Just Mercy
In May, 2018, I heard Bryan Stevenson speak at a commencement. It was only then that I picked up his book. Now the movie is out, so it’s time to talk about him.
I looked at my review on Goodreads and decided that I hadn’t said enough.
Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer, and so much more. When I heard him speak, he told the same story about his grandmother as he did at this Ted Talk.
Here is the outline of his talk:
- Always do the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing.
- Do we have the right to kill convicts? He later talks about Germany having no death penalty.
- African Americans dealt with terrorism from reconstruction until World War II. When white people say 9/11 was the first terrorism in America, that is ignored.
- His Equal Justice Initiative. What Rosa Parks said about it.
- Our humanity depends on everyone’s humanity. Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
- The opposite of poverty is justice.
- We judge the character of a society by the way that the poor and incarcerated are treated.
- The society doesn’t succeed unless everyone succeeds.
I haven’t seen the movie, because I can’t watch movies yet, after a concussion. From what I hear, it speaks to his points about justice, but is also a thriller of how the case against Walter McMillan was unraveled by Stevenson and his team.
Around the time that I heard Bryan Stevenson speak, the Legacy Museum opened. It is on my list of places to go. As a white person, I have a lot to learn.
P.S. Consider connecting to me on Goodreads. I’d like to know what you are reading. But, buy your books someplace other than Amazon!