In the Georgia State Speaker’s Auditorium on Nov. 12, Bryan Stevenson was invited to speak at the annual lecture series, in honor of Benjamin E. Mays.
Open and free to the public, the Benjamin E. Mays Lecture series was started in the spring of 1989, continually bringing nationally prominent educators to Atlanta to discuss issues facing urban leaders and to promote Mays’ philosophy of educational excellence for those least served by society as a whole.
The guest speaker this year was Mr. Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Ala. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has spent his life helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. The Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit organization that offers legal representation to people who have been mistreated by the legal system. The issues that EJI champions for are the way children and the
mentally ill are treated when incarcerated, the end of the death penalty, prison and sentencing reform and the inequalities of mass
incarceration involving race and poverty.
Stevenson went on to discuss the level of legal difficulties present in America. In 1972 in the U.S., there were 300,000 people in
jails and prisons. Today, there are 2.3 million. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. A black child born in 2000 has a 1-in-3 chance of going to jail or prison. There are parts of Atlanta where 60 percent of the young men of color are in jail, prison or on parole. In
certain states, being incarcerated can take away your right to vote, specifically in Alabama.
Stevenson’s speech brought up the emotions he had against these issues and the discontent he found in the legal system.
“I am very persuaded that many of us have the desire to change the community, to change the world around us in ways that increase the justice and increase the possibility for hope for the people in communities that have been marginalized, disfavored and disadvantaged,” Stevenson said.
By seeking out cases in which people are disfranchised and need legal representation, Stevenson and Equal Justice Initiative hope to change the shortcomings of the legal system in the United States. For the people who listened to the speech and were impassioned, the moderators urged the crowd to get involved in The Equal Justice Initiative and the Alonzo A. Crim Center through donation and volunteer work.
Through stories from Bryan Stevenson of horrific foster care cases and mistreated people in jail, the goal of what EJI wants to accomplish was shown. Stevenson urged society to change the narrative of how we treat people and how we hold them to false accountability.
“Proximity is about understanding, not just the substance of the issue, not the economics of the issue, not the structure or the history. I believe proximity means the humanity of the people you are serving. The character of justice and injustice. The quality of life. All of these issues come from proximity. And I believe that without proximity we make the wrong choices sometimes. In educational policy, in criminal justice policy, in environmental policy, we make the wrong choices. I think proximity is key.”
