Bryan Stevenson Biography
Bryan Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist born on 14 November 1959, he is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. He is based in Montgomery, Alabama.
Stevenson has been vocal about the inclination against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children. He has additionally aided to achieve United States Supreme Court decisions that prohibit sentencing minors under 18 to death or to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
He has helped in cases that have protected dozens of prisoners from the death penalty, advocated for poor people, and further developed community-based reform litigation strived at improving the administration of criminal justice.
10 Facts About Bryan Stevenson
- Name: Bryan Stevenson
- Age: 60 years old as of 2019
- Birthday: 14th November
- Height: Average
- Weight: Moderate
- Nationality: American
- Occupation: Lawyer, Social justice activist
- Marital Status: To be Updated.
- Salary: To be Updated.
- Networth: $15 million (2020)
Bryan Stevenson Education
Stevenson went to Cape Henlopen High School, he graduated in 1977. While in high school, he used to play on the soccer and baseball teams. He went on to serve as president of the student body and won several American Legion public speaking contests.
He scored straight A’s and got a scholarship to Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Stevenson was the director of the campus gospel choir and he finally graduated in 1981. He got a full scholarship to attend Harvard Law School.
While at Harvard, he worked with Stephen Bright’s Southern Center for Human Rights as part of a class on race and poverty litigation with Elizabeth Bartholet. This firm represents death-row inmates throughout the South. It is during this time that he discovered his career calling. While still at Harvard, Stevenson further received a Master’s in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Bryan Stevenson Age and Birthday
He was born Bryan A. Stevenson on 14 November 1959, in Milton, Delaware, United States. He is 60 years old as of 2019. He celebrates his birthday on 14th November every year.
Bryan Stevenson Family, Parents and Siblings
Stevenson is the son of Howard Carlton Stevenson, Sr., who grew up in Milton, and his mother Alice Gertrude (Golden) Stevenson was born and brought up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Bryan was brought up in Milton, Delaware, a small rural town positioned in Southern Delaware. Stevenson’s family had migrated to the city from Virginia in the Great Migration of the early 20th century. He has two siblings: an older brother Howard, Jr., and his sister Christy.
His parents shuttled to the northern part of the state for work, his father worked at a General Foods processing plant as a laboratory technician while his mother was a bookkeeper at Dover Air Force Base and later became an equal opportunity officer. Steveson’s mother especially emphasized the importance of education.
Together with his family, they attended the Prospect African Methodist Episcopal Church, whereas a youth he played piano and regularly sang in the choir. Stevenson’s later views were shaped by the strong faith of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where churchgoers were praised for ‘standing up after having fallen down.’ The events informed his view that “each person in our society is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.”
At 16, his maternal grandfather, Clarence L. Golden, was fatally stabbed in his Philadelphia home during a robbery. The killers got life sentences, a ruling Stevenson thought fair. He told of the murder; “Because my grandfather was older, his murder seemed particularly cruel. But I came from a world where we valued redemption over revenge.”
He went through segregation and its legacy in his childhood.
Is Bryan Stevenson Married?, Bryan Stevenson Wife
Stevenson keeps his personal life very private and he has not yet disclosed any information about his dating life, marriage, or his wife.
Bryan Stevenson Measurements and Facts
Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Stevenson.
Bryan Stevenson Bio and Wiki
- Full Names: Bryan A. Stevenson
- Gender: Male
- Profession: Lawyer, Director of Equal Justice Initiative, Author
- Known for: Founding Equal Justice Initiative
- Education: Cape Henlopen High School, Harvard Kennedy School, Eastern University, Harvard Law School
- Town/City: Milton
- Nationality: American
- Religion: Christian
- Sexual Orientation: Straight
Bryan Stevenson Birthday
- Age: 60 years (2019)
- Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
- Date of Birth: 14 November 1959
- Place of Birth: Milton, Delaware, United States
- Birthday: 14 November
Bryan Stevenson Body Measurements
- Height: Average
- Weight: Moderate
Bryan Stevenson Family and Relationship
- Father: Howard Carlton Stevenson
- Mother: Alice Gertrude (Golden) Stevenson
- Siblings: Howard, Jr., and Christy
- Marital Status: Single
- Spouse: To be updated
- Children: None
Bryan Stevenson Salary and Net Worth
- Net Worth: $15 million (2020)
- Source of Income: Law Career, Books Sale, Movies
Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson, Mercy Bryan Stevenson
Just Mercy is a memorable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the hunt of justice.
Bryan Stevenson Book
- 2018 – Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice
- 2018 – A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law
- 2014 – Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
- 2014 – Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice
- 2012 – Five Kids and One Gun: A Game to the Death and Hockey Like You Have Never Seen Before
Bryan Stevenson Equal Justice Initiative
Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989 in Montgomery, Alabama. The non-profit organization grants legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, ordinary prisoners without competent representation, and others who may have been refused a fair trial.
Bryan founded the organization when the United States Congress eliminated funding for death-penalty defense for lower-income people after Republicans gained control in the 1994 mid-term elections. He was also awarded a MacArthur grant and put all the money toward supporting the center in 1995.
Bryan guaranteed a defense of anyone in Alabama sentenced to the death penalty, as it was the only state that did not provide legal assistance to people on death row. Alabama also has the highest per capita rate of death penalty sentencing.
He has been particularly concerned about overly harsh sentencing of persons convicted of crimes committed as children, under the age of 18. The US Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons (2005) that the death penalty was unconstitutional for persons convicted of crimes committed under the age of 18.
Bryan Stevenson Museum
He acquired six acres of former public housing land in Montgomery for the development of a new project, the “National Memorial for Peace and Justice”, to commemorate the nearly 4,000 persons who were lynched in the South from 1877 to 1950.
Many of the lynchings were conducted openly in front of mobs and crowds in county courthouse squares. He argues the history of extrajudicial lynchings by white mobs is closely associated with the subsequent high rate of death sentences imposed in Alabama and other southern states. Also to their disproportionate application to minority people.
Stevenson further argues that this history influences the bias against minorities as expressed in disproportionately high mass incarceration rates for them across the country. This memorial opened in April 2018.
Bryan also worked to create a related museum, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which opened in April. The exhibits in the former slave warehouse include materials on lynching, racial segregation, and mass incarceration since the late 20th century.
He articulates how the treatment of people of color under the criminal justice system is related to the history of slavery and later treatment of minorities in the South
Bryan Stevenson Movie
The Just Mercy film is an upcoming American biographical drama film based on the memoir by Bryan Stevenson. It is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Rob Morgan, Rafe Spall, and Tim Blake Nelson.
The film will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019 and scheduled to be released on December 25, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Bryan Stevenson Net Worth
The social-justice activist has enjoyed a long career in the Law industry spanning for decades. Through proceeds from his work as a lawyer, professor, Director of Equal Justice Initiative, Author, he has been able to accumulate a modest fortune. Stevenson is estimated to have a net worth of about $15 million as of 2020.
Bryan Stevenson Quotes
Some of Stevenson’s quotes include:
- The great evil of American slavery was involuntary servitude or forced labor. I really believe that the true evil of American slavery was the narrative of racial difference that we created to justify it.
- One of the things that pains me is we have so tragically underestimated the trauma, the hardship we create in this country when we treat people unfairly, when we incarcerate them unfairly when we condemn them unfairly.
- There was never a time you could get the majority of people in Alabama or Mississippi, or even southern Delaware, to vote to end segregation. What changed things was the rule of law, the courts. Brown v. Board of Education was ushered in by a movement, but it was a legal decision.
- There was never a time you could get the majority of people in Alabama or Mississippi, or even southern Delaware, to vote to end segregation. What changed things was the rule of law, the courts. Brown v. Board of Education was ushered in by a movement, but it was a legal decision.
For more of his quotes, visit brainyquote.com.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bryan Stevenson
Who is Bryan Stevenson?
Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist, he is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law.
How old is Bryan Stevenson?
He was born Bryan A. Stevenson on 14 November 1959, in Milton, Delaware, United States. He is 60 years old as of 2019. He celebrates his birthday on 14th November every year.
How much is Bryan Stevenson worth?
Through proceeds from his work as a lawyer, professor, Director of Equal Justice Initiative, Author, he has been able to accumulate a modest fortune. Stevenson is estimated to have a net worth of about $15 million as of 2020.
Is Bryan Stevenson still a lawyer?
Yes, he founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989 to grant legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, ordinary prisoners without competent representation, and others who may have been refused a fair trial.
How long has Bryan Stevenson been a lawyer?
Stevenson has been serving capital defendants and death row prisoners in the deep south since 1985, before he founded EJI and when he was a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia.
How many cases has Bryan Stevenson won?
Stevenson has won five of the six cases he has argued before the Supreme Court, he gave a TED Talk that has amassed more than seven million views to date. AS of August 2016, Equal Justice Initiative had saved 125 men from the death penalty. EJI has also represented poor people, defended people on appeal and overturned wrongful convictions, and worked to alleviate bias in the criminal justice system.
What is Bryan Stevenson doing now?
He has been working on Just Mercy and True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality which was released early 2019.
Bryan Stevenson Social Media Contacts
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