AMES, Iowa – Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer recognized nationally for his efforts to fight racial and economic inequalities in America’s criminal justice system, will speak at Iowa State University on Jan. 29. Stevenson is the author of the award-winning 2014 memoir “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.”
His talk, “Race and Justice in America,” is the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Series keynote address. It will take place at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. EJI provides legal representation for those who may have been wrongly convicted or denied a fair trial and for marginalized communities lacking access to representation. Stevenson has helped secure relief for dozens of wrongly condemned prisoners on death row, and he continues his work to protect the rights of the vulnerable populations that have endured generations of poverty and discrimination. He is a Harvard Law School graduate.
He will also discuss EJI’s “Lynching in America” project, an investigation into lynching in the South between the Reconstruction Era and World War II.
This lecture is co-sponsored by the African and African American Studies Program; Ames Public Library Friends Foundation; College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; College of Engineering; College of Human Sciences; College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; College of Veterinary Medicine; College of Design Lectures and Exhibits Committee; Division of Student Affairs; history and political science departments; Ivy College of Business; Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Planning Committee; University Library; and Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.
Find more information on ISU lectures online or call 515-294-9935.
