Equal Justice Initiative Senior Attorney to Give UK Talk on Legacy of Racial Injustice in America

This Thursday, the University of Kentucky will welcome John Dalton, senior attorney for the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), to campus for a talk titled “Community Remembrance: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Injustice in America.”

In his talk, Dalton will connect the current work of the EJI to the Documenting Racial Violence in Kentucky (DRVK) project at UK. Led by Nikki Brown, associate professor of history, DRVK documents biographical narratives of persons lynched in Kentucky. All documents are created and assembled by undergraduate interns at UK.

“My work with this project has been very eye opening,” said Gracie Henderson, UK senior and DRVK intern. “Having Mr. Dalton come to campus is a great opportunity to hear about the work of the Equal Justice Initiative, and will also be an opportunity for audiences to see the connections between the DRVK project and racial injustices today.”  

The DRVK project was born from the scholarship of George Wright, Ph.D., UK professor of history and senior advisor to the UK president. Wright has produced groundbreaking research on Kentucky’s history of racial violence and published many books on the lived experiences of Black Americans. His work has aided DRVK in the research of this time in Kentucky’s history.  

“The invaluable work of Equal Justice Initiative is an acknowledgment of the injustice the Black community has endured throughout our nation’s history,” Wright said. “The mission of EJI is shared by a group of researchers at our own university who lead the Documenting Racial Violence in Kentucky project. Bringing injustice into the light enables us to memorialize victims and honor their lives.”

The event will take place at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 4, in the Athletic Association Auditorium in the William T. Young Library. It is free and open to the public.

For more information on DRVK project, visit http://drnikkibrown.createuky.net/drvk/.  

About John Dalton

Dalton graduated from Carson-Newman College with a B.A. in political science, history and religion. In 2009, he graduated from Stanford Law school and became a clerk for Judge Pamela Ann Rymer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Dalton also was an associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell. He has worked at EJI since 2012, having worked on many reports in its racial justice project area.  

About the Equal Justice Initiative

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is focused on ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the U.S., challenging racial and economic injustice and protecting basic human rights. It was founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson. To learn more about EJI, visit https://eji.org/.