It’s not easy to get a job given the state of the economy, especially for the Rev. Zernial Bogan. When he fills out job applications, no matter how qualified he may be for the job, he pauses at one question: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

In his lifetime, Bogan has been convicted of 16 different felony charges.

“I was on a path to destruction,” Bogan said. “But just because we were the cause of our plight does not mean that we can’t take a right turn to get ourselves back on the right road once we’ve paid our debt to society.”

During the past two years, Bogan has fought to get his records sealed, and has done so successfully for 10 of his 16 convictions. Bogan said he had so many convictions on his record because he often entered plea bargains to take a lesser punishment.

“Now I look at it and I’m asking where these things came from,” Bogan said. “But I was ignorant at the time, and didn’t understand what I was doing. Sure, I heard them say it in court, but I wasn’t thinking about all that and that is what the trap is all about.”

Bogan has been out of jail for nearly 20 years and is currently self-employed at a cleaning and construction company. He is also working towards a doctorate at Ashford University after completing his bachelor’s degree last spring, and said “nothing’s going to stop me.”

Even though Bogan said he has paid his debt to society five or six times over, he feels that people segregate others because of their records and are not given a fair opportunity.

“These are things you did in your youth and they’re over with. You can’t penalize people for a lifetime,” Bogan said. “You can’t keep a person away from that which he needs for the necessities of life and the pursuit of his happiness and think that person isn’t going to say enough is enough and fight back.”

And some citizens in Champaign-Urbana are planning to “fight back.” Aaron Ammons and his sister Carol Ammons have begun organizing an organization called Citizens with Conviction(s). The group has only had a couple of meetings, including one Friday night where they began organizing people with felony convictions to address the issues they face. Ammons explained the group’s name.

“‘Citizens’ because we have rights,” Aaron Ammons said. “And ‘Conviction(s)’ not because of our felonies, but because of our commitment to our cause.”

Bogan is a member of Citizens with Conviction(s) and pointed out that the most important thing the organization can do is to educate the community. Bogan said it was extremely important for him to know about the law before he could try and fight it.

“Without (education), we’ve lost before we get in the door,” Bogan said. “People who want to fight can’t do so in a violent way. We need to use our heads because if you do something wrong, you’re going right back to jail as fast as they can turn the key.”

Carol Ammons said the next step for Citizens with Conviction(s) is to organize into committees made up of members from the Champaign-Urbana community and the University revolving around the main issues that include voting rights, employment, housing and education. Bogan said it will be a lot of work but anyone who is determined to do better, like he was and still continues to be, can do it.

“It’s not easy, it’s not easy at all,” Bogan said. “But anything worth having is worth fighting for, and having my liberties restored to me is worth fighting for.”