Bryan A. Stevenson, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children.
| Born |
Bryan A. Stevenson November 14, 1959 Milton, Delaware, United States |
|---|---|
| Residence | Montgomery, Alabama, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Eastern University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) Harvard Kennedy School (M.P.P.) |
| Occupation | Director of Equal Justice Initiative Professor at New York University School of Law |
| Known for | Founding Equal Justice Initiative |
|
Notable work |
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption |
| Parents |
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| Website | bryanstevenson.com |
Bryan Stevenson Bryan A. Stevenson, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children.
In November 2018, Stevenson received the Benjamin Franklin Award from the American Philosophical Society as a "Drum major for justice and mercy." This is the most prestigious award the society gives for distinguished public service.
Video: Just Mercy - Race and the Criminal Justice System with Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson, acclaimed public interest lawyer and founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, delivered the 2016 Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Speaker Lecture on race and the criminal justice system. A roundtable conversation featuring Jennifer Eberhardt, Gary Segura, Robert Weisberg, JD ’79, Bryan Stevenson, and Katie Couric follows Bryan Stevenson's keynote address.
OpenXChange is a year-long, student-focused initiative on campus that aims to encourage meaningful dialogue around tough issues. This is the first in a series of discussions with Stanford faculty and global experts on criminal justice, inequality and international conflict.
He helped achieve United States Supreme Court decisions that prohibit sentencing children under 18 to death or to life imprisonment without parole. Stevenson has assisted in cases that have saved dozens of prisoners from the death penalty, advocated for poor people, and developed community-based reform litigation aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice.
He initiated the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, which honors the names of each of the over 4,000 African Americans lynched in the twelve states of the South from 1877 to 1950. He argues that the history of slavery and lynchings has influenced the subsequent high rate of death sentences in the South, where it has been disproportionately applied to minorities. A related museum, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, offers interpretations to show the connection between the post-Reconstruction period of lynchings to the high rate of executions and incarceration of people of color in the United States.
Historical Markers
April 29, 2019
EJI celebrated 30 years of work challenging inequality and injustice.
“We cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted during the era of racial terrorism until we tell the truth about it.”
- Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
From Enslavement to Segregation and Mass Incarceration - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Report Just Mercy Discussion Guide - The Potential for Mercy and Justice - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Guide The Legacy Museum
The Legacy Museum, in Montgomery, Alabama, and the nearby National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opened on April 26, 2018. The topic of the museum is the post-slavery treatment of African Americans by whites. Rather than ending, according to Equal Justice Initiative's head Bryan Stevenson, slavery "evolved": sharecropping, Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration, convict leasing, and lynching. The museum reflects "Stevenson's view that, unlike in South Africa or post-Nazi Germany or many other societies traumatized by history, we’ve hardly begun to grapple with ours — and so cannot yet get beyond it."
National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Opened on April 26, 2018, also in Montgomery, the Memorial is intended to call attention to "an aspect of the nation's racial history that’s discussed the least," according to Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson: the 4,400 victims of "terror lynchings" black people from 1877 through 1950. "The memorial's design evokes the image of a racist hanging, featuring scores of dark metal columns suspended in the air from above. The rectangular structures, some of which lie flat on the ground and resemble graves, include the names of counties where lynchings occurred, plus dates and the names of the victims. The goal is for individual counties to claim the columns on the ground and erect their own memorials.
America’s history of racial inequality continues to haunt us. The genocide of Native people, 250-year enslavement of black people, adoption of “racial integrity laws” that demonized ethnic immigrants and people of color, and enforcement of policies and practices designed to perpetuate white supremacy are all part of our difficult past. This country has witnessed great triumph, innovation, and progress, but we are burdened by a painful history that we have yet to adequately acknowledge.
Just Mercy is the bestselling book by Bryan Stevenson (founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative). It is a powerful true story about EJI, the people we represent, and the importance of confronting injustice. Visit Equal Justice Initiative to learn more about the book and see the trailer for the adapted feature film starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson.
LEARN MORE: Explore Children in Adult Prisons, Excessive Punishment, the need for Sentencing Reform, and the urgent need to confront our History of Racial Injustice.
Video: True Justice (2019) | Official Trailer | HBO
HBO's documentary about Bryan Stevenson and the work of EJI premieres on June 26, 2019.
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality follows his struggle to create greater fairness in the criminal justice system and shows how racial injustice emerged, evolved, and continues to threaten the country.
The film also documents the 2018 opening of our Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.
Awards
- 1991 National Medal of Liberty
- 1995 MacArthur Fellow
- 2000 Olof Palme Prize
- 2009 Gruber Prize for Justice
- 2011 Four Freedoms Award
- 2012 Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Award in Social Progress[30]
- 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
- 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction
- 2017 The Stowe Prize for Writing to Advance Social Justice
- 2018 The Benjamin Franklin Award for distinguished public service from the American Philosophical Society
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Download Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Information and Reports
All Children are Children Challenging Abusive Punishment of Juveniles - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Report From Enslavement to Segregation and Mass Incarceration - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Report High School Lesson Plan - Lynched in America - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org History of Lynching in America - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Just Mercy Discussion Guide - The Potential for Mercy and Justice - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Guide 
Juvenile 49 years Incarcerated - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Report Juvenile Incarcerated - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Report Slavery in America Summary - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org The Legacy Museum - Wikipedia The Legacy Museum 01 - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org The Legacy Museum 02 - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org The Legacy Museum 03 - Equal Justice Initiative EJI.org Download Underground Railroad Educational Activities, Information, and Resources
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