No Fear: Identity, Responsibility, and the Courage to Stand

What if fear isn’t just a feeling… but a system?

In No Fear, Leroy Clemons delivers a powerful and deeply personal message that challenges everything we think we know about fear, where it comes from, how it controls us, and what it takes to break free. Through gripping storytelling, real-life experiences, and hard-earned wisdom, No Fear takes readers on a journey from silence to strength, from hesitation to purpose, and from fear to freedom. 

Who is invited? All CLA Students, especially ones who wish to pursue social justice, activism, student leadership, and youthwork and social work

What can you expect at the event? A deep and thought provoking lecture about how to lead with courage and advocate for yourself. 

Meet the Speaker: 

Mr. Leroy Clemons is the Executive Director of the Neshoba Youth Coalition in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The Neshoba Youth Coalition fosters awareness among students about what has happened in the past. We do a lot of storytelling circles. Some people call them racial healing circles, but we call them storytelling circles, because they’re designed to build trust among the students in the room. They start by sharing our story, the story of our organization, the story of our city, the story of the progress that has been made here, then move into their everyday experiences, and how they engage with their families and their communities. Eventually, the students start to open up and share and we’re able to have those difficult conversations. A safe/brave space is created where students get to know one another, build relationships, and feel like they can be vulnerable when we can move forward. It’s a long process. 

Clemons is an accomplished youth and community engagement leader with over forty  years of training in collaboration, problem solving, facilitation, and developing initiatives in supporting at-risk families and communities. He possesses superior communication and presentation skills with a proven ability to deliver result-oriented programs. A vibrant, self-driven and intuitive professional with a proven track record of achievement in public-private partnerships, equitable policy, and system change.  Consistently successful in building consensus and driving cooperative relationships between at-risk youth and communities, government agencies, businesses, management, and staff.

Clemons is the co-founder of the Philadelphia Coalition, a multi-racial task force formed in 2004 charged with planning the public commemoration and memorial to the three civil rights workers, who were slain in Neshoba County in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.  The Coalition helped unite a community to stand up and call for justice in the 1964 triple murders of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. The Coalition's push for justice in the forty-year-old murder case led to the first state conviction as well as passage of Senate Bill 2718, an act directing the Mississippi State Board of Education to make Civil Rights Education a mandatory part of the K-12 curriculum in every public school in Mississippi. He has traveled across the United States sharing the story of the youth and community engagement model that was successful in Philadelphia, Mississippi and conducting professional development and training on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation as a healing facilitator through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Related Experience:  W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Fellowship. 2014-2017; W.K. Kellogg Foundation American Healing Facilitator; W.K. Kellogg Foundation Truth Racial Healing and Transformation Design Team; Mississippi Racial Equity Community of Practice; and President - Neshoba County NAACP. To learn more about the W.K. Kellogg's work on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation - https://www.wkkf.org/heal-our-communities-trht/. 

Register Here!