“Slavery doesn’t end in 1865, it evolves. It’s that century of lynching and terrorism. And then it becomes racial apartheid and Jim Crow segregation. And now it has become over-incarceration and excessive punishment.” —Bryan A. Stevenson Bryan A. Stevenson is a gift. As an attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative—an organization dedicated to providing legal services to those who live on the margins of society: the poor, incarcerated and condemned—one might say the 60-year-old is doing the Lord’s work. Recently, he’s become the subject of a film, Just Mercy, based on the New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Mostly taking place in the 1980s, the film chronicles how Stevenson (played by Michael B. Jordan) successfully defended (and redeemed) Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx), a black man wrongfully sentenced to death. Have the Kleenex ready because this film will take you out. Promise. Ahead of the film’s release, The Root sat down with Superman himself, along with the cast of Just Mercy, to discuss the criminal justice system, racial inequality and white supremacy in America. Just Mercy is in theaters everywhere on Friday.