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Although Stevenson’s grandparents are not directly involved in any of the cases he argues, his memories of them highlight the long history of discrimination and violence toward African Americans and help to contextualize the modern-day struggles of his clients. Stevenson first reflects on his grandparents in the novel’s Introduction, connecting his own upbringing in a poor, rural, and segregated area of Delaware to earlier generations of his family. His grandmother, born in the 1880s, was the daughter of people who had been enslaved in Virginia prior to the Civil War, and she grew up during the turbulent post-Reconstruction era. The adversity which Stevenson’s grandmother and her parents endured, including restrictions on education, voting rights, and economic freedoms as well as brutal violence, directly impacts the life that Stevenson is born into almost a century later. Given that this trajectory is not unique, stories of Stevenson’s grandmother offer the reader broader insight as to why Black Americans disproportionately experience hardships such as poverty. Centuries of discrimination and abuse prevented generations of Black Americans from achieving the same levels of social, political, and economic advancement as whites, culminating in modern-day disadvantages which many of Stevenson’s clients cannot overcome. The idea that family history influences the behaviors of later generations manifests itself in small ways as well, such as the way in which Stevenson’s grandmother treats him as a child. Knowing the pain and suffering that slavery brought to Black families, she shows her love for him by hugging him tightly, a signal that she will never let her loved ones be separated.
Stevenson’s grandfather has a very different story than that of his grandmother, but his experience is also reflective of the biases and obstacles that plague many of clients featured in the novel. After separating from his wife, Stevenson’s grandfather moved to a housing project in Philadelphia where, at eighty-six years old, a group of teenagers robbed and senselessly murdered him. To the Stevenson family’s dismay, the crime received little attention and justice was never served. This tragic outcome reflects the tendency of those in power to turn a blind eye to the suffering of marginalized communities, a trend that pervades the McMillan trial and many others. While these memories provide context for Stevenson’s work, getting to know young clients with severe intellectual disabilities also allows him to gain a new perspective on his grandfather’s murder. Even the most irrational behaviors have their origin in an individual’s past experiences, and coming to terms with this pattern pushes Stevenson to defend his clients in a truly wholistic manner.
