Bryan Stevenson

We will not get where we're trying to go in this country if we don't have the courage to face this history.

I talk about slavery and lynching and segregation not because I want to punish America.

I want to liberate us.

I think there's something that feels more like freedom, more like equality, more like justice, and it's waiting for us.

And if we want to acknowledge that, if we want to understand that, there's no place, in my view, more significant in that story than Montgomery, Alabama.

The river of course was a main portal for trafficking enslaved people in the 19th century and the rail line made Montgomery one of the most prominent

slave trading spaces in America.

We will not get where we're trying to go in this country if we don't have the courage to face this history.

I talk about slavery and lynching and segregation not because I want to punish America or shame America.

I want to liberate us.

I really do think there's something better waiting for us.

I think there's something that feels more like freedom, more like equality, more like justice, and it's waiting for us.

I think if you embrace compassion as a way of life, it will make you feel strong and

And it will make you feel beautiful.

And we underestimate the power of feeling beautiful as a human being and strong as a human being.

And for me, embracing compassion, letting it guide us,

as we encounter people, as we navigate complex and difficult situations, as we try to overcome heartbreak and a lot of the things that just happen in life, when we lead with compassion, I just think there's a beautiful return on that approach.

And it certainly has affirmed me, and I've seen it inspire people as well.

I want them to know that justice matters, that how we treat one another matters.

My work and the work of the Equal Justice Initiative is about doing justice for people who are experiencing injustice.