How to Make a Difference: Bryan Stevenson Weighs in
What was it like speaking at Exeter?
“I was really thrilled to be at Exeter and to meet so many wonderful students. My interactions with them made me very hopeful. The students seem very engaged with these issues of human rights, and I was very inspired by what I saw and what I heard. My hope is that more people will take seriously the challenge of living in a world where there is tremendous income inequality, where there is poverty, where there is still bias against people because of their race or their gender, or their religion. And to confront that challenge is something that you need a group of people to deal with in a direct way. A lot of students are serious about confronting these issues.”
What do you hope students take away from your talk?
“My interactions with students made me feel that people are very enthusiastic about taking to heart the challenges that I was describing. I hope that my remarks show them that they can make a difference in the world, that they can get out there and combat the injustice and inequality that too many people experience.”
"My hope is that more people will take seriously the challenge of living in a world where there is tremendous income inequality, where there is poverty, where there is still bias against people because of their race or their gender, or their religion."
How did you get involved in death row law?
“As a law student, I took a course that allowed me to work with a human rights organization, and I just picked one that provides legal advice to prisoners. My time with them was quite transformative, and it set me on a path that I followed into my later life, and I’m very happy that I had that experience.”
What advice would you give to someone seeking to make a difference in the world?
“My advice would be to make your choices and your decisions about how you spend your time based on the convictions in your heart. I think that will empower you to do things that you care about deeply and to make a difference in the world.”
What is a story that you didn’t tell the Exeter community?
“I often talk about my time with Rosa Parks, who I met when I was a young lawyer. I was sitting with her, listening to her talk and she asked me what I was going to do. I explained that I was a lawyer and that I was going to try and do something about excessive punishment, and poverty, and racial bias, and income inequality and the failure of the court systems. When I finished she said, ‘Hm, thats gonna make you tired, tired, tired,’ and then, Johnny Carr leaned in and said to me, ‘that’s why you’ve got to be brave, brave, brave.’”
What are your plans for the future?
“Most immediately, I am going back to the Supreme Court to ask them to do something about the number of children who are being prosecuted as adults. We have this big project where we are going to try and change the visual landscape of America when it comes to recognizing and acknowledging racial bias. We are going to mark lynching sites and killing sites. We think that this is essential in overcoming the racial inequality in this country.”