By Emily LePain
Murphy News Service

The Westminster Town Hall Forum’s fall season features a lineup of dynamic speakers who will speak about a variety of social justice issues.

The forums are free and take place in the sanctuary of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Nicollet Mall and 12th Street, in downtown Minneapolis.

Bob Herbert, a senior fellow at public policy think tank Demos, will deliver a talk Oct. 16 called “Losing Our Way: Can We Restore the American Dream?”

Herbert wrote an op-ed column for The New York Times for nearly 20 years that focused on issues of race, poverty, and social justice. His new book, “Losing Our Way,” presents the stories of struggling Americans as well as challenges the shift of political influence from the working class in the 1960s to the corporate and financial class in today’s society. His speech will focus on economic quality and the middle class.

Simone Campbell’s speech on Nov. 13 is titled, “Nuns on the Bus: The Call to Compassion.”

Campbell is an attorney, Catholic sister, and the executive director of NETWORK, a public policy research organization in Washington advocating for immigration reform, healthcare, and economic justice. She founded the Community Law Center, and provides family law and support to the poor. Campbell was one of the Nuns on the Bus who traveled the country to help and support those who live in poverty across the country.

Bryan Stevenson’s talk, “Just Mercy: Reforming the Criminal Justice System,” is set for Nov. 25.

Stevenson is a public interest attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which is dedicated to eliminating bias in the criminal justice system. He is a professor at New York University Law School and a Harvard Law School graduate. He argued and won the ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court that mandatory life- without-parole for children who are 17 or younger is unconstitutional. His new book, Just Mercy, looks into the lives of men, women, and children who are in the biased criminal justice system.