How Southern Center for Human Rights turned a Supreme Court defeat into a movement for justice

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April 20th, 2026

On the left, Terrica Redfield Ganzy sits at the WABE studio with a microphone in front of her, and on the right is the logo for the Southern Center for Human Rights.
On Monday's "Closer Look with Rose Scott," Terrica Redfield Ganzy, the executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, reflects on the 50 years of work her nonprofit has dedicated to confronting racism and classism in the criminal justice system. (LaShawn Hudson/WABE & Southern Center for Human Rights)

It’s the summer of 1976, and America was blanketed in red, white and blue, the nation’s signature colors as it celebrated 200 years of democracy. But beneath the patriotic celebration, another story was unfolding — one that would shape the criminal legal system for decades to come.

That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. The decision didn’t emerge from Washington alone. It began in Georgia.

Just four years earlier, in 1972, the Supreme Court had ruled executions — at least as they were being carried out — were unconstitutional. The death penalty appeared to be on its way out.

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