Editor's Note: The Southern Center for Human Rights is working for equality, dignity, and justice for people impacted by the criminal legal system in the Deep South. SCHR fights for a world free from mass incarceration, the death penalty, the criminalization of poverty, and racial injustice. SCHR was founded in 1976 by ministers and activists concerned about criminal justice issues in response to the Supreme Court’s reinstatement of the death penalty that year and to the horrendous conditions in Southern prisons and jails. Sharing an excerpt below from the SCHR statement affirming support for nationwide protests demanding an end to police brutality against Black communities.
The piece is authored by Terrica Redfield Ganzy is SCHR's Deputy Director, where she focuses on elevating SCHR’s mission, assisting the executive director with coordination of SCHR’s strategy and programs, developing strategic partnerships, cultivating donor relationships, and planning major fundraising events.
At SCHR we take injustice personally. We, too, are traumatized by watching Black lives threatened and extinguished with abandon and without cease.
I am personally incensed that I have to have “the talk” with my sons, knowing full well that no matter how polite they are or how closely they follow the rules, none of it will keep them safe from someone who sees them as less than human. It’s not right, and it should not be normal. I had hoped for better for my children. Each of us at SCHR has our own stories about why we choose this work, and we carry these stories with us in everything that we do. Our histories, our values, our lived experiences motivate us on the really hard days. They drive us when we’re tired; when things seem hopeless; when we want to cry. We fight against injustice and yet we are not protected from it. We fight against injustice because we are not protected from it.
We advocate like our children’s futures depend on it, like the health and safety of our communities is at stake, like justice demands it.
I want you to know that we are working every day, through the tears and through the anger. We are working to create better days, and through the dark clouds, we are finding rays of light.
On Friday, Mr. Samuel Moore walked free after having served 15 years of a 20-year sentence for selling $40 of cocaine. Many years ago, Atteeyah Hollie (now, Senior Attorney in the Impact Litigation Unit) was an SCHR intern investigating the dismal state of indigent defense in Georgia. She found Mr. Moore languishing in jail for thirteen months on a loitering charge, though the charges had been dropped four months earlier. No one bothered to tell him that the charges against him had been dropped. Eighteen years ago, she was successful in advocating for his release. In 2020, she did it again, by winning his parole. The story of Atteeyah’s commitment to Mr. Moore over almost two decades is poetic. It’s the kind of advocacy that requires taking injustice personally. And in true Atteeyah style, she was there to pick him up from prison the moment he was released.
Read more on the SCHR website.
The piece is authored by Terrica Redfield Ganzy is SCHR's Deputy Director, where she focuses on elevating SCHR’s mission, assisting the executive director with coordination of SCHR’s strategy and programs, developing strategic partnerships, cultivating donor relationships, and planning major fundraising events.
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| Terrica Redfield Ganzy |
I am personally incensed that I have to have “the talk” with my sons, knowing full well that no matter how polite they are or how closely they follow the rules, none of it will keep them safe from someone who sees them as less than human. It’s not right, and it should not be normal. I had hoped for better for my children. Each of us at SCHR has our own stories about why we choose this work, and we carry these stories with us in everything that we do. Our histories, our values, our lived experiences motivate us on the really hard days. They drive us when we’re tired; when things seem hopeless; when we want to cry. We fight against injustice and yet we are not protected from it. We fight against injustice because we are not protected from it.
We advocate like our children’s futures depend on it, like the health and safety of our communities is at stake, like justice demands it.
I want you to know that we are working every day, through the tears and through the anger. We are working to create better days, and through the dark clouds, we are finding rays of light.
On Friday, Mr. Samuel Moore walked free after having served 15 years of a 20-year sentence for selling $40 of cocaine. Many years ago, Atteeyah Hollie (now, Senior Attorney in the Impact Litigation Unit) was an SCHR intern investigating the dismal state of indigent defense in Georgia. She found Mr. Moore languishing in jail for thirteen months on a loitering charge, though the charges had been dropped four months earlier. No one bothered to tell him that the charges against him had been dropped. Eighteen years ago, she was successful in advocating for his release. In 2020, she did it again, by winning his parole. The story of Atteeyah’s commitment to Mr. Moore over almost two decades is poetic. It’s the kind of advocacy that requires taking injustice personally. And in true Atteeyah style, she was there to pick him up from prison the moment he was released.
Read more on the SCHR website.