Narayan was a founder of the Afro-Asian and Caribbean Lawyers Association with
Sibghat Kadri in 1969. This organisation was later renamed the
Society of Black Lawyers. He set up the first voluntary legal advice centre in Brixton that led to the founding of the Lambeth Law Centre, was a part of the West Indian Standing Conference, and formed the South London West Indian Association. He was involved in establishing legal advice centres in
Birmingham,
Bristol,
Cardiff, London, and
Manchester. After condemning solicitors, barristers, and judges in Birmingham as racist, he faced his first disciplinary hearing in 1974, accused of bringing the administration of justice into disrepute. He was reprimanded in 1980 for being discourteous to a judge, and then acquitted of
professional misconduct in 1982, after claiming in a press statement that the
Attorney General and the
Director of Public Prosecutions were in "collusion with the
National Front and fanning the flames of
racial hatred" (although he was suspended for six weeks for other infractions). Nevertheless, complaints like his did lead to the creation of the Bar Council's race relations committee in 1984, and to an amendment to the
Race Relations Act to prohibit race discrimination in the legal profession. Narayan was elected as a
Labour Party councillor to
Lambeth London Borough Council in 1974, on which he served one term. He was selected as the Labour candidate for
Birmingham Handsworth, but his selection was overturned when it was alleged that he made
antisemitic remarks in one of his books. The selection was re-run, and
Clare Short was selected in his place and won the successor seat of
Birmingham Ladywood at the
1983 general election. He was expelled from his chambers in 1984 after allegedly assaulting Sibghat Kadri, by then his head of chambers, at a conference. Narayan tried to requalify as a solicitor but failed the
Law Society exams. He returned to the Bar, but was disciplined for overbooking himself by accepting briefs for trials that were to run simultaneously, and was suspended for two years. He stood as a parliamentary candidate at the
1989 Vauxhall by-election, protesting that a white
Labour Party candidate was standing in a largely black constituency, but he attracted only 177 votes and Labour's
Kate Hoey was elected. In 1991 he went back to Guyana, where he had hoped to set up a legal aid centre, but returned to Britain in 1994. After further disciplinary hearings, he was disbarred in 1994 for professional misconduct. He was accused of inciting violence after speaking outside
Brixton police station in 1995, following the death of
Wayne Douglas, a 25-year-old black man, in police custody (later shown to have died due to positional asphyxiation ). Narayan was a guest speaker at the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the
NAACP's Legal Defence Fund in the U.S. The former U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder paid tribute to Narayan at a conference organised by the Society of Black Lawyers in 1999 in
London. The BBC programme
Black Britain aired after his death in 1998 noted that Rudy Narayan was known for his internationalism and distinctive oratorical style. It described Rudy Narayan as one of the most charismatic and controversial figures in both Britain's black communities and its legal history. He published several works on legal themes:
Black Community on Trial (1976),
Black England (1977),
Barrister for the Defence (1985), and
When Judges Conspire (1989). He was the first chairman of Lambeth Law Centre. He also co-wrote an eight-part drama series,
Black Silk, that was loosely based on his life in which he was played by
Rudolph Walker. It was broadcast in 1985 on BBC television. ==Death and legacy==