in the 20th century,[14] and in 1988 Macdonald finally became a QC, "his appointment to silk after 25 years being well overdue", according to Geoffrey Robertson.