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The Chronicle
Volume39,Number26 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. THURSDAY, February 21, 2013
Phocos by Layla Gam*
Nora Fakhri (right) and Erica
Navalanc process paperwork.
Clinic
helps clear
criminal
records
BY LAY LA GARMS
THE CHRONICLE
After years of worrying about a crim
inal charge he incurred three years ago,
city native Josh Sargent was given a sec
ond chance Tuesday afternoon.
Sargent, who graduated from Western
Carolina University in December,
received a DUI and underaged drinking
ticket in 2010. Though the charges were
dropped, they
still appear on
his criminal
record, and the
23-year-old said
as his gradua
tion date
approached, his
concern about
how that youth
ful indiscretion
would impact
his future grew.
"As far as
careers go, it s
definitely a red flag when you're trying to
get hired." Sargent said. "You can't just
walk around with a DU1 on your record."
?Luckily for Sargent, he won't have to
carry the burden. Upon visiting the Feb.
19 Expunction/Certificate of Relief
Clinic at the Experiment in Sclf-Reliance
(ESR), Sargent learned that he is eligible
for an expunction. a once in a lifetime
procedure that will erase the charges
from his record for good. Sargent must
obtain additional paperwork in order for
his expunction to be processed, but attor
neys on hand at the clinic told him he was
on track to become the first client of the
six week-old clinic to successfully obtain
an expunction.
Hosted by the Darryl Hunt Project,
Legal Aid of North Carolina and the
Wake Forest University Innocence and
Justice Clinic and the WFU School of
Law Pro Bono Project, the clinic helps
local people alleviate the collateral
effects of criminal charges. Attorneys and
WFU law students work with local resi
dents to determine if they are eligible for
expunctions or Certificates of Relief, and
walk those who qualify through the
process that is required to obtain them.
"We kind of wanted to jump start this
here in Forsyth County with the new
statutes that came out last year by legis
lators to help erase records and help peo
ple get back on their feet," said Danyl
Hunt, who conceived of the project as a
See Clinic on A10
Sargent
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Photo by Layta Gsnrw
Judge
D e n i s e
Hartsfield
(right) pres
ents a
scholarship
award to
Ashley
Waring
(left), a first
year law stu
dent.
I Lent inspires health challenge
BY LAYLA GARMS
THE CHRONICLE
St. John CME Church's "40 Ways in 40 Days" Lent campaign aims to
help churchgoers gain faith while los
ing pounds.
Rev. Peris Lester, who became the
church's pastor in August, conceived
of the idea. The program is twofold.
The "40 Ways to Lose" portion con
sists of fasting and exercise and is
designed to help members shed pounds
and negative behaviors. The "40 Ways
to Gain" component emphasizes a
closer relationship with God and the
greater community.
Parishioners can select from a vari
ety of suggested fasts to tackle during
the Lenten season, which extends from
Feb. 13 to March 30. There are lan
guage fasts, where churchgoers try to
avoid lying, gossiping and cursing;
habit fasts, during which they give up
unhealthy habits such as overeating,
smoking or drinking; and more tradi
tional fasts, where members give up
certain foods or abstain ffom eating during given times of the day.
Members are asked to turn their fasts into monetary gain for the
Donald Spencer, 66, works out
with other congregants.
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See St. John on A8 P'? Lester stands outside St. John
| Unlikely Civil Rights icon speaks
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Dr. Bob Zellner, a white Southerner
who played a part in the Civil Rights
Movement, shared his story at Wake Forest
University last week.
Zellner was born and raised in lower
Alabama. or
"L.A.," as he called
it. He moved to
Wilson, N.C. last
year to continue his
activism. His mem
oir, "The Wrong
Side of Murder
Creek," is being
made into a Spike
Lee-produced
? movie.
He was an
unlikely civil rights
champion; both his father and grandfather
were in the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose
members Zeliner call "fundamentalist ter
rorists." Zellner said his father quit the
Klan when he was a child, causing
estrangement between Zellner's father and
members of the family still in the KKK.
Near the time he graduated from college.
Zellner began taking an active role in the
fight for equal rights for African
Americans, although he feared doing so
would mean reprisals against him and his
parents.
"The best antidote to both fundamen
talism and terrorism is knowledge and
diversity," Zellner told the racially diverse
crowd of mostly college students.
He first became familiar with the Civil
Rights Movement when he was a senior at
at Huntingdon College in Montgomery. An
advanced sociology class assignment
required him to write about the racial situ
ation in the South. The five members of his
all-white class wanted to talk to black civil
rights leaders for the project, although their
professor warned them they could be
arrested for violating segregation laws.
The class took their chances. They met
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Dr. Bob Zellner speaks at Wake Forest University last week.
Going (Even More) Red
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Oh a campus where red (and white) are omnipresent, the color may sometimes go unnoticed. Faculty, staff and students
in the Winston-Salem State University School of Health Science made sure that did not happen this week as they deco
rated their building to show their bold support for the American Heart Association's Go Red campaign. The nationwide
effort is designed to raise awareness of the disproportionate number of women who die from heart disease.
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Law students celebrate advances
BY LAYLA GARMS
TWP^HBTIWW^P
The Wake Forest University Black Law Students Association
(BLSA) hosted its 28th Annual Scholarship Banquet last week,
giving students, faculty and alumni a chance to celebrate African
Americans' many contributions to the law school.
The banquet, themed "Honoring Our Past as We March into
the Future," drew a crowd of more than 100 to the Benson
University Center last Friday. The event looked to the past by
paying homage to the BLSA's 40-year history on campus and the
See WFU on A7
Lisa Caldwell
ASSURED
STORAGE
of Winston-Salem, LLC
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