Equal Justice lawyer to speak at Tulsa University College of Law

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Mar 27, 2008

Bryan A. Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., will present the eighth annual Buck Colbert Franklin Civil Rights Lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 9 in Chapel at the University of Tulsa.

Stevenson has represented death row prisoners in the South.

He has received the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year, the American Bar Association Wisdom Award for Public Service, the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the Olof Palme Prize for International Human Rights and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award.

The Buck Colbert Franklin Memorial Civil Rights Lecture was established to honor one of the first black attorneys in Oklahoma.

After the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Franklin, working in a tent as his offices and home were destroyed during the riot, represented clients, filed briefs and won a court decision striking down a city ordinance designed to prevent blacks from rebuilding their homes in Tulsa.

The lecture is free to the public.