Bryan Stevenson

For decades, Stevenson has been a tireless advocate for justice reform; the civil rights lawyer and his Alabama-based organization, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), have rescued more than 125 individuals from death row and relentlessly called attention to biases in the system. Now, he's working to address—and encouraging all Americans to confront—what he considers their root cause: the nation’s barely-acknowledged history of “racial terrorism,” the ugly past of slavery, lynchings and anti-black violence that underlie race relations today. Stevenson believes this uncomfortable reckoning will get the country to a better place; to lead the way, EJI is developing educational materials and building a racial justice museum as well as a memorial for the country’s 4,000 lynching victims.