During the Com­mon Read event on March 20, Bryan Stevenson, author, activist, director and lawyer, talked about how he got into the social justice world and that he ultimately didn’t know what he wanted to be when he was in college but he knew he wanted to help others.

He gave examples of some personal encounters he’s had over the years with either inmates or higher officials. Some of his expe­riences with the inmates on death row are what shaped his path and career.

Stevenson, author of the New York Times bestseller “Just Mercy,” talked about how unjust our system in the U.S. really is and that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

The issue with that is that the majority of the people who are incarcerat­ed are colored or minority groups, where one in three black males are expected to go to jail in their life.

Stevenson was very inspiring during his speech because he spoke so highly about treating the poor and minorities with respect and erasing this narrative about colored people in the U.S.

He focuses on helping those in the prison system who are facing the death penalty for crimes that can be deemed justifiable, such as self-defense and so on.

He wanted everyone to ask themselves “What can we do to change the world?” His answer was to treat everyone like they are somebody, no matter the color of their skin, and in regards to the United States, we have to start telling the truth about his­tory and how it has really shaped this nation.

“We are going to have to do things that make us uncomfortable, even if that means talking about race relations every day.”

In one of his personal experiences in the court­room, a judge thought he was the criminal in the courtroom when he was the lawyer defending a white teenager. This goes to show that the criminal justice system is based on a racial narrative that African-Americans have been fighting against for a long time.

One story he shared with us was about a young child around the age of 13 who was charged as an adult for killing his mother’s abuser when he thought the man had killed his mother.

He wanted us to remem­ber to always have faith and hope, even in times when we feel like giving up.

Prison should be about rehabilitation, and some­times the death penalty takes the life of someone who deserves a second chance.