Stevenson brothers lead conversation on justice and healing in the wake of increasing political violence

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On the same night Kamala Harris was in town to discuss her new book, civil rights advocates gathered in Philadelphia to discuss the social and political tensions following Charlie Kirk’s death.

The Fitler Club served as the gathering point for conversation and as a fundraiser for Lion’s Story, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia that holds similar events to address tough issues within communities.

Thursday’s event featured brothers Bryan and Howard Stevenson, who grew up in southern Delaware. Bryan leads the Equal Justice Initiative, while Howard co-founded Lion’s Story and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

The two brothers told WHYY News that the conversation was “relevant to what’s happening in the world right now,” contrasting the racial tensions present today with what they experienced growing up.

“People are having a hard time talking about some honesty regarding the history of hate,” Howard said. “Having a brother that was a champion for justice and the way that we talk to each other and remind each other of things that we’ve seen over and over again, it’s a little weird, but it’s also a blessing that these are the times that we need courage, we need a recipe for fighting back against injustice and dehumanization.”

“We grew up at the end of the Jim Crow era in a kind of rural, segregated community,” Bryan said. “Our great-grandparents were enslaved. My grandmother left the deep south of Virginia to come to Philadelphia because of terror, violence and all of the challenges of the first half of the 20th century.”

Bryan said the conversation and Lion’s Story’s work on strategies for addressing these issues in group settings is especially vital today.

“The mental health profession, generally over the last half century, has made tremendous progress in helping us deal with long-standing issues. Things like alcohol abuse and drug addiction,” he said. “The model that has been most effective is … rooted in truth-telling.”

“You don’t get better if you don’t address these long-standing issues … We haven’t applied these concepts to group-based harm to things like racial bias until very recently,” Bryan said.

Robin Smith, a psychologist known for her appearances on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and as the host of “The Dr. Robin Show” on SiriusXM, served as the conversation’s moderator.