Equal Justice Initiative

As we start commemorating our Biblical journey out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, it is only appropriate that we learn more about the effects of slavery in America in the present day.  The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, the widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy, will be presenting the first session for the Jewish Coalition on Criminal Justice Reform's Education Committee's new series: On the Long Road to Justice: Understanding Racism, Safety, and the Criminal Legal System.   Randy Susskind, Deputy Director of EJI will be presenting "Race and Criminal Justice: From Slavery to Today" In the presentation, their team provides an overview of EJI's criminal justice reform efforts. These are issues addressed in Just Mercy. To contextualize these efforts, the presentation will also include an overview of EJI's racial justice narrative work as documented in our Slavery in America research/report, Reconstruction in America research/report, Lynching in America research/ report, Segregation in America research/report and A History of Racial Injustice timeline/calendar.

Randy Susskind will also share about the ways EJI is working to harness the power of place in advancing these educational efforts through the Community Remembrance Project and EJI's cultural sites, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, in Montgomery.