According to Morgan State University President David K. Wilson, Bryan Stevenson will deliver the keynote address at the university’s 2026 spring commencement.
The university announced the selection April 8 on several social media platforms. Keynote speakers are chosen by Wilson, who said he is open to recommendations from faculty and students.
“Stevenson’s selection as keynote speaker reflects Morgan’s longstanding commitment to cultivating graduates who are not only academically accomplished but also socially conscious and driven to effect meaningful change,” the university said in an official announcement.
Stevenson is the executive director and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama.
According to the website, the organization works on legal challenges at the local, state and national levels, including “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.”
Outside the courtroom, the Equal Justice Initiative develops “legacy sites,” including public parks and museums that connect mass incarceration and racial bias to slavery, lynching and segregation in the United States.
Stevenson’s 2014 memoir, ‘Just Mercy’, became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and was named one of Time magazine’s best nonfiction books of 2014.
The film won four NAACP Image Awards, including outstanding motion picture, with acting honors for Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.
“It describes our work over the last 30 years of challenging wrongful conviction, unfair sentences,” Stevenson said in a promotional video for “Just Mercy.”
“We believe all of us have to engage in challenging this problem.”
After graduating from Eastern University and Harvard University, Stevenson began his legal career representing death row inmates, an experience detailed in his book.
He is now an award-winning author, professor and attorney.
Stevenson has received dozens of awards in education, media and human rights. During the commencement ceremony, he will also receive an honorary doctorate from the university.
The School of Undergraduate Studies will hold its commencement ceremony May 14, 2026, at 10 a.m.
Undergraduate students are expected to arrive at Hughes Memorial Stadium by 8:30 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. processional.
