Bryan Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, and law professor at
New York University School of Law
The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City.
Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...
, and the founder and executive director of the
Equal Justice Initiative. Based in
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...
, he has challenged bias against the poor and
minorities
The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...
in the criminal justice system, especially children. He has helped achieve
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
decisions that prohibit sentencing children under 18 to death or to life imprisonment without parole.
Stevenson was depicted in the 2019
legal drama
Legal drama, also called courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in wh ...
film ''
Just Mercy'', based on his 2014 memoir ''
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption''. In the memoir, he recounted his work with
Walter McMillian, who had been unjustly convicted and sentenced to death.
Stevenson initiated the
National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, which honors the names of each of more than 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 incarceration and executions of people of color in the United States.
Early life
Bryan A. Stevenson was born on November 14, 1959 in
Milton, a small town in southern
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
.
His father, Howard Carlton Stevenson Sr., had grown up in Milton, and his mother, Alice Gertrude (Golden) Stevenson, was born and grew up in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
.
[ Her family had moved to the city from ]Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
in the Great Migration of the early 20th century. Stevenson has two siblings: an older brother, Howard Jr. and a sister, Christy.
Both parents commuted to the northern part of the state for work, with Howard Sr., working at a General Foods processing plant as a laboratory technician and Alice as an equal opportunity officer at Dover Air Force Base
Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force (USAF) base under the operational control of Air Mobility Command (AMC), located southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware. The 436th Airlift Wing is the host wing, and runs the bu ...
. She particularly emphasized the importance of education to her children.
Stevenson's family attended the Prospect African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...
, where as a child, Stevenson played piano and sang in the choir. His later views were influenced by the strong faith of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where churchgoers were celebrated for "standing up after having fallen down". These experiences informed his belief that "each person in our society is more than the worst thing they've ever done."
When Stevenson was 16, his maternal grandfather, Clarence L. Golden, was stabbed to death in his Philadelphia home during a robbery. The killers received life sentences, an outcome Stevenson thought fair. Stevenson said of the murder: "Because my grandfather was older, his murder seemed particularly cruel. But I came from a world where we valued redemption over revenge."[
As a child, Stevenson dealt with segregation and its legacy. He spent his first classroom years at a "colored" elementary school.][ By the time he entered the second grade, his school was formally desegregated, but the old rules from segregation still applied. Black kids played separately from white kids, and at the doctor's or dentist's office, black kids and their parents continued to use the back door, while whites entered through the front.][ Pools and other community facilities were informally segregated.][ Stevenson's father, having grown up in the area, took the ingrained racism in his stride, but his mother openly opposed the de facto segregation.][ In an interview in 2017, Stevenson recalled how his mother protested the day the black children from town lined up at the back door of the polio vaccination station to receive their shots, waiting hours while the white children went in first.]
Education
Stevenson attended Cape Henlopen High School and graduated in 1978. He played on the soccer and baseball teams.[ He also served as president of the student body and won ]American Legion
The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...
public speaking contests.[ His brother, Howard, takes some credit for helping hone Stevenson's rhetorical skills: "We argued the way brothers argue, but these were serious arguments, inspired I guess by our mother and the circumstances of our family growing up."][
Stevenson earned straight As and won a scholarship to Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.][ On campus, he directed the campus gospel choir.][ Stevenson graduated with a B.A. degree in philosophy from Eastern in 1981.][ In 1985, Stevenson earned both a J.D. degree from ]Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
and an M.A. degree in Public Policy (MPP) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, also at Harvard University. During law school, as part of a class on race and poverty litigation with Elizabeth Bartholet, he worked for Stephen Bright's Southern Center for Human Rights, an organization that represents death-row inmates throughout the South.[ During this work, Stevenson found his career calling.][
]
Career
Southern Center for Human Rights
After graduating from Harvard in 1985, Stevenson moved to Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, and joined the Southern Center for Human Rights full-time.[ The center divided work by region and Stevenson was assigned to Alabama. In 1989 he was appointed to run the Alabama operation, a resource center and death-penalty defense organization that was funded by Congress.][ He had a center in Montgomery, the state capital.
]
Equal Justice Initiative
When the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
eliminated funding for death-penalty defense, Stevenson converted the center and founded the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery. In 1995, he was awarded a MacArthur Grant and put all the money toward supporting the center. He guaranteed a defense of anyone in Alabama sentenced to the death penalty, as it was the only state that did not provide legal assistance to people on death row. It also has the highest per capita rate of death penalty sentencing.
One of EJI's first cases was the post-conviction appeal of Walter McMillian, who had been confined to death row before being convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Stevenson was able to discredit every element of the prosecution's initial case, which led to McMillian being exonerated and released from jail in 1993.
Stevenson has been particularly concerned about overly harsh sentencing of persons convicted of crimes committed as children, under the age of 18.[ In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in '' Roper v. Simmons'' that the death penalty was unconstitutional for persons convicted of crimes committed under the age of 18. Stevenson worked to have the court's thinking about appropriate punishment broadened to related cases applying to children convicted under the age of 17.
EJI mounted a litigation campaign to gain review of cases in which convicted children were sentenced to life-without-parole, including cases without homicide. In '' Miller v. Alabama'' (2012), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that mandatory sentences of life-without-parole for children 17 and under were unconstitutional; their decision has affected statutes in 29 states. In 2016, the court ruled in '' Montgomery v. Louisiana'' that this decision had to be applied retroactively, potentially affecting the sentences of 2300 people nationwide who had been sentenced to life while still children.
As of 2022, the EJI has saved over 130 people from the death penalty. In addition, it has represented poor people, defended people on appeal, overturned wrongful convictions, and worked to alleviate bias in the criminal justice system.][
]
Acknowledging slavery
The EJI offices are near the landing at the Alabama River where slaves were unloaded in the domestic slave trade; an equal distance away is Court Square, "one of the largest slave auction sites in the country." Stevenson has noted that in downtown Montgomery, there were "dozens" of historic markers and numerous monuments related to Confederate history, but nothing acknowledging the history of slavery, on which the wealth of the South was based and for which it fought the Civil War
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
. He proposed to the state and provided documentation to three slavery sites with historic markers; the Alabama Department of Archives and History told him that it did not want to "sponsor the markers given the potential for controversy." Stevenson worked with an African-American history group to gain sponsorship for this project; the group gained state approval for the three markers in 2013, and these have been installed in Montgomery.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Stevenson acquired six acres of former public housing land in Montgomery for the development of a new project, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, to commemorate the nearly 4,000 persons who were lynched in the South from 1877 to 1950. Numerous lynchings were conducted openly in front of mobs and crowds in county courthouse squares. Stevenson has argued that this history of extrajudicial lynchings by white mobs is closely associated with the subsequent high rate of death sentences imposed in Alabama and other southern states, and to their disproportionate application to minority people. He further argues that this history influences the bias against minorities as expressed in disproportionately high mass incarceration rates for them across the country.[ The memorial opened in April 2018.
Associated with the Memorial is the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which also opened on April 26, 2018.] Exhibits in the former slave warehouse include materials on lynching, racial segregation, and mass incarceration since the late 20th century. Stevenson articulates how the treatment of people of color under the criminal justice system is related to the history of slavery and later treatment of minorities in the South.
Author
Stevenson wrote the critically acclaimed memoir '' Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption'', published in 2014 by Spiegel & Grau. It was selected by ''Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine as one of the "10 Best Books of Nonfiction" for 2014, and was among ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' "100 Notable Books" for the year. It won the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction. A film based on the book, called '' Just Mercy'', starring Michael B. Jordan as Stevenson with Stevenson himself executive-producing, premiered on September 6, 2019, at the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
and was released in theatres on December 25, 2019.
Speaker
Stevenson maintains an active public speaking schedule, in large part for fundraising for the work of EJI. His speech at TED2012 in Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
, brought him a wide audience on the Internet. Following his presentation, attendees at the conference contributed more than $1 million to fund a campaign run by Stevenson to end the practice of placing convicted children to serve sentences in adult jails and prisons. By April 2020, his talk had been viewed more than 6.5 million times.
Stevenson has been a commencement speaker and received numerous honorary degrees, including from the following institutions: University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...
, 2016, honorary Doctor of Laws degree; Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
, 2016, honorary doctorate; Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...
, Stritch School of Medicine, 2011, Doctor of Humane Letters, ''honoris causa''; College of the Holy Cross, 2015; Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...
, 2016, honorary degree; University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...
, 2017s fall convocation; Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...
, fall 2017 convocation; Emory University
Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...
, spring 2020 commencement and honorary doctor of laws degree.
In June 2017, Stevenson delivered the 93rd Ware Lecture at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalism, Unitarian Universalist congregations. It was formed in 1961 by the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Ch ...
in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
.
Stevenson is featured in episode 45 of the podcast ''Criminal'' by Radiotopia
Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by Roman Mars (host of '' 99% Invisible'') and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their wo ...
from PRX. Host Phoebe Judge talked with Stevenson about his experiences during his 30 years spent working to get people off death row, and about his take on those deserving of mercy.
On May 24, 2018, Stevenson delivered the Commencement address for the Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
Class of 2018.
On May 20, 2019, Stevenson delivered the Commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
.
On May 21, 2021, ''Freedom, Justice, and Hope with Bryan Stevenson'' premiered on Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is an organization based in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center, the organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center (now Deutsche Bank Center) in October 2004. The organization seeks to “represent th ...
where he provided reflections on the American narrative of racism and performed pieces on the piano such as " Honeysuckle Rose".
On May 8, 2022, Stevenson delivered the Commencement address at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He became the second person to receive an honorary doctorate from the university, the other being Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee.
On May 7, 2023, Stevenson delivered the Commencement address for the Ohio State University Class of 2023.
On October 5, 2023, Stevenson spoke at the President's Leadership Forum held by Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...
, where he received an honorary doctorate.
Awards and honors
In November 2018, Stevenson received the Benjamin Franklin Award from the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
as a "Drum major for justice and mercy." In 2020, he shared the Right Livelihood Award with Nasrin Sotoudeh, Ales Bialiatski and Lottie Cunningham Wren.
In 2024, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
* 1991 ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million.
...
National Medal of Liberty
*1995 MacArthur Fellow
* 2000 Olof Palme Prize
* 2009 Gruber Prize for Justice
* 2011 Four Freedoms Award in Freedom From Fear
* 2012 ''Smithsonian'' magazine's American Ingenuity Award in Social Progress
* 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
* 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction
* 2015 ''Time'' 100: The 100 Most Influential People
* 2016 Honorary Doctor of Laws degree conferred by Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
* 2017 Honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree, conferred ''honoris causa'' by the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
* 2017 The Stowe Prize for Writing to Advance Social Justice
* 2018 People's Champion Award from the 44th People's Choice Awards
The 2018 People's Choice Awards, officially the 2018 E! People's Choice Awards, were held on November 11, 2018, to honor the best in pop culture for 2018.
This ceremony, the 44th edition of the People's Choice Awards, marked a change of network f ...
* 2018 The Benjamin Franklin Award for distinguished public service from the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
* 2019 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...
*2019 Honorary Doctor of Laws degree conferred by the University of Pennsylvania
* 2020 Right Livelihood Award
* 2020 National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Lifetime Achievement Award
*2020 Global Citizen Prize for Global Citizen of the Year
*2021 The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence
*2021 National Humanities Medal
*2023 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree conferred by Whitworth University
*2025 Stockholm Prize in Criminology
*2025 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership, conferred by The University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello
Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...
.
Personal life
Stevenson is a lifelong bachelor and has stated that his career is incompatible with married life. He has resided in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...
since 1985.
Publications
By Bryan Stevenson:
*
*
*
*
*
By EJI:
*
Adaptations
* '' Just Mercy'' (2019), film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, based on book '' Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption''
References
External links
*
*
*
*
Bryan Stevenson on the History of Racial Terror in the United States
from the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Bryan
1959 births
Living people
20th-century African-American academics
20th-century African-American lawyers
20th-century American academics
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century African-American academics
21st-century African-American lawyers
21st-century American academics
21st-century American lawyers
Academics from Delaware
Activists for African-American civil rights
African-American activists
African-American Christians
African-American legal scholars
African-American writers
Alabama lawyers
American anti–death penalty activists
American anti-racism activists
American children's rights activists
American civil rights lawyers
American criminal defense lawyers
American legal scholars
American prison reformers
American social justice activists
Eastern University (United States) alumni
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
MacArthur Fellows
New York University School of Law faculty
Olof Palme Prize laureates
People from Milton, Delaware
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Writers from Montgomery, Alabama