In honor of Black History Month, UUC’s Acting for Racial Justice Team is offering articles to the UUC community about Black people and places that contribute to telling the truth about racial injustice in this country.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice & Redemption is a powerful bestselling book written by Bryan Stevenson about the mass incarceration of Blacks, the poor, children, and other oppressed people. Bryan Stevenson is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. Since 1989, EJI has provided legal representation for people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in prisons. 

In addition to providing legal representation, in 2018 EJI opened The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice as part of an effort to create new spaces, markers, and memorials that address the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation. Learn more about the Legacy Sites at https://legacysites.eji.org/.

My husband and I have been members of EJI since hearing Bryan Stevenson speak at Seattle Arts & Lectures in 2017. In March of last year, we visited EJI in Montgomery and several other Civil Rights sites in Alabama and Georgia. The critically acclaimed Legacy Museum uses state of the art museum technology to vividly tell the history of slavery and mass incarceration in this country. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice remembers over 4,400 victims of lynching with their names engraved on more than 800 steel monuments. Visiting these Legacy Sites was a profoundly moving experience for both of us.

Bryan Stevenson and EJI exemplify the importance and power of confronting the real history of this country to overcome racial injustice. If you have not already read Just Mercy, I highly recommend it. And for any of you who have considered (or may have already) visiting the Equal Justice Initiative and The Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, I think you will find it to be a powerful experience. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

~ Jewels Mellen, member of UUC’s Acting for Racial Justice Team and the Social Justice Steering Committee