By John Edgar Wideman. Wideman is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine.

I’m pleased to see you all could attend this gathering. Thank you for coming out with little advance notice. Some of you I recognized immediately because of the media coverage your cases have received — Mr. Scott, Mr. Garner, Mr. Brown, welcome. But I assure you, familiar to me or not, each and every one of you is equally welcome. The auditorium is overflowing, but well lit, and I can see clearly that you represent all sizes, shapes, colors, ages. Yet you have all earned the distinction of…