Bryan Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Stevenson is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller “Just Mercy” and the subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary “True Justice.” He is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, the initiative has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults. Stevenson has won multiple cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, won numerous awards including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” and has received over 50 honorary doctoral degrees.
Stevenson will be the featured keynote speaker at Monticello’s Founder’s Day ceremony on April 11 at 10 a.m. on Monticello’s West Lawn.