Bryan Stevenson
(1959 - )
United States
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. EJI has won legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. He led the creation of two sites which opened in 2018, The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. The institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation and their connection to mass incarceration and contemporary racial bias issues.
After the American Civil War (1861-1865), lynching became a tool to reinstate White supremacy. The sites also honor more than 4,000 African Americans lynched from 1877 to 1950.
