Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Update: This event is sold out; a livestream is available (no recording will be available). Click here to register for the livestream.
The author and human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson holds a public conversation with Duke Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery about faith, justice, and public witness. The event is free and open the public, but a no-cost ticket is required.
Tickets will be available through the Duke Box Office beginning August 30 for Duke students then September 1 for the public. Visit tickets.duke.edu. The discussion will livestreamed via Zoom. No recording will be available. Register for the livestream at https://duke.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIsf-6pqjojGNMsSkmfMIibR8SJPpkSqScX .
Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. His bestselling book "Just Mercy," about Stevenson's successful efforts to exonerate a black man in Alabama who had been sentenced to die, was adapted into a feature film. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court. He and his EJI staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 135 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row. They have also 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.
Through the EJI, Stevenson led the creation of two highly acclaimed cultural sites which opened in 2018: the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.
The event is the chapel's inaugural William Preston Few Lecture. The annual series takes its name from Duke's first president who articulated a vision of education promoting the courage to seek the truth and the conviction to live it. The series is funded by the William Preston Few Endowment for Duke Chapel, which was established in 1986 by Kendrick S. Few '39 as a memorial to his father, William Preston Few, the first president of Duke University.
Free parking for the event is available in Bryan Center Parking Garage at 125 Science Dr. ADA parking is available in the parking lot at the same address.
Co-sponsors for the event are Duke's Law School and Sanford School of Public Policy.
Photograph of Stevenson by Rog and Bee Walker for EJI.