For more than 30 years Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., has fought for the rights of the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. He wrote about one such case, that of Walter McMillian, an African-American man sentenced to die for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit, in his book Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.
Stevenson’s work in criminal justice reform made him a natural choice for the inaugural speaker in a new lecture series that aims to drive community dialogue and bring topical issues to the forefront. “We are thrilled to announce Bryan Stevenson as the first speaker in the Mary S. Stern Lecture Series,” said Dr. Peter Stern, chair of the Mary S. Stern Lecture Committee and Library Foundation board member. “His work and advocacy is fundamental to how my mom viewed the world.”
The Mary S. Stern Lecture featuring Stevenson is presented courtesy of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, in Procter & Gamble Hall at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The Mary S. Stern lecture is made possible through an endowment to The Library Foundation of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Tickets are $5 and go on sale 10 a.m. Aug. 5 at cincinnatiarts.org, 513-621-ARTS (2787) and the CAA Ticket Offices at the Aronoff Center.
ABOUT BRYAN STEVENSON
Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. His work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize. Stevenson has received 29 honorary doctoral degrees including degrees from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Oxford University. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Just Mercy, which was has been awarded several honors including the Carnegie Medal by the American Library Association for the best nonfiction book of 2014 and a 2015 NAACP Image Award. For more information on this speaker, visit www.prhspeakers.com/.
ABOUT THE MARY S. STERN LECTURE
The late Mary S. Stern endowed an annual lecture series for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County through The Library Foundation to support bringing internationally renowned thought leaders to our community. The Stern Lecture selection committee (Sandy and Peter Stern, Betsy and Paul Sittenfeld, and Vicky and Rick Reynolds) was formed in 2018 to select and invite lecturers who can honor Stern’s legacy by advancing the Library’s mission to connect our community with a world of ideas and information. The committee is committed to making the topic and speaker accessible to the community physically and financially.
MEDIA: Please credit headshot of Bryan Stevenson to “Nina Subin.”
