Just Mercy

HONORING

Bryan Stevenson,
Civil Rights Attorney, Founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)

We are so pleased to honor Just Mercy for shifting the narrative toward more inclusive portrayals of Muslims on screen.

A powerful true story, Just Mercy follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs, but Instead heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley
(Brie Larson). 

One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds—and the system—stacked against them.

Just Mercy won four NAACP Awards, including Outstanding Motion Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, and Ensemble Cast. It is also the first major studio film to adopt an inclusion rider, and Just Mercy’s REPRESENT JUSTICE campaign, launched with the film’s release in December, is inspiring an inclusive movement for equality and justice. 

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. A widely acclaimed public interest lawyer, he has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. Bryan and his staff have won reversals, relief or release from prison for over 135 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row. A recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize and the ABA Medal, the American Bar Association’s highest honor, Bryan is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government.

“The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated.”

— BRYAN STEVENSON