Meet Sonya Pfeiffer | Civil Rights Attorney & Gallery Owner & Proud Mom

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sonya Pfeiffer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sonya, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
At the risk of losing readership for the remainder of this interview, I was raised in Columbus, Ohio. Yes, long before Ohio became a meme associated with skibidi Ohio rizz, it was known as the home of good Midwestern stock and college football. I grew up there in the 70s and early 80s. My mom was a public high school teacher and my dad was a perennial politician. My older sister, younger brother and I went to Catholic schools for twelve years straight – first grade through twelfth grade.

The broad themes of my youth revolve around service, curiosity and reconciliation. Although I have been a recovering Catholic for decades, the indoctrination of my childhood did have some positive aspects. The value of service is deeply ingrained in me, both through my schooling and also my mom’s devotion to Catholicism. I believe serving others is a powerful tenet that makes the world a better place when practiced in a respectful and curious manner. My father’s political career translated into routine missions of discovery as we grew up: family field trips to city service facilities like sanitation plants, weekend attendance at various faith communities that crisscrossed the spectrum, and dinners with refugee families and newly settled immigrants. Those experiences provided me a much wider view of the world than most white kids in Columbus, Ohio had, and it planted a curiosity for life and living in me that exists to this day. Reconciliation is a theme of my youth not only because it is a Catholic sacrament and suggests a belief that we can always start again, but also because I learned early in life that people and situations are not one-dimensional. Often we need to reconcile different aspects of people or circumstances, or even ourselves, in order to make sense of a situation and create impact. I recognize the world is filled with opposing forces, and in order to exist and be productive, it is critical to embrace this opposition with a sense of curiosity. It does not mean abandoning strongly held beliefs or even adjusting actions that are grounded in facts and morality, but embracing with curiosity allows for the possibility of understanding. Change is possible. Change is constant.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a result of my upbringing and further illustrated in my first career as a television journalist, I learned no matter the size or geographic location of a community, the inequity facing communities of color in the United States is a constant, particularly when it comes to the criminal legal system. As a reporter, I won awards for investigations and stories that exposed systemic hypocrisy, discrimination and disparate treatment. But after more than a decade of storytelling for several network affiliates, I went to law school to become a public defender. I recognized that the courtroom was a more powerful forum for storytelling on behalf of people who have been excluded and discounted since this country’s founding.

My legal work expanded from state to federal criminal defense work, and I now litigate civil rights cases on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. As my practice grew, so did my understanding of how our legal system runs like a well-oiled machine of injustice. From charging decisions to sentencing, Black and Brown defendants are treated with a rough insensitivity that makes clear how law enforcement actors dehumanize criminal defendants generally, and defendants of color specifically. It became clear to me that to create change within the criminal legal system, it was imperative to tell stories outside of that system.

In 2017, I purchased a commercial art gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the aim of exhibiting excellence – both by the roster artists and through the programming that would accompany exhibitions – and using artwork as a vehicle for discussion around difficult societal issues, many centered on law and justice. North Carolina is a state with a notorious history of violence towards Black Americans and resistance to integration, and boasts an economy built on free labor through slavery and sharecropping followed by decades of low-cost labor and policies rooted in discrimination. Against this backdrop, my gallery developed a mission and vision to uplift artists who have been kept at the margins and to create exhibitions that do not shy away from challenging topics but instead embrace the power of art to create change.

From my legal work, I understand firsthand the harm the system exacts upon those charged with crimes. It impacts not only individuals, but their families and the broader community. I work within a system that was designed to preserve white supremacy and perpetuate stereotypes of Black people as dangerous criminals. In the art world, I have come to recognize that the same institutional obstacles and history of racism have been used to deny opportunities to and discount the talents of creatives of color. But I have also learned that artists are among the most brilliant forward-thinkers in society, and through their eyes and talents we can address pressing societal issues in a subtle yet powerful manner.

In addition to my role at the gallery and as a practicing attorney, I co-host Abuse of Power, a Webby Award-winning podcast on Audible. The podcast focuses on abuses of power within the legal system through case-based storytelling. It is another platform I use to educate, motivate, and inspire others to fight for change within the criminal legal system, using the power of narrative to do so.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A great day in Charlotte can start and finish at Camp North End. Back in the early 19th century Camp North End was home to the city’s first Ford Motor Company factory in a 240,000 square-foot building on the property. Now this is a wide-open-air gathering spot with dozens of super cool and creative businesses.

Get your morning coffee at Hex Coffee and then walk around the place to get your bearings – you’ve got 76 acres to explore. You can meet artists and check out artwork at BLK MRKT CLT, Goodyear Arts and Windy O’Connor Art and Home. Don’t miss out on Dupp & Swat for all kinds of artistic merch and local artisan products.

You can grab lunch at any one of the awesome restaurant stalls: Blue Barn Bistro, La Caseta, Plant Joy, or Saru Ramen. Pick up a fun pre-printed tee-shirt at MacFly Fresh, try on a new pair of kick at Current Nostalgia or get a hat tailored to you at Fitteds. Relax with a book from That’s Novel Books and enjoy it with a dairy-free treat from Seemingly Overzealous Ice Cream while you plan the rest of your day.

If you are in town on a Wednesday or Friday evening when the weather is nice, there’s probably some local music scheduled for the Boileryard stage. Sit back on the turf lawn and enjoy with some wine from Noda Company Canteen. On Wednesday evenings you can also explore the North End Farmers Market and pick up goods for dinner from local and regional farmers, then stroll back to the lawn or head out to make a fresh-from-the-farm dinner.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate my Shoutout to Professor John O. Calmore. Professor Calmore passed in 2009, but his teachings continue to influence me and how I live my life. He was the most impactful law professor I encountered at UNC Chapel Hill, and was unquestionably one of the most extraordinary people I have known. I feel lucky to have learned from him. By way of background, John O. Calmore was a brilliant member of the first wave of modern African American students to attend Stanford University (1967) and Harvard Law School (1971), where he studied alongside future civil rights leaders, scholars and many of the most important social justice voices of our time. Calmore practiced for years as a legal aid lawyer, then embarked on a distinguished academic career, culminating in a distinguished professorship at University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill. He drew on a profound first-hand knowledge of the worlds of poverty law, racial injustice, and social policy to frame a unique view of critical race theory and to develop a social justice lawyering method, which informed both his teaching and his many works of scholarship. That method trained aspiring lawyers to think beyond the courtroom and the halls of government, and to use their privilege and access to educate and challenge culturally dominant systems in unexpected and creative ways.

Website: SECLT.com and PR-LawFirm.com

Instagram: @sonyapfeiffer

Linkedin: @sonyapfeiffer

Image Credits
Cravotta Photography