Bryan Stevenson

We commit to the rule of law because we know that mob violence and fear and anger will create destruction and harm and hardship to people who are othered.

And I think a consciousness about that is really key to how we move forward.

And so, yes, I do believe that learning at this moment all across the globe is going to be a vital action item.

Absolutely.

And the beautiful thing is that on the other side of that learning, you get to understand what hope can yield.

We have an exhibit in our museum.

It's 800 jars of soil.

And we have a project where we're trying to put markers at every lynching site in America.

And when people go to these sites, we ask them to put soil from the lynching site in a jar that has the name of the victim and the date.

And they bring it back to the museum.

And so when you come to our museum, you see these jars of soil.

A couple of years back, an older black woman called and said, oh, Mr. Stevenson, I want to dig some soil for your museum.

Do you have a county where no one has done anything?

And we did.

So we asked her to go to this county, and she told me when she got there that she had to pray before she got out of her car because it was this really scary place.

It was a dirt road in the middle of the woods.

And we'd given her the jar with the name of the victim and a memo that talked about the lynching and an implement.

And she said she found her strength, got out of the car, crossed the dirt road, got to the spot where the lynching took place, got down on her knees.

And then she said, this pickup truck came down the road and there was this big white guy in the truck and he stared at her as he drove by.

And she said she was afraid.