Seeking Change For Systemic Injustice Over The Centuries

I wholeheartedly support and have spent a lifelong career helping to battle systemic injustice that our fellow Americans have suffered over the centuries, and continue to suffer as most recently exhibited by the killing of George Floyd.  Indeed, the reason I became a lawyer from the depths of poverty here in Richmond, Virginia, was to seek justice for everyone in my city, my state, my country, my world. 

Some might see irony in my statement, since I grew up in the Capital of the Confederacy, and the first English colony who brought African slaves into the “new” world occupied by the English in 1619.  But I prefer to view my life-long dedication to justice as an outgrowth of my experience growing up in integrated neighborhoods where my first playmates were my African-American neighbors.  Although we were poor, my parents taught me to judge people by their character not their skin color.  Even through poverty, I could see as I grew up, that I exercised a “privilege” just because I was white.

I never thought that was fair, though in subtle ways I knew I benefited from it.  And because of it, I have fought for justice for all since I began my practice 40 years ago, and my primary clientele are people of color who need my services the most.

I believe that we can still promote the rule of law around the world if we as Americans show that we are still the example of justice and the beacon of hope for the world as we have done for much of the last century. 

I join my fellow brothers and sisters of all race, color, gender and belief systems in standing up for our convictions. 

Best regards to all,

E. Wayne Powell (from Churchill, in Richmond, Virginia, child of the ‘50s)