Growing up poor and Black in Jim Crow America, how we treat the poor has always been of paramount importance to me.
That is why my first job out of law school in 1979 was with Farmworkers Legal Services of NC. In 1982, I accepted a position as Assistant Public Defender in Charlotte. Serving as a Public Defender was civil rights lawyering in my view.
As Bryan Stevenson says, “we have a system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent." To the extent possible, I wanted to change that.
Please join me on the morning of Feb.17 at the Carrboro Century Center as I discuss My Effort to Make Black Lives Matter.
