Bryan Stevenson

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Discover Bryan Stevenson,
a leading American lawyer,
social justice activist,
and author dedicated
to combating
systemic injustice
and inequality in the US.

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Humbling

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The Power of Proximity with Bryan Stevenson

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10 apr 2021

Bryan Stevenson is a prominent American lawyer, social justice activist, and author who has dedicated his career to fighting against systemic injustice and inequality in the United States. Here are some key points about him:

  1. Stevenson was born on November 14, 1959, in Milton, Delaware.

  2. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985 and went on to work for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta.

  3. In 1989, he founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been wrongfully convicted or unfairly sentenced.

  4. Stevenson has represented clients on death row and has successfully argued several cases before the United States Supreme Court.

  5. He is the author of the bestselling book, “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” which chronicles his work as a lawyer and advocate.

  6. Stevenson has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, the NAACP Image Award, and the National Medal of Liberty.

  7. In addition to his legal work, Stevenson is a professor at New York University School of Law and has been a leading voice in conversations around race, inequality, and criminal justice reform in the United States.

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1 Chocolate Milkshake: The Power of Hope

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Gepubliceerd op 1 aug. 2015

 
Watch Bryan Stevenson’s inspiring story of hope. According to Stevenson, founder and president of the Equal Justice Initiative, without hope there is no justice. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls Stevenson, “America’s Nelson Mandela.” Join the Children’s Defense and advocates around the country and stand with us for children, together we can end child poverty now. http://ow.ly/P3m1p
 
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2 “Just Mercy”: Bryan Stevenson on instilling compassion in young adults

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Gepubliceerd op 19 sep. 2018

The U.S. incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world, according to the latest government data. In 2016, about 2 million people were in jails and prisons. That’s compared to less than 200,000 in 1972. The Equal Justice Initiative is a non-profit organization that provides legal representation for inmates, and works to end mass incarceration. Founder and executive director Bryan Stevenson joins “CBS This Morning” to discuss why he decided to turn his 2014 bestseller, “Just Mercy,” into a book for young adult readers.
 
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IMPORTANT SUMMARY OF THE CASE

3 Bryan Stevenson ’85 | “We can’t recover from this history until we deal with it.”

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Gepubliceerd op 30 jan. 2019

 
Bryan Stevenson ’85 discusses the legacy of slavery and the vision behind creating the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum in Montgomery Alabama. Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that provides legal assistance to death row prisoners, prisoners facing unduly harsh sentences, and juveniles sentenced as adults. Camera: Martin Albert Lorin Granger Interview: Chris Jennings

4 “They Couldn’t Take My Soul”: Anthony Ray Hinton on His Exoneration After 30 Years on Death Row

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Gepubliceerd op 6 apr. 2015

 
http://democracynow.org – Days after being exonerated and freed from an Alabama prison, Anthony Ray Hinton recounts how he got through nearly 30 years on death row as an innocent man. Hinton was convicted of murdering two fast-food managers in separate robberies in 1985, based on scant evidence that later turned out to be false. Hinton is said to be among the longest-serving death row prisoners ever to be freed after presenting evidence of innocence. Hinton joins us along with his attorney, Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, who says race, poverty, inadequate legal assistance, and prosecutorial indifference to innocence conspired to create a textbook example of injustice. “This is a very powerful demonstration of the critique of the American criminal justice system, which we contend treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent,” Stevenson says.

5 Anthony Ray Hinton: How he survived Death Row

10 mei 2015

Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on Alabama’s Death Row. In his first interview with local media, after his release in April, 2015, Hinton describes what it was like on Death Row and the challenges he faces as a free man after years of incarceration

6 Just Mercy: Race and the Criminal Justice System with Bryan Stevenson

Gepubliceerd op 27 jun. 2017

 
Bryan Stevenson, acclaimed public interest lawyer and founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative delivers the 2016 Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Speaker Lecture on race and the criminal justice system. A roundtable conversation featuring Jennifer Eberhardt, Gary Segura, Robert Weisberg, JD ’79, Bryan Stevenson, and Katie Couric follows Bryan Stevenson’s keynote address.
 
OpenXChange is a year-long, student-focused initiative on campus that aims to encourage meaningful dialogue around tough issues.
 
This is the first in a series of discussions with Stanford faculty and global experts on criminal justice, inequality and international conflict.
 
This event was recorded on Wednesday, Jan 13, 2016
 
37′

7 February 14, 2016: Sunday Sermon by Bryan Stevenson

 

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Gepubliceerd op 14 feb. 2016

 
 
February 14, 2016: Sunday Worship Service at Washington National Cathedral. Join us for the celebration of Holy Eucharist on the first Sunday in Lent. Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, preaches and the Rev. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas presides.

8 Cocktails & Conversations with Bryan Stevenson and Damien Echols at First-Year Experience® 2015

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Gepubliceerd op 5 mrt. 2015

Bryan Stevenson, author of JUST MERCY: A STORY OF JUSTICE AND REDEMPTION (Random House) and Damien Echols, author of LIFE AFTER DEATH (Plume) in conversation on social justice at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) 2015 Conference in Dallas, TX.

Moderated by New York Times journalist and MORE AWESOME THAN MONEY: FOUR BOYS AND THEIR HEROIC QUEST TO SAVE YOUR PRIVACY FROM FACEBOOK (Viking) author Jim Dwyer.

BRYAN STEVENSON is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a tenured professor of law at New York University Law School. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.

DAMIEN ECHOLS was born in 1974 and grew up in Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. At age eighteen he was wrongfully convicted of murder, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley, Jr. Echols received a death sentence and spent almost eighteen years on Death Row, until he, Baldwin, and Misskelley were released in 2011. The West Memphis Three have been the subject of Paradise Lost, a three-part documentary series produced by HBO, and West of Memphis, a documentary produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Echols is the author of Almost Home,the New York Times bestseller, Life After Death, and, with his wife Lorri Davis, Yours for Eternity. He lives in New York.

9 Bryan Stevenson at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) 2015 Random House Luncheon

Gepubliceerd op 4 mrt. 2015

 
Bryan Stevenson, author of JUST MERCY: A STORY OF JUSTICE AND REDEMPTION (Random House), speaks about his book at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) 2015 Conference in Dallas, TX.

10 Bryan Stevenson: Doing the Uncomfortable (from GRID14)

 

Gepubliceerd op 24 okt. 2017

 
Hailing from Montgomery, Alabama, Bryan Stevenson is widely acclaimed as one of the most effective public service lawyers in America. A Harvard Law School graduate, he has devoted his life to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu describes him as “America’s young Nelson Mandela, a brilliant lawyer fighting with courage and conviction to guarantee justice for all.” Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative and has been largely responsible for reversals or reduced sentences in over 65 death penalty cases.

11 The Forum: Professor of Clinical Law Bryan Stevenson on Just Mercy


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Gepubliceerd op 3 apr. 2015
Milbank Tweed Forum: A talk by Professor of Clinical Law Bryan Stevenson on his recently published book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Followed by Q&A moderated by Dean Trevor Morrison

This event was co-sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice

“Just Mercy is every bit as moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so. . . . [It] demonstrates, as powerfully as any book on criminal justice that I’ve ever read, the extent to which brutality, unfairness, and racial bias continue to infect criminal law in the United States. But at the same time that [Bryan] Stevenson tells an utterly damning story of deep-seated and widespread injustice, he also recounts instances of human compassion, understanding, mercy, and justice that offer hope. . . . Just Mercy is a remarkable amalgam, at once a searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.”
—David Cole, The New York Review of Books

“A searing, moving and infuriating memoir . . . Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela. For decades he has fought judges, prosecutors and police on behalf of those who are impoverished, black or both. . . . Injustice is easy not to notice when it affects people different from ourselves; that helps explain the obliviousness of our own generation to inequity today. We need to wake up. And that is why we need a Mandela in this country.”
—Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

This event was held on April 1, 2015.

IMPORTANT VIDEO

12 The Equity Series: Truth and Reconciliation – Bryan Stevenson with Khalil G. Muhammad | MoMA LIVE

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Live gestreamd op 30 okt. 2015
Bryan Stevenson joins Khalil G. Muhammad, director of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, for a conversation on the relationship between U.S. racial history and contemporary social justice issues; the EJI’s Lynching Project; and the roles that cultural institutions can play by acknowledging, discussing, and commemorating historical events.

This conversation is the first in our Equity Series, public conversations that address the meaning of equity in contemporary culture and society, and the steps required for progress. The series is organized by The Museum of Modern Art and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Learn more: http://bit.ly/1G5WdJT

In advance of the conversation, MoMA curator Leah Dickerman shares a few helpful references on Bryan Stevenson’s work and the Equal Justice Initiative:

1. Bryan Stevenson at TED 2012: ‘We need to talk about an injustice’ : http://bit.ly/1odxsyf
2. “Bryan Stevenson: America’s Mandela,” The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/20…
3. New York Times Book Review of ‘Just Mercy,’ by Bryan Stevenson: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/boo…
4. EJI’s Lynching Project: http://www.eji.org/lynchinginamerica
5. “Slavery to Mass Incarceration,” an animated short film by artist Molly Crabapple: http://www.eji.org/slaveryevolved

Educational

13 Bryan Stevenson: “Confronting Injustice” | SXSW Live 2015 | SXSW ON


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Gepubliceerd op 29 apr. 2015

Gepubliceerd op 29 apr. 2015
Bryan Stevenson talks about defending some of America’s most rejected and marginalized people. The stories he tells are heartbreaking, yet inspiring, and motivate audiences to make a change.

America has the largest prison population in the world – and the criminal justice system that puts the men, women, and children in these prisons is broken. Excessive punishment and abuse are widespread, and the collateral consequences are devastating lives and communities.

Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/user/sxsw?sub_…

About SXSW:
Started in 1987, South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of film, interactive, and music festivals and conferences that take place early each year in mid-March in Austin, Texas. SXSW’s original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas. That continues to be the goal today whether it is music, film or interactive technologies.

14 Bryan Stevenson accepts Public Counsel’s 2016 William O. Douglas Award

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Gepubliceerd op 7 jul. 2016

 
Bryan Stevenson accepts Public Counsel’s 2016 William O. Douglas Award on June 30th in Los Angeles.
 
 
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15 Is it healthy for America’s identity to keep our eyes closed?

 

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8 aug. 2012

How do our individual identities shape society? Bryan Stevenson argues that to change a system that isn’t working, we have to question our own role in it.
 
IMPORTANT VIDEO: content
 
Minute 14’45”: things who are unconfortable
 
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16 Grace, Justice, & Mercy: An Evening with Bryan Stevenson & Rev. Tim Keller

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3 jun. 2016

In an age of mass incarceration and growing racial tension, how can a church committed to the flourishing of a whole city engage as ambassadors of reconciliation and restoration? Bryan Stevenson & Tim Keller will help us explore ways to sustain hope through a grace filled pursuit of justice and mercy as they draw from their own calling and work.

Bryan Stevenson is one of this nation’s most influential public interest lawyers and the Founder & Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. For over 30 years, Stevenson has dedicated his life to help release those wrongly condemned on death row. He has also successfully advocated to eliminate the prosecution of children as adults. Leading the charge for a renewed conversation about racism in the US by connecting contemporary injustices with slavery, lynching, and segregation, Stevenson is the bestselling author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

Rev. Tim Keller has committed his life to presenting the gospel – through preaching, teaching, and church planting – in ways that challenge not just our heads but our hearts to bring about lasting transformation. Co-founder and Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church for the last 27 years, Tim is also a prolific author. His many books have been translated into 26 languages.

17 Grace, Justice, & Mercy: An Evening with Bryan Stevenson & Rev. Tim Keller Q &A

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3 jun. 2016

In an age of mass incarceration and growing racial tension, how can a church committed to the flourishing of a whole city engage as ambassadors of reconciliation and restoration? Bryan Stevenson & Tim Keller will help us explore ways to sustain hope through a grace filled pursuit of justice and mercy as they draw from their own calling and work.

Bryan Stevenson is one of this nation’s most influential public interest lawyers and the Founder & Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. For over 30 years, Stevenson has dedicated his life to help release those wrongly condemned on death row. He has also successfully advocated to eliminate the prosecution of children as adults. Leading the charge for a renewed conversation about racism in the US by connecting contemporary injustices with slavery, lynching, and segregation, Stevenson is the bestselling author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

Rev. Tim Keller has committed his life to presenting the gospel – through preaching, teaching, and church planting – in ways that challenge not just our heads but our hearts to bring about lasting transformation. Co-founder and Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church for the last 27 years, Tim is also a prolific author. His many books have been translated into 26 languages.

Moderated by: Pamela Brown-Peterside is a long-time member of Redeemer’s Grace & Race group and has been working at Redeemer for 8 years. She currently oversees a team that cares for 90 community groups that are part of our West Side congregation. Community groups meet throughout the week usually in people’s apartments to worship, pray, study the Bible, and serve together. Before joining the Redeemer staff, Pamela worked in HIV/AIDS prevention with women in the South Bronx for almost a decade and saw firsthand the effects of poverty and mass incarceration in those communities of color. Originally from Nigeria, she has lived in New York City for over 20 years.

18 The urgent need for reconciliation in the United States | Bryan Stevenson

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15 aug. 2017

Located in Montgomery, Alabama, the Memorial to Peace and Justice relates America’s history of racial terror and lynching. In this powerful, off-the-cuff conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson, Bryan Stevenson shares why he hopes the memorial will be a tool to help heal a nation riven by centuries of racial injustice. 
 
(Note, Bryan spoke at the end of the TED Talk by architect Michael Murphy, designer of the memorial.) https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_mur… 
 
TEDArchive presents previously unpublished talks from TED conferences. Enjoy this unedited talk by Bryan Stevenson. Filmed at TED2016.

19 Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

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15 mei 2012

In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness. Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.

20 The Power of Proximity | CEO Initiative 2018

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With leadership comes responsibility. A heartfelt challenge to turn the narrative of racial indifference and create a more just world – from a preeminent champion of the poor, marginalized, and discluded.
 
Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
 
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21 True Justice (2019) | Official Trailer | HBO

10 jun. 2019

 
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality shows public interest attorney Bryan Stevenson’s struggle to create greater fairness in the legal system and demonstrates how racial injustice emerged, evolved and continues to threaten the country, challenging viewers to confront it. True Justice premieres June 26 at 8 PM.

22 Bryan Stevenson on Evening the Odds in American Justice

Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright established the constitutional right of criminal defendants to legal representation, even if they can’t afford it. The Court ruled there shouldn’t be one kind of justice for the rich and another for the poor, but the scales of the American legal system still tilt heavily in favor of the white and wealthy. Attorney and legal scholar Bryan Stevenson joins Bill to expose the system’s failures, and ongoing struggles at the crossroads of race, class and justice.
 
IMPORTANT CONTENT
About bad layers
 
Janus Kannuberg
From this talk I learned how unfairly poor people and racial minorities are being treated by the american legal system. It is also troubling to hear that that a quarter of a million kids are in jail and prison. Bryan Stevenson is a true hero for challenging the injustice in the legal system.
Rebecca Haynes
What a beautiful human being!
deluge17895
God bless you Bryan Stevenson
BEINGWILDER
I had the great fortune of seeing Stevenson speak recently. I was compelled to reexamine my commitments and efforts to making our society more just and compassionate. My heart aches each time he speaks of holding crying children or clients condemned to death in his arms in an attempt to let them know that they are not alone and forgotten. He embodies the adage that says that one person indeed can make a difference!
hermease
I am so touched by this man and his commitment.
Ngonyo wa Mwavuo
This is how you conduct an interview. Bill Moyers is a wonderful interview!
Dr. Edwconr
its because the funding of US cities, counties and states depends on ‘non taxable fundraising’ including criminalizing innocent persons.
T G
Stevenson needs to feel what the victims and their families feel. I want to see him lose the most precious person to him to the most vile and heinous crime. And then let’s see how much empathy he has for the perpetrator(s). We know he cares nothing for the victims.
Marky Ortiz
Mr. Stevenson will be in Santa Fe NM at the Lensic January 15, 2014. http://www.lannan.org/events/bryan-stevenson-with-liliana-segura/
Darius Oba Williams
Who is Mr. Stevenson behind the spotlight? Does he actually practice mercy? How often does he encourage human proximity? Let me tell a little bit about what is to work for him (via HIS Montgomery-based organization, the Equal Justice Initiative): 1. Managers reward subservience, taking orders, and not thinking critically or independently; 2. All assignments and tasks must come from Bryan Stevenson, the Executive Director, and even senior staff members are not authorized to pull people in on projects. This results in staff having long periods of time–weeks on end–with no work to do; 3. There is no professional training or development as well as lots of passive aggression; 4. There is no human resources department to address employee grievances; 5. People–including legal and non-legal staff–are treated with no respect, are policed, censured, and micromanaged; 6. Various forms of control prevail, namely: divide and conquer, silent treatment, emotional blackmail, isolation, humiliation, cheap flattering combined with retaliation, and direct and indirect threats. That is not all: EJI also lacks transparency with the public and with grantors in regard to how money is spent, where it is allocated, how many clients EJI has and what the outcomes in those cases were. Lastly, I cannot forget to mention the fact that the Board of Directors (if it still exists) exercises no de facto oversight of EJI and its affairs.
Nana NoNo
A first for me, had never heard of Byran Stevenson before today, He was talking about our unjust legal system, I thought wow, intelligent, very well spoken, he must of had a really good mother unlike millions of black Americans. I like him and would like to support him in anyway I can……Until racism started falling out of his mouth, I’m feeling gutted, so disappointing. He’s a racist, it’s all about race and people like this keeps racism thriving in black communities. He’s just an educated Al Sharpton. I checked out his justice page and even more racism there in which black ppl are always the victim., I don’t understand how people who sound so bright could be racist, you think they would be smarter than that! On his page he has several articles, one of which is about voter laws being racist which is complete bullshit, the cover pic is of black WOMEN very happy to now be able to vote. He is very manipulating talking about black PEOPLE not being allowed to vote during slavery and long after SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WERE BLACK which is NOT TRUE. When voting started It was about whether you owned property, your religion, or whether you were a man or a woman first. BLACK MEN got the right to vote in 1870, 50 years before any women, white, black, brown, Asian, etc. were allowed to vote but he doesn’t mention any of that, instead he makes it sound like it was all about race, all about the horrible racist white men not allowing black ppl their voting rights. This guy will do more damage to American blacks than Al Sharpton did because he’s more intelligent and a better speaker, he’ll have them mentally enslaved in the ghettos all throughout America for decades to come. I’m betting when I hear him speak more on slavery it will be only the slavery of blacks in America by evil white men. He won’t discuss any of the millions of white people enslaved, the millions of white people kidnapped, enslaved and murdered by Africans or that slavery continues in Africa today or that Albinos must live in hiding or be murdered, hacked off arms & legs. Africans were the most racist people on the planet, even within their own race, Rwanda as one example but today it’s black Americans aka African Americans who commit the majority of hate/race crimes but America ignores this and media won’t even report it in fear ppl would scream racism. Horrible brutal crimes in which whites have been tortured to death by blacks, they’ve even murdered children and tourists for being white. Black male teens are the most dangerous and deadly men in our country, we can thank Al Sharpton as he has contributed greatly to that. Black males at about 7% of the population commit more than half the murders in this country. I often wonder if white people could go back in time knowing what they know now would they chose to just murder every slave like Africans and others did rather than fighting and dying to free slaves? The ONLY color that mattered during slavery in America was GREEN, not black or white. It was about economics far more than it was about race. They use to get Irish men to do jobs deemed to dangerous for slaves but you won’t hear him discussing that or anything

 

One is simply the quote the old man says, which is

“You’ve got to beat the drum for justice.” 

It is a relatively short quote, and yet it is so powerful and says so much.

It implies that you have to call for justice loudly like a drum, that you have to keep at it like the steady pace of a drum being beaten.

4 okt. 2016

23 ‘Just Mercy’ and the real-life story of the attorney who exonerated death row inmates l Nightline

11 jan. 2020

The film’s stars Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx discuss their roles. An exonerated death row inmate and the attorney who freed him share their perspective behind the movie.

24 Bryan Stevenson Interview Selects – True Justice


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18 sep. 2019

Selects from our interview with Bryan Stevenson for the HBO / Kunhardt Film Foundation Documentary “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight For Equality.”
 
Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of The Equal Justice Initiative

 
IMPORTANT VIDEO

25 Bryan Stevenson on Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

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8 mei 2015

Rich Fahle interviews attorney and author Bryan Stevenson about the his book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

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26 JUST MERCY Cast and Crew Q&A | TIFF 2019

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7 sep. 2019

Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson star in the powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan), who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian (Foxx), a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them. From director Destin Daniel Cretton, based on the book by Stevenson.

Some films have the depth, grace, and emotional power to feel like classics from the very first viewing. Just Mercy is that film. Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson lead an impressive cast in Destin Daniel Cretton’s deeply moving drama of justice in America.

Bryan Stevenson (Jordan), a Harvard law graduate, turns his back on more comfortable and lucrative work, returning south to help prisoners in Monroe County, Alabama. With the help of Eva Ansley (Larson), a local equally committed to prisoner’s rights, he sets up a small office to take on the most challenging of cases — death row inmates. It’s 1989, but walking into the W.C. Holman Correctional Facility is like stepping back into the South before Civil Rights.

Walter McMillian (Foxx) was arrested for killing a white woman, pushed through a shoddy trial, then deposited on death row, where he joined other desperate men who may or may not have committed the crimes that landed them there. The local authorities are actively indifferent to the truth of these men’s cases, but Stevenson and Ansley are determined to hold the justice system accountable.

Jordan adds new layers to the intensity and commanding presence he brought to the Creed movies and Black Panther, while Foxx (Ray, Collateral) gives one of the best performances of his career. Cretton (Short Term 12) crafts each performance, each scene, in Just Mercy to add to the cumulative power of a film that is not just a true story, but a story committed to revealing truths.

At minute 10: Bryan Stevenson is talking


Minute 14:30

Minute 17

Educational

Walter McMillian was a Black man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman in Alabama in 1988. His case became a symbol of the systemic racism and injustice in the American criminal justice system. Here are some key points about Walter McMillian:

  1. Walter McMillian was born on October 27, 1941, in Monroeville, Alabama.

  2. McMillian was a successful businessman and family man before he was wrongfully accused of the murder of Ronda Morrison.

  3. Morrison was a young white woman who was murdered in 1986. McMillian was falsely accused of the crime based on the testimony of a convicted criminal who was coerced into lying by the local sheriff’s department.

  4. McMillian was arrested and charged with capital murder, and despite a lack of evidence linking him to the crime, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

  5. McMillian spent six years on death row before his conviction was overturned in 1993 by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The court found that the prosecution had withheld evidence that could have helped McMillian’s defense.

  6. McMillian’s case was documented in the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted.

  7. The story of Walter McMillian’s wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration has become a symbol of the injustice and systemic racism in the American criminal justice system, particularly in the Deep South.

27 Bryan Stevenson: “Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption”

 

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19 feb. 2016

Professor Bryan Stevenson of NYU Law School, one of America’s leading human rights lawyers and clinical law professors, offered his reflections and vision on how to confront injustice and build a just society at a public lecture at Melbourne Law School on 19 February 2015.
 
He also launched his New York Times Top 10 best seller, Just Mercy, a memoir of his experience in tackling racism and injustice in the American justice system.

28 You Don’t Create Justice by Doing What is Comfortable | Bryan Stevenson | Google Zeitgeist

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21 okt. 2015

Google Zeitgeist is a collection of talks by people who are changing the world. Hear entrepreneurs, CEOs, storytellers, scientists, and dreamers share their visions of how we can shape tomorrow.
 
IMPORTANT VIDEO
 
EMOTIONAL
 
We are responsible Proximity

29 Bryan Stevenson Speaks on “Just Mercy” Themes: St. Edward’s University

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7 okt. 2015

St. Edward’s University

Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of “Just Mercy,” speaks with St. Edward’s University faculty member Alex Barron about the importance of advocating for social justice and truth and reconciliation in the criminal justice system. Stevenson’s visit to St. Edward’s in Austin, Texas, included classroom discussions with students and a speech to the university community.

About St. Edward’s University:
St. Edward’s University is a private, liberal arts college in the Catholic Holy Cross Tradition with approximately 4,600 students. Located in Austin, Texas, it is one of the top universities in Texas and offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including MBA programs and a master’s degree in counseling. With a network of partner universities around the world, St. Edward’s is a diverse community with programs designed to inspire students with a global perspective. St. Edward’s University has been recognized for 15 consecutive years as one of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report and ranks in the top 15 Best Regional Universities in the Western Region.

IMPORTANT VIDEO

30 Bryan Stevenson’s Remarkable Speech On How To Change The World


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21 mrt. 2017

 
23 nov 2017

 

Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, spoke to the College at the 2017 Spring Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida.
 
IMPORTANT VIDEO

31 Tavis Smiley & Bryan Stevenson: Dr. King’s Beyond Vietnam Speech

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5 apr. 2017

Leading with conviction and hope, and the need for redemption.
 
IMPORTANT VIDEO

32 The Future of Race and Inequality in the United States

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4 mrt. 2017

Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law Launch Event
February 27, 2017
Tishman Auditorium

“The Future of Race and Inequality in the United States,” the inaugural conversation of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law.

Moderated by:
Tony Thompson, Professor of Clinical Law and Faculty Director of NYU Law’s Center on Race, Inequality and the Law

Speakers:
The Honorable Loretta E. Lynch, 83rd Attorney General of the United States
Sherrilyn Ifill ’87, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Bryan Stevenson, NYU Law Professor of Clinical Law, Founder and Executive Director of Equal Justice Initiative

IMPORTANT VIDEO

 

Lector starts at minute 6: powerfull start

People of good conscience

33 Race and History

22 jul. 2016

The Aspen Institute

As the US continues to grapple with issues of race, history is proving to be an invaluable tool to underscore and discuss uncomfortable truths still governing the difficult dynamics of race in America.

How can history help us face and overcome such uncomfortable truths? How can history help slay our ignorance?

Drew Gilpin Faust interviews Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of Equal Justice Initiative

Aspen Ideas Festival 2016

IMPORTANT VIDEO

34 Terror Lynching in America

11 okt. 2016

Our history of racial terror casts a shadow across the U.S. landscape. We must engage it more honestly.

35 Bryan Stevenson Q&A following a screening of JUST MERCY

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26 nov. 2019

American Film Institute

Subscribe to this channel for exclusive videos from AFI: http://bit.ly/SubscribeAFI

Following a screening of JUST MERCY, social justice attorney Bryan Stevenson talks to NBC News’ Simone Boyce about the film based on his life. This Q&A took place at AFI FEST 2019 presented by Audi in November 2019.

Based on Stevenson’s book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” this heartening, powerful drama directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (SHORT TERM 12) stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson and tells the story of one of Stevenson’s most provocative cases.

IMPORTANT VIDEO

36 We need to talk about an injustice – Bryan Stevenson

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12 apr. 2013

 
In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness. Talk by Bryan Stevenson.
 
VERY IMPORTANT VIDEO: content
 
e.g. at minute 19

37 American Forum: Equal Justice?

31 jul. 2016

 
Civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, returns to discuss solutions for the crisis in criminal justice.
 
VERY IMPORTANT VIDEO: content

38 Faith Forum: Bryan Stevenson

21 feb. 2016

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a professor of law at New York University School of Law. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. His book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, chronicles his experiences defending those most desperate and in need.
 
VERY IMPORTANT VIDEO: content

39 Why Is It So Hard to Talk About America’s Past? – Extended Interview | America Inside Out

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12 apr. 2018

Katie Couric and Bryan Stevenson, Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, discuss the history and significance of confederate monuments and memorials, and why to many they represent a painful and powerful reminder of America’s past.
 
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40 Bryan Stevenson | Opening Plenary | SkollWF 2018

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12 apr. 2018

Bryan Stevenson speaks at the Opening Plenary at the Skoll World Forum.

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults. EJI recently won an historic ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court holding that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger are unconstitutional.

Mr. Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government, and has been awarded 29 honorary doctorate degrees. He is the author of award winning and New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy.

In 2015, he was named to the Time 100 recognizing the world’s most influential people. He was named in Fortune’s 2016 and 2017 World’s Greatest Leaders list. In 2018, EJI will open a new museum called “The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration” built on the site of a former slave warehouse in downtown Montgomery Alabama. This will be a companion to a national memorial to victims of lynching called “The National Memorial for Peace and Justice” which will also open in 2018.

About the Skoll World Forum:
Each year, nearly 1,000 of the world’s most influential social entrepreneurs, key thought leaders, and strategic partners gather at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School to exchange ideas, solutions, and information. The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is the premier international platform for advancing entrepreneurial approaches and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.

BOOKMARK

41 Walter McMillian on 60 Minutes

 

42 Extended Interview: Bryan Stevenson Reflects On America’s Painful Past | NBC Nightly News

Gepubliceerd op 12 okt. 2018

 
Bryan Stevenson, the founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative, talks to Lester Holt about Montgomery’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice and remembering the country’s painful past, in hopes for a better future.
 
Bovenstaande video geeft de voorgeschiedenis van het racisme vernoemd in het begin van de video  door Jonathan Roberts op de tweede webpagina:
 
“back in my father’s day, students who look like him, like me, were pushed out of schools like this. Before my mother even turned 16, white families around this country rioted against integration”
 Listen at  5′ and 7′
 
BOOKMARK

43 Bryan Stevenson | The Weekly [EXTENDED INTERVIEW]

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3 aug. 2015

See Charlie’s full, extended talk with Bryan Stevenson.

44 Jamie Foxx Reveals His Deeply Personal Connection to ‘Just Mercy”

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9 jan. 2020

Jamie Foxx explained to Ellen why “Just Mercy,” the true story of attorney Bryan Stevenson’s dedication to exonerating wrongfully convicted people, is extremely personal because of a similar situation with his own father.
 
 

45 Cocktails & Conversations with Bryan Stevenson and Damien Echols at First-Year Experience® 2015

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5 mrt. 2015

Bryan Stevenson, author of JUST MERCY: A STORY OF JUSTICE AND REDEMPTION (Random House) and Damien Echols, author of LIFE AFTER DEATH (Plume) in conversation on social justice at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) 2015 Conference in Dallas, TX.

Moderated by New York Times journalist and MORE AWESOME THAN MONEY: FOUR BOYS AND THEIR HEROIC QUEST TO SAVE YOUR PRIVACY FROM FACEBOOK (Viking) author Jim Dwyer.

BRYAN STEVENSON is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a tenured professor of law at New York University Law School. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.

DAMIEN ECHOLS was born in 1974 and grew up in Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. At age eighteen he was wrongfully convicted of murder, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley, Jr. Echols received a death sentence and spent almost eighteen years on Death Row, until he, Baldwin, and Misskelley were released in 2011. The West Memphis Three have been the subject of Paradise Lost, a three-part documentary series produced by HBO, and West of Memphis, a documentary produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Echols is the author of Almost Home,the New York Times bestseller, Life After Death, and, with his wife Lorri Davis, Yours for Eternity. He lives in New York.

46 “Just Mercy”: Bryan Stevenson on Ferguson, Prison Reform & Why the Opposite of Poverty is Justice

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20 nov. 2014

http://democracynow.org – As Ferguson awaits the grand jury’s decision in the Michael Brown shooting in Missouri, we speak to attorney Bryan Stevenson, author of the new book, “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.” With growing focus on the failures of the criminal justice system, Stevenson has been fighting those injustices case by case. He is founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a group based in Alabama that represents some of this country’s most marginalized people — the poor and the wrongfully convicted. Stevenson has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court six times. In 2012, he won a landmark Supreme Court case that barred states from giving mandatory life sentences without parole to children. The Nobel Prize-winning South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called Stevenson “America’s young Mandela.” Others have compared him to Atticus Finch, the fearless, fictional hero of Harper Lee’s seminal novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Stevenson’s book tells many stories, but focuses in particular on his battle to free an African-American man named Walter McMillian, who was falsely convicted and condemned to die for killing a white woman in Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Stevenson joins us to discuss his work, the situation in Ferguson, and why he argues that the opposite of poverty is not wealth, but justice.
 
Lua Veli
” Just Mercy” is an absolutely life changing book. You won’t be the same person after reading that wonderful book. Please read it and give it as present to everyone you know. It is the least we can do!
TransmissionFilms
Great interview. I want to check out his book now! 
rolaz productions
2 problems I see. 1. Money/Lobbyists in Congress/Government. 2. Prison as a private entity.
Mick Brenda
In the cases I’ve read, it’s usually the nature of the crime that causes these kids to be tried as adults. The worse the crime, the more likely the child to be tried as an adult. Its nuts
typheran1
Unless the transcripts from the GJ say something different, this case was about ACTIONS not race. You can not assault people with impunity. Asking to do so is asking for special right, not equal rights. To say this is a black thing is to equate black people to thugs, which is wrong. Not all black people assault cops or rob stores. There are probably better examples of inequality than Mike Brown. Unless people come to terms with this young mans actions then this will continue to be a divided topic. I stopped listening at Slavery… no black person alive in the US was a slave (at least not in the US) Slavery is still prevalent in Africa and some other parts of the world, but not the US. To acquaint the two is a misrepresentation of how the US works. There are economic issues, but you see people of other colors (including white) suffer from that too, perhaps not on the same scale, but it is there. There are other factors too.. court sentencing terms. Those inequalities have been shown to exist, but again what they have to do with this case I can’t see, and neither can most of America. Racism is also a two way street. Recently we’ve watched Ferguson protesters assault a white protester live streaming during a meeting, even though black streamers were doing likewise. We’ve also watched black protesters assault white drivers that asked them to stop blocking traffic. as of yet I’ve not seen the same happen to a black motorist. Equal rights should be for everyone and I’ll protest with you to get them. Special rights however… I’ll never support.
gringots
This has everything to do with the drug war.
Halo Movie Music
I judge people by the way they Act, Not the Color of there skin.
4teepee
Pants up! Don’t loot!
Louis Murphy
Let’s get realistic America will never let go of it’s racist slavery and plantation mindset. Given to Americans by their racist and slave plantation benefiting founding fathers. The founding fathers are just  like the two brothers raised by wolves Romulus and Remus the founders of the roman empire. Today in America Romulus & Remus are the democrat & republican party plantations.
Joan Wilder
All this nonsense over this one stupid death.  The guy robbed a store and disobeyed police directions.  GIVE IT A REST.

47 True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight For Equality (HBO / KUNHARDT FILMS, 2019)

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23 dec. 2019


HBO Documentary Films and Kunhardt Film Foundation present “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight For Equality.”

In the last half-century, America has become the nation with the highest rate of incarceration in the world, authorized the execution of hundreds of condemned prisoners and continued to struggle to recover from a long history of racial injustice. For more than three decades, Alabama public interest attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has advocated on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned, seeking to eradicate racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. An intimate portrait of this remarkable man, True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality follows his struggle to create greater fairness in the system and shows how racial injustice emerged, evolved and continues to threaten the country, challenging viewers to confront it.

To host a screening of True Justice, please email truejustice@picturemotion.com

The Kunhardt Film Foundation provides educational materials and resources to complement the viewing of the film, including an Engagement Guide, Lesson Plans, a Photo Archive, and an additional three hours of interview footage. Please visit: http://www.Kunhardtfilmfoundation.org

Kunhardt Films’ HBO credits include the Emmy-winning Jim: The James Foley Story, the Emmy-winning Teddy: In His Own Words, the Emmy-nominated Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, the Emmy-nominated Gloria: In Her Own Words, The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee, Becoming Warren Buffett, King in the Wilderness and John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls.

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality is a co-production of HBO and Kunhardt Films; produced and directed by Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt and Teddy Kunhardt; executive produced by Trey Ellis and Peter Kunhardt; edited and produced by Maya Mumma, ACE. For HBO: executive produced by Jacqueline Glover, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller

48 Bryan Stevenson on Social Justice and the Value of International Education – Up Close at NAFSA 2016

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Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, discusses his work in social justice, why it’s important to do uncomfortable things in order to achieve change, and the value of international education in this Up Close interview from the NAFSA 2016 Annual Conference & Expo.

49 Bryan Stevenson on Social Justice and the Value of International Education – Up Close at NAFSA 2016

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Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, discusses his work in social justice, why it’s important to do uncomfortable things in order to achieve change, and the value of international education in this Up Close interview from the NAFSA 2016 Annual Conference & Expo.

50 Beyond Colonial Histories: Transatlantic Slave Trade – Professor Bryan Stevenson | United Nations

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51 Donkey Delivery Prank

28 apr. 2011

One of our favourites. Post Canada delivers a donkey to people’s homes. A presentation of the Just For Laughs Gags. The funny hidden camera pranks show for the whole family. Juste pour rire les gags, l’émission de caméra cachée la plus comique de la télé!

True Learning

Humbling

“You cared about me”

Words of wisdom

Confucius

Reflections on Life

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