Bryan Stevenson: Finding hope in the middle of brokenness
Bryan Stevenson signs copies of his best-selling book "Just Mercy" after speaking in Gadsden. (Keisa Sharpe / Alabama NewsCenter)
Do uncomfortable things. Get proximate to the places where people are suffering. Change the narrative.
Bryan Stevenson shared these principles as he spoke in a crowded auditorium at Wallace Hall at Gadsden State Community College as part of the Gadsden Reads project Thursday, Sept. 1.
Stevenson is an attorney, activist and author of the book “Just Mercy.” He is also founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, where he has represented those in minority communities and those on Death Row.
Stevenson is arguably most known for his work helping to find relief for condemned prisoners and shared some of that work with the Gadsden community.
Bryan Stevenson visits Wallace Hall in Gadsden from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Stevenson said he knows a good deal about the lessons he shared on caring for humanity. He recounted being confronted with opportunities for these life lessons as a child.
“I remember laughing at a young boy who stuttered and my mother made me not only apologize to him, but she made me tell him that I loved him,” said Stevenson. “I didn’t understand why she made me do it, but I obeyed.”
[ More on Stevenson’s work here ]
Once, while attempting to console a condemned prisoner, that very story came to his mind as the prisoner said, just moments before he was executed, “Mr. Stevenson, I want to thank you for representing me and fighting for me and I love you for trying to save my life.”
Wanting to quit after this hard task, Stevenson said he began to realize he’s not only fighting for others like this prisoner who are broken, but realized “that I do what I do because I’m broken, too. The truth is if you do uncomfortable things, it will break you.”
[ Bryan Stevenson helps free Death Row inmate ]
While revealing bitter truths, the celebrated speaker left the audience on an uplifting note.
“If you allow yourself to be hopeless, you have become part of the problem. No great innovation comes unless you have hope.”
For more stories and a look at Stevenson’s work, visit www.bryanstevenson.com.
