police misconduct and children in the prison system, said Mary Beth Corbin, executive director of the ECU Office of Student Transitions. “We hope that incoming students as well as faculty will read the book and be able to have campus conversations about these themes,” she said. The narrative focuses on the case of Walter McMillian, a black man who was convicted of murdering a young white woman in 1986. The murder took place in Monroeville, Alabama, which is the hometown of To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, McMillian was sentenced to death. Although McMillian was ultimately pardoned from death row in 1993, Stevenson’s book highlights the underlying issues of systemic racial injustice in the South and features several cases involving wrongful charges.
Bryan Stevenson
The New York Times wrote that even though some of the cases in Just Mercy occurred more than 30 years ago, Stevenson engages the reader in a way that allows for insight, reflection and possibly a call to action.
Race topic of this summer’s ‘Pirate read’ Freshmen at ECU explored complex themes of racial injustice before stepping foot in a classroom with this year’s Pirate Read selection. Bryan Stevenson’s memoir Just Mercy was chosen as required
The introduction says “this book is about getting closer to mass incarceration and extreme punishment in America. It is about how easily we condemn people in this country and the injustice we create when we allow fear, anger, and distance to
reading before classes began Aug. 22. The themes of the book relate to societal issues such as criminal justice, the impact of famous literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird, social justice,
On May 1, 1916, Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, visited ECTTS, and Keller spoke to a large crowd in the auditorium of the Administration Building. Keller, who was 35 at the time, spoke on the subject of happiness, to which she said, “The secret of happiness is to do for others.” With World War I raging in Europe, one audience member asked about the preparedness movement, which aimed to strengthen the U.S. military and promote American involvement in the conflict. “Dead against it,” said Keller. “Because it ultimately means war. But I would be for it if only Kaisers, kings and Congressmen were to do the fighting.”
During Stevenson’s legal career, he worked for the exoneration of innocent people and argued cases on five different occasions in front of the Supreme Court. He grew up in Delaware, and his great-grandparents had been slaves in Virginia. When he was a teenager, his grandfather was murdered during a robbery. After attending college and Harvard Law School, Stevenson moved to the South to start a legal career, defending those who had been wronged by the justice system due to their racial background. He went on to found the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Alabama. Stevenson will visit ECU in November. Just Mercy was named by Time magazine as one of the “10 Best Books of Nonfiction” for 2014. The book also received the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the NAACP Image Award for Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award. The book is a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize and the Kirkus Reviews Prize and is an American Library Association Notable Book. This is the ninth year of the Pirate Read program. Books from previous years include The Other Wes Moore, It Happened on the Way to War and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. —Sophronia Knott
Pirates celebrate only undefeated season Courtesy University Archives
Library of Congress
Helen Keller visits East Carolina
shape the way we treat the most vulnerable among us.”
ECU Hall of Famer John Christenbury coached ECTC’s 1941 football team to the only undefeated, untied season in school history. The Pirates went 7-0, beating teams such as the Portsmouth Naval Apprentices, Western Carolina Teachers College and Belmont Abbey. In four of the wins, the Pirates kept their opponents scoreless. Other Hall of Fame members on the team were Stuart Tripp, Billy Greene and Jack Young.