November 8 …

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a nonprofit human-rights organization in Montgomery, AL that litigates on behalf of marginalized people, documents racial injustice, and builds public history projects to confront the legacy of slavery and racial terror in the United States.

EJI was founded on November 8, 1989 by Bryan Stevenson following his early involvement with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee, which revealed systemic failures in capital punishment and the defense of impoverished individuals. From the beginning, the organization has merged direct legal representation for those on death row or facing excessive sentences with empirical research, policy advocacy, and public education designed to dismantle structural sources of racial and economic injustice in the criminal justice system.

Over the years, EJI has expanded its team from a small and dedicated group of lawyers and staff Stevenson recruited to handle death-penalty and juvenile-sentencing cases to include investigators, researchers, policy analysts, museum curators, and educators. The organization’s legal efforts have concentrated on death-penalty mitigation, wrongful convictions, and excessive or discriminatory sentencing, especially concerning juveniles, as well as the conditions of confinement. Its policy advocacy has been aimed at reforming sentencing laws, enhancing reentry services, and implementing practices to reduce racial disparities.

EJI’s impact also reaches beyond the courtroom through significant public history projects, such as The Legacy Museum and National Lynching Memorial in Montgomery. These initiatives document lynching, racial terror, slavery, and the continuum of criminal justice, reshaping public discourse regarding historical memory and reparative justice.

EJI engages a diverse audience, including clients and families affected by criminal justice practices, communities across the South and the nation, lawmakers, judges, academic researchers, educators. The organization also reaches a wider public through various media, exhibitions, and the bestselling memoir Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, along with its film adaptation, both of which have amplified EJI’s legal and educational messages.

EJI and its leadership have garnered numerous accolades for their contributions to legal innovation, public history, and human rights advocacy. It has been honored by legal associations and cultural institutions for its litigation, scholarship, museum projects, and efforts to deepen public understanding of racial history.

The blend of rigorous litigation, research, and public history of the Equal Justice Initiative has changed both legal practice and national conversation about racial injustice, ensuring that victims’ stories inform policy and memory. Its work continues to push for accountability, reform, and a more honest reckoning with America’s past.