Bryan Stevenson, a hero in the fight for equality and justice, continues bringing positive change to the lives of Americans. Stevenson’s work has exonerated innocent death row inmates, confronted abuse in prisons, and eliminated life without parole sentences for children. He joins acclaimed journalist Jelani Cobb to discuss the current state of racial justice, the continuing fight for equality, and how we maintain hope for the future.
Bryan Stevenson has dedicated his career to helping the poor, defending the incarcerated, and fighting for equality and justice. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, who have won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of incarcerated people, and ending mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children. Stevenson is also the creator of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the 4,400 Black people who were lynched in the United States between 1877 and 1950. The New York Times called the memorial, and the attached museum, “the most emotionally impactful cultural experience in the country.” Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards, including a Genius Grant and 21 honorary doctorates. His award-winning book Just Mercy is a New York Times bestseller, and was made into a film starring Michael B. Jordan.
Jelani Cobb is an acclaimed historian, staff writer at The New Yorker, and Dean of Columbia Journalism School. Cobb currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project and the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library. His books include To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, and Three or More is a Riot.
Photo courtesy of Equal Justice Initiative