Bryan Stevenson

Then he stopped, turned his truck around, drove back by and stared some more.

And then she said to her heart, the man parked his truck, got out and started walking toward her.

We tell people when they're digging soil that they don't have to explain what they're doing.

We say, look, if you want to just say you're getting dirt for your garden, that's totally fine.

And this man walked up to her and he said, what are you doing?

And she told me that she was going to tell him she was just getting some dirt from her garden.

She said, but Mr. Stevenson, all of a sudden, something got a hold of me.

And I turned to that man and I said, I'm digging soil here because this is where a black man was lynched in 1937 and I'm going to honor his life today.

And she started digging.

And the man, to her surprise, said, does that memo talk about the lynching?

And she said, it does.

And then the man said, can I read it?

And she gave the man the memo and he started reading while she started digging.

And after a few minutes, the man finished reading the memo.

He put it down and then he really surprised her.

And he said, excuse me, ma'am, but would it be all right if I helped you?

And she said, yes.

And the man got down on his knees next to her and she offered him the implement to dig the soil.

He said, no, no, no, no, no.

You keep it.