Easier to say that word other than to spell it i cannot figure how to spell it but im president of the National CivilRights Museum and i welcome you here this evening for this book talk on miss johnsons book and i hope you have had an opportunity to get it and i believe we are selling it and she will be doing a book signing. A couple of things to mention before i introduce to you who will actually introduce miss johnson, our hope here at the museum is each time you come here you learn something that we are educating and informing and hopefully encouraging you to act in some way. We dont want to tell you what to do but to encourage you. Every one of us have been asked the exact same thing of all the people that we chronicle on the National CivilRights Museum. They never had anything different than what we have from ourselves. The differences they activate it so when you leave here this evening you will have learned something or have new information last year 2018 we commemorated their 50th assassination anniversary of doctor king. So we continue to ask the question where do we go from here . We commissioned a study over the course of 50 years. The study was done in conjunction with the university of memphis while doing the research of one of the elements focused on incarceration. Know where do we hear doctor king talk about incarceration. Because it was not an issue there is parity between black and white incarceration until the eighties. Then through the early nineties we saw an incredible spike in incarceration rates in the africanamerican community. So 1960 we had. 7 percent of the white population incarcerated and. 72. But by the time we reach 1990, we had. 4 percent of white and two. 7 percent of africanamerican. What drove that . The war on drugs. So here we sit with the residual frankly. And while i do believe that first step was signed into law last year was a good first ste step, we have to enact that first step and then we have to walk. We have to move forward so we will hear a story of one individual who became a poster child in a lot of ways for those wrongs that are occurring in sentencing. I will not talk about her i will introduce her who is the manager of outreach who will introduce trace and miss Alice Marie Johnson. [applause] good evening everyone. Thank you so much for coming out today it is an important day for all of us. Alice johnson earned recognition and Kim Kardashian johnson was surfing mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. For her involvement in a nonviolent drug case. She was reunited when President Trump granted clemency june 5th, 2018. Living a normal life without a criminal record. A wife and mother. But after an emotional and financial. In her life left her with you options she turned to crime to pay off her mounting debt. So her 1986 or non validated involvement in a cocaine trafficking organization. This is the first and only crime. First and only conviction. And with those 22 years of incarceration she accomplished what is termed as extraordinary. It was have received numerous awards. In the criminal Justice Reform movement to embrace the gratitude for her freedom and the passion to pay it forward. On may 23rd johnson was released and in her book through her activism to provide a portrait and with social justice to transcend the tribal politics and then from the premier review entity that is based on the life story. [applause] i want to make this personal for me. Born and raised in a little town dollars branch mississippi that is now the Fastest Growing city in the us. I was raised just a few doors down from her. We were very close they were best friends and then we were all shocked. Because we did not know and sometimes you never know the story when we think we are quiet about what we do but even when it happens with Alice Johnson who we call marie, we supported her because something has to go wrong in order for that to happen. And then as an adult as i got older and then in washington dc to fight for her and i was fighting for my brother. Lynn to be excited but im about to share with you today. This Alice Marie Johnson please take the stage. Meant to sit and have a conversation. [applause] [inaudible] we are so excited to be here to do this today and we look forward to it what can we do with her while she is here . Many of you know her well for fram one family and friends show a little excitement. I cannot believe it. We did it. We did it. You dont know . You are out. [laughter] im sorry. I thought you knew per go the news just broke. You are out. He signed the papers. Everything. [applause] i know you relive this but just to step back a little bi bit, who is Alice Marie Johnson . She is a woman who makes mistakes with her life and by the grace of god i was given a Second Chance at life where anyone who knows my story knows this is not an accident taking place with me. I now know everything that i went through every tear that was shed that was not by happenstance. God had a purpose so i would be the face of the catalyst for change. You had so many distinctions. Tell me how that moment felt. Every time i see that i tear up. It was all over the news. I had so many letdowns with my family we thought you were right at the edge and we just knew this was it. I thought i was already going to receive clemency when 2014 half but even before then the motion after motion my daughter emptied her bank account getting ready to buy a house she had saved she had a good job but she was overwhelmed i want my mama home. She took every dime that she had to hire another set of attorneys to fight for my appeal. All of that down the drain we had to pick ourselves back up and keep fighting. And then did a very strong Christian Family born 1955 and then rosa parks refused to give up her seat the same year that emmett tills body was displayed when he was murdered in mississippi and put on display. 1955 ways a big year that i was propelled into this world. It would be also the city of memphis to play a major role in my life where Martin Luther king was assassinated this is also the city i would lose life as i knew it. Convicted halloween 1996 and sentenced to life 45 years without the possibility of parole for a firsttime nonviolent offense to take down the drug queen pam but i was the mother struggling of five children i relayed messages by phone and i was a conspiracy theory. Trickortreat that is the last thing i heard walking out of that courtroom getting ready to begin my sentence. Mississippi is the place of my birth memphis is the executed sentence of death and alabama would be the place where i would be set free. [applause] while i was incarcerated, i had some choices. Each have choices in life to make. I made the choice first of all i would never give up my hope or allow someone to strip me of hope. You could pronounce a sentence on me of life but you could not take my life unless i chose no matter where i was to celebrate the gift of life to do whatever i could do to make the place a better place i began my first year of incarceration in california. I received extra punishment and was sent 1500 miles away from my family and memphis and mississippi to make it very very difficult for them to even see me. It was a salt shaker of cruelty into my sentence. But prison was billed but i could fight for change for women for quite found out because i became a clerk in dc when i was at fedex i see the people that i work with at one point i was a manager and a customer support. And i found that they were deprived of the opportunity of the polygraph they said you are not going home anytime soon. How do you tell a person not to help . How do you tell a person not to prepare for future . So immediately i began the fight. So i put a pen in my hand and i started writing. I could change in less than one year a policy that impacted other prisons to allow a certain percentage to have access to Educational Opportunities to take computer classes and prepare for a future outside of prison. Its a good thing that they did because the laws changed and those very women that were incarcerated could go home more prepared. [applause] its there i also pick up my pen to use a gift that i had to write. And as i started writing i saw the lives transformed literally the day they ship me away from dublin there were many tears shed because they have never seen before. I was told i need to go to a facility when i was being sentenced because a woman with a life sentence would probably need some mental help. And honestly, i put this in my book because i told my family that immediately, she will lose her mind before i lose my. [laughter] so women who were in need i cannot explain what i walked into. Not only the medical facility for women who are already separated from your family why will you are sickness overtakes you. I became a hospice volunteer for the women who were dying in prison because i did not want them to die alone. Then they realized somebody cared about them. To help coordinate firstever Special Olympics in any prison. [applause] i received a National Honor they came in from the Special Olympics to present me with a volunteer of the year award. Women started to realize that they could do i started to choreographed dance and put on huge productions when it became my goal and when it came to see what my Theatrical Productions from that moment they were no longer in prison. I even have some pictures of some of the things. They are not in the book but i was blessed from somebody who retired a gave me some pictures they had taken. She blessed me by doing that. I started to choreographed dance. And thats where i became famous in prison. [laughter] [applause] they started to get tickets to come into a prison to see what i have written what production i was putting on. The single Largest Program in the prison now i hear from women how lifechanging that was for them. Somebody told them you could do good they need somebody to believe in them or to have the faith that they could do something different. I did things to lift women up as a mentor for the women. From food service to psychology, religious services, education nothing that was done on a grand scale my hands were not in. I cannot tell you the number of times who do you want us to send for . They would say bring me alice. Even those who did not even know me. And to what they sought to be able to be accomplished not only the women but the Staff Members but also from that point on i started to write outside womens conferences. I was the woman who was writing sermons and encouragement from inside. Not trying to compare myself to the apostle paul but the gift the lord had given me i could reach beyond the prison bars into those who were free on the outside but not on the inside they would ask me to pray for them and ask me for advice for situation they were going through. Even now coming out i received letters people were in boxing me i did not even know it was there. [laughter] receiving messages from people that were impacted when a new prison was built can you just imagine that i would only leave prison as a corpse to take my last dying breath in prison. Is that a recipe for hope . It was not. And from coming into prison and to get on medication to deal with what is going on and then have to go to psychology so what do you do people would watch me because there was a something is wrong. [laughter] have the family members check out my case because it was just too strange for them. Because man did not give me that joy. [applause] it is clear prison did not break you. Here is another clip. No handcuffs. Nothing on me. I am free to hug my family again. I am free to live life. I am free to start over. This is the greatest day of my life. Never what has happened to me today. [applause] you told us a little bit about prison did you just get your book today . Has anybody read the book yet . One of the things about the book the way you talk about your beginning. Born brad and raised in mississippi. I came from a family of Humble Beginnings starting off as sharecroppers i call her miss abernathy in the book and my parents were tricked many times that they didnt want to be that type of life and to come up with a plan to cook the food and sell it secretly while my father was working on the house that they had bought. At five years old or when i was five years old and with that sharecropping environment. One thing i can say about my parents they live faith. We didnt have a lot financially for what we did have was love and togetherness and family unity. I would not trade that for anything. My mother was a woman ahead of her time. She had friends because back then it was blackandwhite. And that plan inside of me not to look at them as black or white but my mother embraced and helped all people and was a champion from the black community from all his branch mississippi. With the first grand marshal to get their own restaurant eight girls and one boy. To visit a tight space but i did not know it was tight. I never even thought we were poor. We never missed a meal. We always had close with the piano everyone in the family could sing but me. [laughter] we had Singing Sisters and nieces. You dont have to do that today. [laughter] put on some gospel music. That was the way that i demonstrated to stay in prison. Did not even see to make the day go faster. Will break out singing in the cotton fields. Its hard to sing and cry at the same time so that carried me in prison. When i would find myself get so down because everyday was not joyful i would not try to fake it i did not let myself get stuck that way. Nobody wants to come to a pity party. The other thing was encouraging other women i literally encourage myself. They would ask me to pay one pray for them. I started to feel my burden lifted up. Been to get to that time that i had to forgive so the person you thank you are holding and holding on to that and forgiveness they have known about that all their life while you are Walking Around angry. So why in the world would i allow anyone to control my life . I would forgive them and pray for them i would tell them i love you that it became a reality to me fake it and tell you make at. [laughter] there is another path because you were respectful though whole time. At the very beginning if you havent read past the first paragraph how rude it was and she was surrounded by those that were convicted. And it was rude to ask why they were there. I wanted to meet people everybody is there for something it doesnt matter paying their debt, i wanted to meet them just as i saw them in that moment. I dont care about your case. You are a human being. I dont know the circumstances are what drove you to commit a crime. Im not trying to say i did not commit the crime because i did but i just did not deserve that time. So many of the women that i met were there single mothers like i was. Not making any excuses to rehabilitate their lives or maybe they were just buck wild and needed someone in their life. I wanted to give them a clean page or a clean slate. We also wanted miss alice here because of what we do. You know what we preach and talk about every day what is going on in society to make it better. But you are also drawn to this place. Chapter three. Demonstrating we can stick together in a single garment of destiny. One black person is down we are all down that is what Martin Luther king jr. Said. To get her attention we never crossed her parents. Kids obeyed their parents and that was the end of the discussion in the jim crow south for people to address white people i always heard my mommy and daddy would respond in this way. Explain this to my mom and to my surprise she agreed and i said yes maam never again. I stood up for various causes in my mothers brothers from chicago visited they were amazed at my fighting spirit as a polite way to say i was buck wild. [laughter] watch this my uncle said to another. He pushed me down and i fell into the dirt felt pain in my chest and immediately i felt tears welling up in my eyes but i would not give my uncle the satisfaction of knowing i had been hurt and i jumped right back up and he hit me again i had to catch my breath and i jumped up again. Her shoulders are squared like she is going to hit back one said laughing so they started to teach me how to throw a punch they said you might need this one day. But dont you dare tell them we taught you this. [laughter] they even taught me how to arm wrestle. But the biggest thing that i learned was how to swallow back my tears. When i took onto me sisters at school i want. Thinking back i am surprised they never made one never made it into public record. [laughter] but the teachers respected my mother so much. This was an epic battle that ended at my house. And my only brother knew it was going down. He was in the neighborhood when some bullies started to harass one of my cousins. He decided to stand up against them but all of the friends ran off. And then they followed him into the yard. That was a big mistake. We sister saw the fight from the window and could see from a distance before they knew it we bailed out of the house with the brooms and sticks like an army carry swords and shields. I went out there to beat those boys like the uncles had taught me. Tooth and nail until we heard the door to the house land and we all looked at the porch to see my normally quiet daddy standing there with a shotgun. He shot that gun into the air and the bullies would scatter like cockroaches i learned a lesson right then and there even if our friends abandon us my family stuck together in hard times. [applause] this is a great time for your family to stand up. Stand up family. [applause] my family stuck with me all the years. All those days i was in prison. I learned not to sit there this is so important to me here because i want to tell you how i probably became an activist. In 1968 with Martin Luther king when he was killed it was very personal i did not know him personally but it was personal i had learned most of the adult stuff by eavesdropping back then could sit in the room when the grown folks was talking you had to stay in your place but then i could sneak back and hide behind the chair to keep up on the news of what was going on.