[3][2] While working at the center, she served as co-counsel for Henry McCollum, who was exonerated after spending thirty years in prison due to a wrongful conviction.

[2] Alston, along with Mayor Protempore Jillian Johnson, was uninvited from speaking at Immaculata Catholic School in Durham on February 8, 2019, during their Black History Month celebrations.

[3][9] The invitation was rescinded after there were threats to protest the event due to Alston and Johnson being openly gay public officials.

[3] Alston responded in a statement, “Immaculata is a religious institution and I believe strongly in the freedom to believe and worship how one chooses, even if a belief conflicts with something fundamental to my own life.

That said, adherence to that basic principle means that I can freely say that the Church, by depriving the students at Immaculata of the chance to honor Black history, and in doing so, condemning the lives and rights of the LGTBQ community, is sending a sad, regressive, and life-altering message to our children – that the voices and experiences of those within the Black community can be cancelled and that inclusion is not valued by some who are charged with shaping their character.