Southern-Based 'Justice' Group Named 2019 Dodd Prize Winner

STORRS, CT — An organization rooted in a stronghold of the Civil Rights Movement has been awarded the University of Connecticut's 2019 Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights.

The Equal Justice Initiative and its founder Bryan Stevenson, which has worked to end "mass incarceration and challenged racial and economic injustice" for 30 years, is scheduled to receive the Dodd Prize at UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center on Nov. 6.

Headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to "indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system and works to confront the history of racial injustice in America," according to the announcement.

The organization has won major legal challenges to excessive sentencing and illegal convictions, including reversals, release, or relief for over 145 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row. The group’s education and advocacy efforts include the Community Remembrance Project, which seeks to recognize the victims of lynching by erecting historical markers at lynching sites, and the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum.

The museum and memorial are part of Equal Justice Initiative’s work to advance truth and reconciliation around race in America and to more honestly confront the legacy of slavery, lynching, and segregation.

The Dodd Prize also means $100,000 to the organization, officials said.

See more about the Dodd Prize here.

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