Her walk speaks louder than words
By Busta Brown
“My family was sharecroppers from South Carolina and moved to Winston-Salem. I grew up here in Happy Hill Gardens, right here in Winston, and I grew up in the church. The teaching of the church has always been with me. It’s been one thread in my life. From that, I realize if you want to have a prosperous life, you have to serve others.” That was Attorney Hazel Mack’s response after I asked why she choose Legal Aid over cooperate law. While speaking with Mack, you could feel the love she has for the black community, and her desire to make it better.
“My Sunday school teacher was a great example. I watched her, so I knew how to live. Between her and my mother, they taught me well.” Mack’s walk in Christ speaks louder than words. I felt blessed and inspired in her presence. At 17 she was member of the Black Panther Party and the Civil Rights Movement. That experience was the beginning of a phenomenal leader and pillar in the Winston-Salem community. “It was a natural progression for me, because one thing I learned in the party, we can take very little and make a lot. Whatever we needed we started with right there in the community. We decided we were going to do a breakfast program, so we figured out how to get that done. We started a free ambulance program here in the city.”
I mentioned how negative the mass media portrayed the Black Panther Party, and Mack’s response was on point. “It depends on who’s telling the story. If you talked to the people that we served and were there, they would tell you a different story.”
As a 17-year-old young lady raised by phenomenal women and was a part of a powerful organization, Hazel was destine for greatness, and to be a difference maker, “When I decided to go to law school, the only place I wanted to work was Legal Services, because it would make sense for me.”
Hazel Mack is now a business owner of Other Suns Event Center, 414 Laura Wall Blvd. in Winston-Salem. It is open Monday – Friday, by appointments only. It also has two salons, and once a month the event center does “Pop Ups” with local vendors. The purpose is to promote local businesses. The “Pop Up” is Dec. 16, noon-6 p.m., and kids can take pictures with a Black Santa from noon-3 p.m. For more info call, 336-655-5767.
Hazel Mack is an extremely brilliant, strong, and positive woman, but everyone must go through trials and tribulations in order to truly serve God’s purpose for their life. She was very inspiring and comforting. “We all go through something, but I don’t tend to look at challenges as trials. I tend to look at them as what am I going to learn from this. I learned a long time ago that whatever you’re going through, you have to face it, and then pray about it, and I wait for direction. And it will come to you. And you’ll be inspired what to do when you really seek it from a higher power.”
You will truly be blessed and enjoy the rest of my very intimate interview with Hazel Mack on our YouTube channel @ Winstonsalem Chronicle.
