Last Updated on July 1, 2024
Charlestown resident Paul Rao will review Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson [New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2014] on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in the Auditorium.
Many may view the ‘80s as a period of peace and prosperity. In 1983, Bryan Stevenson left Harvard at 23 with a law degree and a job in legal aid. He had no idea what was in store for him. His first exposure to the cancer of racial injustice was meeting prisoners on Alabama’s death row. Bryan found his passion behind bars staring into the abyss of hopelessness-death row and injustice.
John Grisham notes “Not since Atticus Finch has a fearless and committed lawyer made such a difference in the American south. Though larger than life, Atticus exists only in fiction. Bryan Stevenson, however, is very much alive and doing God’s work fighting for the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the vulnerable, the outcast, and those with no hope. Just Mercy is his inspiring and powerful story.” This is a story of justice and redemption,
later transformed into a must watch movie. You will meet real characters in Alabama-the good, the bad and the ugly. Bryan is disarmingly honest, humble and human as he takes on the establishment of Jim Crow. You will cheer for his clients and fear for his life. The opposite of poverty is not wealth, it is justice. Stevenson established the Equal Justice Initiative and this story which encompasses so many characters, is the fruit of his heroic and harrowing labor.
Bryan Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist, law professor at New York University, and founder and executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
Resident Paul Rao, a retired hospital executive, will dig into the details of Just Mercy and hold up a mirror to the criminal justice system yesterday and today.