(*originally published on April 15, 2013*)

Minneapolis resident Manu Lewis has spent the past four years working to turn his life around and give back to society despite his criminal record. “I do a lot of volunteer work. I do a lot of community work,” he said. “I do a lot of organizing within the community that I reside in, but the fact still remains that society still sees me as a convicted felon. So no matter how much time I volunteer, no matter how many good deeds I try to do, I always have that stigma attached to me.” He looks to people like Michelle Alexander who are “trying to overthrow some of these policies that are keeping the community held hostage.”

Michelle Alexander is an author, professor, civil rights lawyer and advocate, who has represented hundreds of victims of racial profiling and police brutality during her career. With ten years experience advocating for change in the criminal justice system, she visited the St. Thomas campus in St. Paul on April 8 to share the thesis of her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Read the full article here.