Abigail Gillis

Dr. Eichenberger

Race, Class, & Gender

20 February 2018

Discussion Questions:

1. Stevenson quotes from “Of the Coming of John” from WEB Debois’ book The Soul of Black

Folks. How did he relate the story of the coming of John to Walter’s family and community?

What must it be like to be the “hope of an entire community?”

When Stevenson was comparing the community in “Of the Coming of John” to Walter’s

family and community, he thought about the community’s devastation in “Of the Coming of

John” after John was lynched. He stated that he could feel that same type of devastation when

he met with Walter’s family and friends. The reason that the people in “Of the Coming of John”

were so distraught over John’s death was because they had all raised enough money to ensure

that he could study to be a teacher. The people’s investment in John made them all a part of

his success. Since all of the people were so involved with John, his death impacted everyone

dramatically. It was almost like they were all a part of John and they all died a bit at his death.

This is similar to the community and family of Walter because they all knew that he was an

upstanding citizen and someone who would never murder. Furthermore, they were with

Walter on the day of the murder so they knew that he was innocent. Seeing how unjust their

society could be to someone who they loved and respected broke each of them just like it
broke Walter. In both instances, the families and community were emotionally damaged by

unjustified cruelty to a loved one whom they admired and respected.

Stevenson also stated that he himself identified with John because both held the “hope of

an entire community.” This means that both men felt that their endeavors were bringing

happiness and hopefulness to all of the members of their community. The actions that they

were taking were not only for them but for an entire group of individuals important to them. It

would be both an honor and a challenge to have the “hope of an entire community.” It would

be an honor because you would know that you were impacting and benefitting many

individuals. The hope of the community could motivate you to do better like in the case of

John, and could also help you to remember why you set those particular goals. It could also be

challenging because so many people are holding such high expectations for you and if your

goals or ideas were to change you would be letting many people down. It would be difficult to

make yourself happy if you are working to keep the “hope of an entire community.”

2. Discuss the case of Charlie, the 14 year-old accused of the murder of his mother’s

boyfriend. What were the most important events and aspects of the case?

Charlie was a small 14-year-old boy who was at home with his mother when he witnessed

her being attacked by her drunken boyfriend, George. It was one of many assaults, but worse

than usual. Charlie’s mother was lying of the floor and he believed that she was not breathing

and was bleeding profusely. After trying to stop the bleeding and resuscitate his mother with

no success, Charlie entered the bedroom where George was sleeping to get the phone to call

an ambulance. In the mist of calling the ambulance, assuming that his mother was dead and
George would wake up to kill Charlie too, he reached in the dresser drawer for George’s gun

and shot him. Charlie admitted to shooting George when the police arrived. Since George was

a respected police officer in the area, legal personnel persuaded the judge to try Charlie as an

adult. Charlie was placed in an adult facility where he was repeatedly assaulted by many of the

inmates. Bryan fought to move Charlie to a protected area, then to a juvenile facility. He was

later tried in juvenile court and eventually released. Charlie received his GED while in detention

and received the help to attend college by an elderly couple who met him through Bryan while

he was in prison. Hearing about Charlie’s case made me very upset. Charlie was in a terrible

situation and felt like his actions needed to be taken for his own safety. It was even more tragic

to learn how George’s standing in the community caused Charlies sentencing to be worse.

Additionally, I was sickened to learn of the abuse that he endured while he was in prison. In the

end, I was happy to know that Charlie was released and had the support of his mother and the

elderly couple to help him continue with his life.

3. Outline the important points that Stevenson makes about the death penalty and race in

the US.

Stevenson believes that the death penalty is largely unjust, especially in the capacity that it

is implemented in the U.S. today. He also emphasizes the racial inequalities that exists in the

judicial system in the U.S. He discusses the prejudiced of our judicial system due to the fact

that we are more likely to convict minorities, especially African Americans for crimes. He uses

strong statistics such as “One in every three black male babies born in this century is expect to

be incarcerated,” (Stevenson,15). He also discussed that African American individuals were

more likely to be sentenced to death if their victim was white (Stevenson, 142). Stevenson

dedicates much of his career to helping people of minority groups that are sentences to the

death penalty or life in prison without parole. He focuses on bringing light to the variety of

injustices that occurred throughout the individual’s cases. Stevenson believes that we as a

society, we need to consider all of the facts, when we are sentencing any person convicted of a

crime and ignore any biases such as race and class.

4. Why does Stevenson believe that reform is needed in the justice system when it comes to

mental illness? Be sure to give specific examples from cases in the book.

Stevenson feels as though prison is a dangerous place for people with mental illness

especially because the prison employees are not trained to understand the issues and needs of

those with mental illness. Stevenson has seen many instances in which people with mental

health issues were further damaged by being held in prisons. For instance, Ian Manuel was

forced into solitary confinement for an extensive number of years which was destructive to his

psychological well-being, causing him to attempt suicide on several occasions (Stevenson,

152). Others, like Trina Garnett, faced sexual abuse while in prison and her son was taken away

from her further exacerbating her mental illnesses (Stevenson, 150). Stevenson would like to

see reforms to how our society deals with the incarcerated mentally ill by taking their mental

illnesses into consideration during sentencing, putting them in facilities with people who are

trained to care for them, and providing treatment for these types of individuals.
5. In the introduction Stevenson talks about the importance of proximity. He says that

proximity has taught him the three important lessons listed below. Consider each one of

the lessons and discuss examples from the book which fit each lesson.

 Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.

Proximity to people facing death and life in prison sentences has caused Stevenson to

realize that many of them are genuine human beings who got caught up in bad situations and

made mistakes. Bryan had the opportunity to see many individuals turn their lives around

proving to him that people are not defined by their faults or any missteps that they have taken

in the course of their lives. Some examples of people that Stevenson met throughout his

experiences, include Marsha Colby, who gave birth to a still born baby after her inability to

seek prenatal care, and Charlie who acted upon a challenging and stressful situation

(Stevenson 227, 125). Both have since been released from prison and are living upstanding

lives.

 …the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.

Our justice system is surprisingly unjust as we treat people of different financial

backgrounds differently. Stevenson states in the book the in the case of the U.S. judicial

system, they tend to treat you better if “you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and

innocent,” (Stevenson 313). Proximity showed Stevenson that poor people face more struggles

than just financial ones because they are judged harshly by their class in society. It’s

unfortunate that people who are already set back in life financially must also deal with other
unnecessary burdens simply because they are oppressed due to their financial class. One

particular example is in the case of Walter who spent all of his money on a lawyer who didn’t

even help his case and couldn’t afford another to help him with appeals processes.

Additionally, Martha Colby would not have even ended up in prison if she could have afforded

health care for herself during her pregnancy (Stevenson 228).

 The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the

incarcerated, and the condemned.

It is important to realize that mistakes don’t define people and that all people should be

treated equally regardless of their life histories. Proximity helped Stevenson to learn than there

are many corrupt and prejudice individuals working within the justice system in the U.S. such

as Tate and Chapman. Just because these individuals are serving justice does not make them

people of good character. However, on the other hand, it also allowed him to meet many

quality people who know how to forgive and continue to help those in need. Some of these

people include: the old woman on the steps are the courthouse where Mr. Caston and Mr.

Carter’s cases were tried, Debbie Barge, and the Jennings’. Proximity showed Stevenson the

importance of helping those in need instead of putting them in more damaging situations.