Looking Forward: Steps for Further Learning and Action

Were you touched by what you heard tonight and interested in what you can do next? This guide gives you some ideas on where to start. 

We also urge you to get to know the wonderful work of the many Community Partners who supported Bryan Stevenson’s talk. Check out the full list of Community Partners HERE.

Learning

Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) believe that we must truthfully confront our history of racial injustice before we can repair its painful legacy. There are many ways to learn, from books and articles to films, visual arts and in person conversations. Here are a few resources and experiences you might explore as you learn more about  our country’s tragic history: 

  • READ

    • A timeline of our nation’s history from the sixteenth century to present day. 

    • EJI’s article on the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally, entitled Charlottesville Highlights Need to Truthfully Confront Our History. Read here. 

    • Slate article entitled Tools of Displacement: How Charlottesville, Virginia’s Confederate statues helped decimate the city’s historically successful black communities. Read here. 

    • The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander 

    • How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby 

    • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson 

  • WATCH

    • “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality,” a documentary that gives a wonderfully intimate look into Mr. Stevenson’s  personal life, while also providing a big picture understanding of the United States' history of racial injustice. 

    • “13th”, a Netflix documentary that explores the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States.

    • “Just Mercy”, the film adaptation of Bryan Stevenson’s book

    • “The Lives Between the Lines”, a film documenting the inspiration for and construction of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia. The world premiere will be at 2pm on November 6, 2023 at Vinegar Hill Theater. Tickets available here.  

  • EXPERIENCE

    • Go on a civil rights pilgrimage with Charlottesville residents or with The Telos Group. These trips offer a powerful retelling of the United States’ history of racial inequality by taking participants through the most consequential sites of the civil rights movement. 

    • Plan your own civil rights trip with Freedom Lifted! See more here. 

Action

DONATE TO

  • UVA Law Innocence Project, an organization that works to free the wrongfully incarcerated in Virginia. To do this, simply donate to the law school and designate your gift for the “Innocence Project” in the memo line/“gift designation or special instructions” line, which can be done online or via check. 

  • The Fountain Fund, an organization that provides low-interest loans and financial coaching to formerly incarcerated people, helping them build credit and achieve their self-determined goals. See more here. 

  • Central Virginia Community Justice (CVCJ), a new non-profit in Charlottesville that provides a restorative justice process as a diversion from criminal prosecution. See more here. 

  • Prison Fellowship, a ministry that serves those who once broke the law and are now being transformed and mobilized to serve their neighbors, replacing the cycle of crime with a cycle of renewal. See more here. 

  • Centurion Missions, a ministry working to free the wrongly incarcerated. See more here. 

VOLUNTEER WITH

  • Prison Ministry: Christ Episcopal Church's jail ministry hosts weekly Bible studies at the Albemarle County Regional Jail. If you're interested in getting involved or hearing more, please email Sam Bush at sam@christchurchcville.org.

  • Books Behind Bars, a Charlottesville non-profit dedicated to providing books to the incarcerated. See more here. 

  • Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), which trains volunteers–who are then appointed by a judge–to advocate for the best interests of a child in court. Children helped by CASA volunteers include victims of abuse and neglect for whom custodial and home placement decisions are being made by the juvenile court. See more here. 

  • Charlottesville Abundant Life, a non-profit ministry dedicated to relationships and positive development of children in the Charlottesville area. See more here. 

  • Central Virginia Community Justice (CVCJ), a new non-profit in Charlottesville that provides a restorative justice process as a diversion from criminal prosecution. Volunteer facilitators–as well as general non-profit functions–are needed. See more here.

  • If you are not local to Charlottesville and cannot find a jail ministry to participate in, see Prison Fellowship’s guidelines for creating one yourself. 

Together

Each of us has unique and important gifts and contexts within which to work be it the courtroom, the classroom, the studio, the church or even your own home. Advocating for mercy requires reforming the policies and practices of the criminal justice system, transforming our cultural imagination and inspiring empathy through the arts, as well as grounding us in compassion and hope through our religious communities. The work of justice belongs to all of us. 

Will you join us? 

And get to know our Community Partners HERE.

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