S. Wayne Patterson

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Staff Report

A local church will host an annual black history program Sunday night, with an attorney who heads the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County NAACP as guest speaker.

The free program is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Paynes Memorial Triumphant Pentecostal Holiness Church at 183 Marshall Farm Road.

It will feature remarks by attorney S. Wayne Patterson, who recently was elected president of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Bishop Tony O. Carter, the church pastor, invites everyone to attend.

Patterson, a native of Winston-Salem, established Patterson & Associates in 2004, which consists of two law firms in Atlanta and Winston-Salem. Before that, he was associated with other legal firms in addition to working with magistrate and state courts in Atlanta/Fulton County.

Sunday’s speaker, who is married and has four children, graduated from John Marshall Law School in 2002. His academic career also includes graduate studies at North Carolina A&T State University, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and an associate degree from Louisburg College.

In 2008, Patterson received a honorary doctor of human letters degree from United Cornerstone School of Divinity.

Anise Hickman of the Surry NAACP said this year’s black history program at Paynes Memorial is coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the NAACP’s founding in the county.

“We’re hoping to be doing something else later,” Hickman said of officially recognizing that milestone during 2012.