Bryan Stevenson
The National Institute of Social Sciences is delighted to announce Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, as one of the 2024 Honorees for its Gold Honor Medal for distinguished service to society and humanity.
The National Institute will celebrate Mr. Stevenson and the other Honorees at the 110th Annual Gold Medal Gala, which will be held in person in New York City on Tuesday, December 10, 2024. We hope you will be able to join us to honor Mr. Stevenson and our other extraordinary Honorees and their accomplishments.
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. 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.
Mr. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.
Mr. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.
He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy, which was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 Best Books of Nonfiction for 2014. Mr. Stevenson is also the subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary True Justice. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government.
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One of the nation’s oldest honorary societies, the National Institute of Social Sciences has presented Gold Medals each year to men and women whose lives have manifested the highest achievements and who have made significant contributions to society and to humanity. This year’s Honorees joined a distinguished, diverse pantheon of Honorees that stretches back to 1913.
Recent Gold Medal Honorees include Jonathan F. Fanton, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and James H. and Marilyn H. Simons (2023); Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, Jennifer J. Raab, and Neil deGrasse Tyson (2022); Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Amartya Sen (2021); Max Stier, Darren Walker, and Judy Woodruff (2020); Paul Edward Farmer and Peter Gelb (2019); Daniel Kahneman, Geraldine Kunstadter, and Elizabeth Barlow Rogers (2018); Ron Chernow, Robert Shiller, and Michael Sovern (2017); Pauline Newman, Richard L. Ottinger, and Robert Putnam, (2016); and John Bogle, Paul Krugman, and Michelle Kwan (2015).
Previous Gold Medal Honorees, 1913-2023
About the National Institute of Social Sciences
Established in 1912, the National Institute of Social Sciences is a voluntary association of public-spirited citizens who explore issues of urgent and lasting concern. One of the nation’s oldest honorary societies, the National Institute sponsors speeches, discussions, and events that encourage balanced, non-partisan debate and discussion; celebrates distinguished Americans and world leaders who have contributed at the highest level to the welfare and improvement of society; and provides financial support to emerging scholars who are conducting research in the social sciences.