Bryan Stevenson doesn’t mince words when it comes to broaching the subject of race and the criminal justice system.
“We’ve built a narrative of hostility with people who are different. We’ve gotten comfortable with two centuries of slavery. It was an ideology that black people aren’t fully human,” Stevenson told the crowd. “They aren’t fully evolved. They can’t do this. They can’t do that. It was an ideology of white supremacy that was the true evil of American slavery.”
The Chicago Urban League’s Summit 2018 wrapped up with an “Evening Talk” from Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
The message from Stevenson was one of “changing the narrative.”
Stevenson discussed his upbringing, career milestones and difficulties with the criminal justice system, while providing hope to Chicago, a city that continues the struggle with a narrative of being violent.
“If we’re going to be committed to our children in Chicago, we’re not going to determine how well we’re doing by how we treat gifted kids. We’re going to have to change the narrative on race in America. We’re burdened by a history of racism and poverty,” Stevenson said. “We’re going to have to change the narrative we inherited on racial equality. That means we’re going to talk about somethings we’ve never talked about before. We’re going to talk about how we live in a post-genocidal society.”
The EJI is a nonprofit organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, that “challenges poverty and racial injustice, advocates for equal treatment in the criminal justice system, and creates hope for marginalized communities.”
“I represent the broken because I’m broken,” Stevenson told the audience at the Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum at the University of Illinois Chicago on Thursday. “I’m from a community where black kids couldn’t go to public school.”
Stevenson is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Just Mercy.” He is widely known for getting a favorable Supreme Court ruling in the case Miller v. Alabama, where mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger was deemed unconstitutional.
In that case, he represented two 14-year-olds who were involved in crimes that led to homicides.
Stevenson, a Harvard Law graduate who has been awarded 33 honorary doctorate degrees, says he was once subjected to a strip search when he went to see a client because the guard didn’t believe he was an attorney.
Stevenson also discussed the Supreme Court ruling on the travel ban, calling it “horrific.”
“We have to stay hopeful because it’s been a tough week,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson spoke of tough moments that brought some of the people in the crowd to tears. One of those moments involved a teenaged client who was raped in prison.
One of those people was Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who was sexually assaulted as a child. She told the Chicago Sun-Times that Stevenson’s work is emotionally taxing for the attorneys involved.
“This work is really difficult and doing this work as woman of color is approximate to the issues of fear and how we talk about and how we fight against that. Sometimes, it’s an overwhelming task,” Foxx said. “It was good to hear [Stevenson] him give a voice to what we do. Why we endure what we endure. It was the inspiration I needed to hear having followed Bryan’s work for years. His unflinching willingness to talk about race in the criminal justice system. He’s allowed me the freedom to do that as a black woman.”
Shari Runner, the Chicago Urban League’s president and CEO, echoed Foxx’s sentiments.
“I have never heard anything more inspirational in my life we heard just now. When you speak the truth and when you’re in that work, it’s hard,” Runner said. “He’s taken big risks and there’s nothing better. Here at the ‘league,’ we must change the narrative. We must take some risks. We must recognize this is an issue and a problem in the city. The problems won’t be solved by ignoring them.”
Leah Graham, who recently moved to Chicago from southern Indiana, said she loved Stevenson’s honesty about his past and confronting mass incarceration head-on.
“I loved what he said about getting proximate to people who are suffering and who are broken. One of the ways to change our mindset is to see things in a way that isn’t what we are told they are,” Graham said. “The story isn’t always what we are told what it is. I like his acknowledgement that he’s a broken person, too. Our country wants to get rid of people who are broken. I thought that was really powerful.”
Stevenson’s words on changing narratives about people from broken communities is something that Ja’Mal Green, an activist and mayoral candidate, aims to address.
“It’s the truth, and it’s going to take as many people as possible to fight on every end. Me being an activist fighting on all of these issues in the community every single day, it resonates with us,” Green said. “We need the support to continue to fight. Now, I’m running for mayor and I’ll be in a position to effect some of these changes. Knowing the issues in a historical context is important on how we move forward.”
Stevenson had one takeaway for the people who came to see him speak.
“There’s opportunities to make a difference. We all have to find a way to get active in communities that are left out, Stevenson said. “This is a challenging time in our country’s history, but was make a difference. That’s what I want people to believe more than anything.”
