St. Luke’s students and faculty hung on every word spoken by Anthony Ray Hinton, author of The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row.
Hinton was at St. Luke’s to share his harrowing story of nearly three decades spent in prison for a crime he did not commit.
In December, St. Luke’s students in eighth through 12th grades gathered to hear Hinton testify to the injustice he experienced. He also visited with smaller groups of Upper School students during the Center for Leadership Ethics of Global Citizenship class and the 12 grade English Memoir class.
Somehow Hinton managed to inject his story with humor and compassion. His impact on all was evidenced by the book-signing line that wrapped around the room.
“Meeting Mr. Hinton in class allowed my peers and I to connect with him and his story on a more personal level,” Student Grace Fitzgibbon of New Canaan said. “He not only had a positive outlook on life after spending 30 years on death row but was able to forgive those who wronged him, which has resonated with me.”
“Meeting with Mr. Hinton was life-changing and brought tears to my eyes. Being able to hear and learn about a man’s plight to seek freedom in a corrupt justice system was surreal. The one thing that really stuck with me was when he talked about his ‘friend’ who was on death row with him. Henry Hayes was a KKK member and was on death row for the lynching of a special needs black kid in Alabama. When talking about him he said, ‘If you can teach a man to hate, you can teach a man to have compassion.’ This quote stuck with me because people like Hayes are supposed to hate men like Mr. Hinton, yet Mr. Hinton knowing this still befriended Hayes. This just showed one aspect of Mr. Hinton’s strong moral code to always love and deeply inspired me,” said Dylan Johnson, a student, of Stamford.
“Mr. Hinton’s visit helped me reflect on my privileged life,” St. Luke’s Head of Middle School Amber Berry said. “I had not been personally impacted by our judicial system. This allowed me to ignore issues I now feel compelled to face.”
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