Mercy.
One word could means the sanctuary of someone’s soul. One word that could be the clemency and compassion for someone who has been a victim of racism and prejudice even as a prestigious Harvard lawyer as Bryan Stevenson, in a jail making a routine visit to a client is harassed by an officer that tells him, “That truck out there with the KKK sticker, is mine.”
Bryan Stevenson is a social justice activist, the executive director of the Equal Justice Institute (EJI), a private non-profit 501 (c)(3) that provides legal representation to those who have been treated without the proper basic human-rights: fair and just treatment within the legal system and litigation in the public sphere.
St. Edward’s University Freshman student, Hailey Williams, has taken her stance in parallel with Stevenson because of how he emits peace in the social justice he brings when it is done for the right reasons.
In the conversation about the book Just Mercy by Stevenson, Williams sparked a memory of a night out in an art gallery on depression. She met a woman, who was doing a film about the gray area for children with autism and how there is a burden to be bared.
Stevenson reflects this in the interview with St. Edward’s University assistant professor of University Studies and director of the Freshman Studies program, Alex Barron. This generation will have to deal with the fallacies of the current adults.
The why for which Williams felt the appeal to peace during the interview is because Williams herself, is passionate about social justice and the fight for those who do not have a voice because it was taken from them.
As a future law school prospect at only 18 years old, Williams has found it within her to engage in her universities mission to welcome students of all ages, backgrounds and beliefs and a culturally diverse student body grappling not only the Holy Cross distinguished characteristics but the commitment to providing educational opportunities for students of varied cultural, religious, educational and economic background.
When the university held an assembly for Stevenson to do a book reading the Freshman in their Freshman Studies final event contended in their seats with vigor anticipation for the Q&A but foremost to the voice within their heads that they could now compare in equal to Stevenson during this encounter.
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