EJI 2020 Activity Report

Dear Friends:

This has been a challenging and eventful year where we have all witnessed

much loss, fear and uncertainty. The legacy of our nation’s history of racial

injustice has been painfully evident in a series of disturbing incidents of police

violence and racial profiling. People in jails and prisons have experienced

devastation, disease and high rates of death as the COVID crisis has been

especially challenging for the incarcerated.

Despite economic uncertainty and hardship, you have supported us in our

efforts to respond to the multiple crises we’ve faced this year. Because of you,

we have actually expanded our work, increased our services to the vulnerable,

and found new ways to fight for equal justice and confront racial bias and

mistreatment of the poor.

We have never been more determined than we are today to fight for justice and

equality, and to change our criminal legal system. We are committed to

educating this country, changing narratives that have sustained inequality and

bigotry, ending excessive punishment and wrongful convictions, promoting

healthier communities and advancing an era of Truth and Justice our nation

desperately needs.

Thank you for your support which makes our work possible and thank you for

standing with us.

Sincerely,

Bryan Stevenson

Executive Director

Over 500 people condemned to die in prison as children have been released

as a result of EJI’s landmark win in Miller v. Alabama and our campaign to

end death in prison sentences imposed on children. In October, EJI won a

new sentence for Ken-Tay Lee, who was 14 when sentenced to life

imprisonment without parole in North Carolina. Ken-Tay was one of

dozens of 13 or 14-year-old children sentenced to die in prison whose

cases EJI took on to advance reforms, and he was finally freed in January

2020.

EJI Director Bryan Stevenson was awarded Social Innovator of the Year by
the  Wall  Street  Journal  Magazine,  and  was  honored  by  the  New  York
Women’s Foundation as a transformative leader and by Google as someone
“whose passion and commitment are changing the landscape of their time.”
The  National  Memorial  for  Peace  and  Justice  was  named  by  Black
Excellence  as  one  of  seven  sites  on  their  list  of  “must  visit  African
American historical sites” and The Robb Report designated the Memorial as
one  of  “9  Modern  Design  Icons  That  Will  Stand  the  Test  of  Time.”  EJI’s
Legacy Museum was designated “the most well-curated history museum in
the  country”  by  online  travel  publication  Fathom  and  received  accolades
and recognition from Fodor’s and Canadian Traveler, which wrote that EJI’s
museum and memorial “will hit you in the heart.”
Charity  Navigator,  the  nation’s  largest  and  most  recognized  monitor  of
non-profit charities, announced that EJI earned a rare, perfect score of 100
for  its  efficiency,  management,  and  productivity,  and  once  again  awarded
EJI its top, four-star rating.
EJI  and  community  members  in  Springfield,  Missouri  unveiled  a  marker
memorializing Horace Duncan, Fred Coker, and William Allen, three African
American  men  lynched  by  a  white  mob  at  Park  Central  Square  in  1906.
Engaging community leaders, activists and students, it was the first public
recognition  of  these  horrific  racial  terror  lynchings  in  a  public  space.  EJI
also  awarded  $6,500  in  scholarships  to  high  school  students  as  part  of  a
community remembrance essay contest.

EJI released a new report detailing abusive prison conditions in Alabama,

where incarcerated people are beaten, stabbed, raped, and killed in

facilities run by officials who abuse their power and deny incarcerated

people adequate care. EJI documented that the State of Alabama once

again has the highest prison homicide rate in the country.

Just Mercy, based on the bestselling memoir by EJI Director Bryan

Stevenson, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September of 2019.

By November, it went on to win the Audience Award at the Twin Cities

Film Fest, Audience Award for Best Feature at the Chicago International

Film Fest, Best of the Fest Audience Award for Best Film at the St. Louis

International Film Festival, Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at

the Virginia Film Festival, Overall Audience Favorite at the 2019 Mill Valley

Film Festival, Spotlight Film Audience Award at the New Orleans Film

Festival, and Overall & Special Presentation Audience Choice Award at the

Heartland International Film Festival.

EJI Director Bryan Stevenson was awarded the 2019 Thomas J. Dodd Prize

in International Justice and Human Rights, the Aspen Institute’s Public

Service Award, and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Elisabeth B.

Weintz Humanitarian Award.

EJI continued a program of intervening on behalf of chronically ill prisoners

to seek their release. In November, we won a furlough release for Lee

Carroll Brooker who, a few years earlier, was sentenced to life

imprisonment without parole for possession of marijuana under Alabama’s

notorious habitual felony offender law. Mr. Brooker was a 75-year-old

disabled combat veteran who used marijuana for medical purposes when

he was condemned to die in prison. EJI filed multiple appeals on his behalf

that received national attention and was finally able to secure his release

last year.

EJI hosted free screenings of Just Mercy to hundreds of area residents in

Montgomery, Alabama. Actor Michael B. Jordan made an appearance to

thank the many local community members who support our work. The film

opened to national audiences on Christmas day and received an A+

Cinemascore and a 99% Audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

EJI continued to file briefs and pleadings and provide legal assistance to

dozens of clients sentenced to death awaiting execution in Alabama, as

well as people wrongly convicted or sentenced, abused in prison, or

unfairly prosecuted. We conducted nearly two dozen trials, hearings, or

legal proceedings on behalf of our clients during the course of the year.

EJI and community members in Fort Deposit, Alabama unveiled a marker

memorializing the lynchings of Mr. Ed Bracy, Mr. Jim Press Meriweather,

and Rev. G. Smith Watkins, three Black sharecroppers and union leaders

lynched in Lowndes County in 1935.

The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce awarded the Chairman’s

Award, its highest honor, to EJI in recognition of the national attention and

tourism growth that EJI’s Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace

and Justice have brought to Montgomery. Orbitz, an influential travel

publication, highlighted both the Museum and Memorial in their coverage

of civil rights sites.

EJI released its new 2020 calendar, A History of Racial Injustice, which

documents the history of racial inequality in America. It was the eighth

edition of the award-winning calendar, which features new content each

year.

EJI opened the Legacy Pavilion in Montgomery, which honors local Civil

Rights leaders from the Civil Rights era and features a monument honoring

the men, women, and children who were victims of racial terror lynchings

during the Reconstruction era with sculptures by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo.

The Pavilion also houses the EJI bookstore and cafe.

Pannie-George’s, a local, family-owned business with award-winning chefs,

opened a new restaurant inside EJI’s new Legacy Pavilion over Martin

Luther King Jr. weekend. The recipes for Pannie-George’s menu have been

passed down through three generations of Southern African American

cooking.

EJI provided free admission to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

and the Legacy Museum to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday.

Thousands of visitors came to the sites over the holiday, adding to the

more than 750,000 people who have visited the sites in the first 18 months

since opening.

Bryan Stevenson accepted the National Board of Review Award for

Freedom of Expression for the Just Mercy movie at an event in New York

City. He also introduced Jamie Foxx, who was presented the Spotlight

Award at the Palm Springs Film Festival for his performance in the film.

Vernon Madison, who developed dementia after being condemned on

Alabama’s death row for 30 years, died in prison less than a year after EJI

won a ruling from the United States Supreme Court that established that

people suffering from dementia and neurological disease could be shielded

from execution by the Eighth Amendment.

Virginia became the 23rd state to ban imposing life imprisonment without

parole sentences on children, impacting 700 people prosecuted as adults in

the state. The reform came after EJI won a major federal court ruling that

extended constitutional protections against life without parole sentences

to children in Virginia after the state had argued they were not eligible.

Several schools announced that Just Mercy would be a campus-wide read in

2020. Over 200 colleges and universities have incorporated Bryan

Stevenson’s book into planned programming and lectures to facilitate

conversation and reform of the criminal legal system. Anthony Ray Hinton’s

book, The Sun Does Shine, has also been adopted as a campus-read at

several schools and Mr. Hinton has inspired students through dozens of

talks given around the country.

The American Black Film Festival named Just Mercy Movie of the Year and

presented Jamie Foxx with the Excellence in the Arts award. Just Mercy

won four NAACP Image Awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Ensemble

Cast in a Motion Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor at the

annual awards event.

EJI hosted Congressman John Lewis, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,

and dozens of members of Congress who visited the Legacy Museum and

the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery before hearing

an address from EJI Director Bryan Stevenson.

The execution of Nathaniel Woods drew nationwide attention. He was the

67th person executed in Alabama despite the fact that there was no

dispute he did not kill anyone in a 2004 Birmingham homicide. EJI

highlighted the dramatic evidence of racial bias in Mr. Woods’ case and in

the use of the death penalty in the U.S., with reports documenting racial

bias in jury selection, prosecutorial bias, and sentencing bias by judges.

In response to the COVID pandemic, EJI closed the Legacy Museum and

National Memorial for Peace and Justice. We made a commitment to

continue to pay and provide benefits to all employees despite the closure.

Colorado abolished the death penalty, becoming the 22nd state to formally

repeal laws authorizing capital punishment. EJI has made multiple

presentations to lawmakers and advocated across the state in support of

abolition for nearly a decade.

EJI’s Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Legacy

Pavilion were named in The Architecture Designs's list of the eleven best

American heritage sites.

EJI filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of death row prisoners in Alabama

challenging a new state law that restricts appellate review for people

sentenced to death. EJI contends that the law denies death row prisoners a

fair opportunity to have their cases reviewed and increases the likelihood

that unreliable and unconstitutional convictions will go unremedied.

EJI intervened with state officials to address the COVID crisis in prisons

and offered to provide re-entry support services, transportation, and any

additional aid needed to facilitate the early release of state prisoners who

face significantly greater risk of infection from the coronavirus.

EJI’s newly redesigned website was recognized as the People’s Voice

Winner for the Best Nonprofit Website in the 24th Annual Webby Awards.

EJI’s site was singled out as one of the five best in the world in the

Charitable Organizations/Non-Profit category.

Oprah Winfrey listed Just Mercy and The Sun Does Shine among books that

changed her life in O, The Oprah Magazine.

In the wake of police violence and other incidents of racial profiling, Bryan

Stevenson and EJI staff spoke at the Harvard and Emory commencement

addresses and public speeches around the country, urging reforms to

overcome the presumption of guilt that gets assigned to Black people in

the United States.

EJI made dozens of presentations in response to the tragic killings of

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery to national audiences

and in national publications, including a call to end qualified immunity for

police officers.

EJI partnered with the National Basketball Association Coaches Association

to advance racial justice work by NBA coaches and players in communities

where professional basketball is played. Many coaches used EJI materials,

including our calendar, to educate sports viewers about the history of racial

injustice in America.

True Justice, the HBO documentary about EJI's efforts to create greater

fairness in the criminal legal system, won Best Documentary honors at the

National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications Vision Awards.

Just Mercy won the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award for Best

Picture of the Year.

EJI released Reconstruction in America, a new report on the reign of terror

that emerged between 1865 and 1877 in response to the emancipation of

Black people. In the report, EJI documented 2000 lynchings, detailed

dozens of mass lynchings of Black people, and reported on the formation of

Jim Crow and white supremacy in America.

A new video about our Reconstruction report that animates the history of

anti-Black violence in America, created in partnership with Molly

Crabapple, garnered over a million views.

In a major decision, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the State

of North Carolina is barred from reimposing a death sentence on Marcus

Robinson. The decision came after a hearing at which EJI provided expert

testimony and evidence establishing that his death sentence was imposed

in a racially biased manner.

EJI and members of the Christopher Davis Community Remembrance

Project installed a historical marker in Athens, Ohio, to memorialize the

1881 lynching of Christopher Davis. EJI also partnered with the Montevallo

Community Remembrance Coalition to install a marker recognizing the

victims of a double lynching in Shelby County, Alabama in 1889.

Warner Brothers announced that Just Mercy would stream for free on

major streaming services to help people around the world better

understand racial injustice in America. The film also was nominated by BET

for Best Movie of the Year. True Justice won a Peabody Award for

Outstanding Documentary of the Year.

EJI released a video urging a new era of Truth and Justice in response to

police shootings of unarmed Black people and the ongoing challenges of

racial inequality and racial injustice.

EJI reopened its sites and offered free admission in response to the urgent

need to educate Americans about racial inequality. We also opened a new,

compelling nighttime experience at the National Memorial for Peace and

Justice. Conde Nast Traveler listed EJI’s Legacy Museum among their best

places to visit in Alabama and SEGD, the Society for Experiential Graphic

Designs, named EJI’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice as Best of

Show.

Alabama prison guards were indicted for abusing, severely beating, and

assaulting several Alabama prisoners after EJI submitted detailed reports

and documentation to the Department of Justice. Widespread abuse and

corruption has created a crisis of violence and insecurity within prisons.

EJI partnered with the NAACP DeKalb Remembrance Coalition and the

Jackson-Madison County Community Remembrance Project to unveil

markers memorializing racial terror lynchings that took place in their

respective communities.

EJI honored civil rights icons C.T. Vivian and John Lewis, who spoke with

Bryan Stevenson and President Obama at a forum with young activists on

the urgency of activism and confronting racial injustice in June. Reverend

Vivian and Congressman Lewis were longtime supporters of EJI and are

honored at the Legacy Museum.

EJI worked with the Jackson-Madison County Community Remembrance

Project to erect a historical marker memorializing two victims of racial

terror lynching in Madison County, Tennessee. The marker memorialized

the tragic lynchings of Eliza Woods and John Brown, among others

between 1877 and 1950

EJI won an important victory in the Alabama Supreme Court preserving the

rights of death row prisoners to challenge illegal racial discrimination in

jury selection, a widespread problem in Alabama capital trials that has

resulted in over two dozen reversals. The Alabama Attorney General

sought to bar review of racial discrimination claims from “plain error”

review, which would make these claims the only claims that could not be

reviewed. EJI challenged the effort and the Alabama Supreme Court

rejected the State’s call for new rules.

EJI won early release for Felecia Dixon after ten years of working together.

Ms. Dixon is a 55-year-old Black woman who was sentenced to 10 years

for minor property and drug offenses. She joined EJI’s Reentry program in

October.

The Sun Does Shine, a memoir by Anthony Ray Hinton, former EJI client and

current employee, was nominated as a finalist for the Dayton Literary

Peace Prize. The award called Mr. Hinton’s memoir “an extraordinary

testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times.”

Just Mercy won a 2020 Christopher Award in the feature film category.

Bryan Stevenson was also awarded the National Association of Criminal

Defense Lawyer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and National Geographic

named the National Memorial for Peace and Justice as a site all Americans

should visit.

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, the HBO documentary

about our work, won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue

Documentary, at the 2020 Emmy Awards.

EJI partnered with DonorsChoose and FlipGrid to develop new curricula

based on our materials and to make educational resources that advance

understanding of our history of racial injustice and the need for criminal

justice reform widely accessible to teachers and people around the world.

As a result of the partnership, tens of thousands of children will now have

access to materials, which were publicized to teachers all across the

country.

EJI released a report that documented more than 240 schools across the

U.S. that bear the name of a Confederate leader. The schools are located in

17 states, from Georgia to Minnesota, to California. Significantly, about

half of these Confederate-named schools serve student bodies that are

majority Black or nonwhite. The report and accompanying video that EJI

produced received national attention, and since then numerous school

districts have partnered with EJI as they attempt to confront and respond

to the legacy of racial injustice caused by Confederate-named schools.

EJI and the Tulsa Community Remembrance Coalition unveiled a historical

marker recognizing the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in Tulsa,

Oklahoma. EJI partnered with the Walker County, Georgia, Remembrance

Coalition to unveil a historical marker in that community that recognizes

Henry White, a Black man lynched in 1916.

EJI donated tens of thousands of A History of Racial Injustice calendars,

which highlight different historical injustices each day, to educators and

community leaders across the country. The historical calendars are a way

for people to learn about and confront our country’s history of racial

injustice.

EJI’s Legacy Museum reopened with a special new exhibit on the

Transatlantic Slave Trade. The new exhibit documented the roughly 12.7

million women, men, and children who were kidnapped in Africa, trafficked

across the Atlantic Ocean, and enslaved in the Americas.

EJI won the release of Ruth Ann Veal after years of advocacy in Iowa. Ms.

Veal was only 14 when she was convicted and sentenced to life

imprisonment without parole. She was one of the first cases EJI filed

challenging mandatory life without parole sentences imposed on children.

She transitioned to post-release programming after 27 years of

imprisonment.

A historical marker honoring Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Issac

McGhie, Black men who were lynched in Duluth, Minnesota in June 1920

was unveiled as part of EJI’s Truth and Justice Effort. EJI worked with the

Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial and the Duluth Chapter of the NAACP,

along with city officials and community members on the project.

EJI documented several recent prison murders in an effort to create urgent

remedies desperately needed to relieve acute violence and danger within

Alabama prisons. EJI has been working with family members, people in

prison, and advocates, to advocate for several immediate reforms.

EJI continues to provide reentry services and support to people in Alabama

especially the disabled who are vulnerable. We helped with the release of a

47-year-old Black man who had been repeatedly stabbed during a seven

month prison term. He was incarcerated after improperly eating from a

breakfast buffet at a Holiday Inn while on probation.

EJI released the 2021 A History of Racial Injustice calendar, which includes

daily historical entries highlighting critical, but often overlooked moments

in our history as a way for us to confront our history of racial injustice and

its legacy. The release was accompanied by a public education campaign in

which over 100,000 calendars and materials were distributed to public

libraries, schools, community groups, and social justice partners around the

country.

EJI won release for client James Edwards, a 61-year-old man who had been

in prison since 1990 and was suffering from severe medical issues in an

Alabama prison before EJI won a reduction to his sentence. EJI also won a

medical furlough for another man, a former Army veteran, who was

sentenced to life without parole for drug crimes. Both men are receiving

support and services through EJI’s post-release program.

The Colorado Community Remembrance Project, in partnership with EJI

and Denver officials, erected a historical marker in Denver to memorialize

the racial terror lynching of 15-year-old John Porter in 1900. EJI has now

erected dozens of monuments to Black lynching victims across the United

States with community groups who are advancing truth-telling in their

communities.

EJI Rural Development Manager Catherine Coleman Flowers was awarded

a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant for her work documenting

wastewater issues in poor rural communities. Ms. Flowers also released a

new book, “Waste” which was published by the New Press.

Alabama voters passed Amendment 4 which opens the door to eliminating

unenforceable language in Alabama’s state constitution that still prohibits

Black and white students from attending the same schools. EJI has

advocated for repeal of the law for several years.

As it has done for several years in a row, Charity Navigator awarded EJI

another perfect score and a top four-star rating as a charity to support

based on financial reporting, management, and transparency. EJI is one of

only two civil rights organizations with a perfect score.

EJI won relief for a woman who was sentenced to life imprisonment

without parole for a crime she committed when she was 17. After 40 years

in prison, EJI obtained a new sentencing hearing as part of our work under

Miller v. Alabama. The trial judge resentenced her to life without parole,

but after an appeal by EJI, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed her

sentence.

EJI sought relief for Talmadge Hayes, who was sentenced to life

imprisonment without parole at age 17 in Florida. As a result, his probation

was terminated and he is now completely free. EJI won a reduced sentence

for Mr. Hayes in 2012 as part of our program aiding children prosecuted as

adults. He was one of nearly two dozen EJI clients in Florida, all of whom

were children sentenced to die in prison.

EJI won the release of a 34-year-old man who was sentenced as an adult

for property-related offenses when he was 17. He served 17 years in

prison and was one of EJI’s plaintiffs in a lawsuit against St. Clair

Correctional Facility after being seriously assaulted. Mr. Hagood joined

EJI’s PREP re-entry program in December.

Bryan Stevenson was awarded the Right Livelihood Award along with

human rights activists in Iran, Belarus, and Nicaragua. The award was

presented by EJI Community Educator and former client Anthony Ray

Hinton, to an international audience. Mr. Stevenson also was awarded the

Global Citizen of the Year Award, presented by Oprah Winfrey and Usher

in a nationally broadcast ceremony.

EJI won relief in the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for Lionel Francis,

an Alabama death row prisoner who was unconstitutionally sentenced to

death in 2016. The Court ruled that a death sentence cannot be imposed

and he cannot be executed.

Equal Justice Initiative

122 Commerce St.

Montgomery, AL 36104