The Equal Justice Initiative

Inspirational Healing

Bryan Stevenson, an extraordinary Black Man in Montgomery, Alabama has birthed a magnificent organization:

• The Equal Justice Initiative, which has birthed:
  • Hope and/or Freedom for many persons (particularly youth) unjustly sentenced to the death penalty and/or life in prison.
  • The unique and magnificent National Memorial to Peace and Justice, also known as the “Lynching Memorial”.
  • The state-of-the-art Legacy Museum, which documents African American history.
  • The publications: “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror”, “Slavery in America”, “Segregation in America”, and 
  • “From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration”

Bryan Stevenson’s own words:

“The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) believes that a more informed understanding of America’s racial history and the challenges it creates is vital to developing a healthier and more respectful local, state, and national identity.”

“Reconciliation with a difficult past cannot be achieved without truthfully confronting history and finding a way forward that is thoughtful and responsible. We hope that more information fosters greater knowledge and honest dialogue and deepens our collective commitment to… engage in the important and difficult work that lies ahead. A more informed understanding of America’s racial history and the challenges it creates is vital to developing a healthier and more respectful local, state, and national identity. In April 2018, EJI opened two new sites in Montgomery, Alabama: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, memoralizing the names of more than 4000 African American victims of racial terror lynching killed between 1877 and 1950.” 

“The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. Built on the site of a former warehouse where enslaved black people were imprisoned before sale, the 11,000-square-foot museum sits midway between Montgomery’s historic slave market and the main river dock and train station that transported tens of thousands of enslaved people at the height of the domestic slave trade. Museum visitors encounter replicas of slave pens that employ unique technology to bring to life first-person accounts from enslaved people narrating the fear, heartbreak, and inhumanity of the domestic slave trade.”

“Reconciliation with a difficult past cannot be achieved without truthfully confronting history and finding a way forward that is thoughtful and responsible. We invite you to join us in this effort by visiting the Legacy Museum and National Memorial in Montgomery, reflecting on the bonds between historic and contemporary racial inequality in America, and confronting the injustice in your own community. We hope that more information fosters greater knowledge and honest dialogue, and deepens our collective commitment to a just society. EJI believes that we have within us the capacity to transcend our history of racial injustice. But we shall overcome only if we engage in the important and difficult work that lies ahead.”