This year’s ninth annual Moton Community Banquet will be held Saturday, Feb. 29. The Moton Museum brings together all members of the community to recognize its donors and to honor local civil rights history. The event also recognizes the culmination of the Moton Family Challenge Campaign. This annual campaign recognizes families that join together each year in a competitive spirit of unity, to support the museum.

Ken Woodley, former editor of The Farmville Herald and author of “The Road to Healing: A Civil Rights Reparations Story in Prince Edward County, Virginia” will be the Master of Ceremonies, entertainment from the Southside Jazz Quartet, and a keynote address from the Honorable Judge John Charles Thomas, retired Virginia Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Thomas is a senior partner at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, where he serves as chief of appellate practice. Thomas is also a judge of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, which handles cases involving violations of the World Anti-Doping Code for all Olympic Sports, the Tour de France, FIFA and LPGA. Thomas holds the distinction of being the first black and at 32 the youngest justice appointed to Virginia’s highest court by former Virginia Governor Charles Robb in 1983. Thomas was educated at the University of Virginia, where he graduated with distinction in 1972. He earned his J.D. from UVA Law in 1975.

Judge Thomas has taught Appellate Practice at the University of Virginia School of Law, served as a Jurist in Residence at Gonzaga University, and been a recipient of the NAACP’s Lifetime Image Award, and been a Vision Speaker at James Madison University.

The banquet will begin at 6 p.m. in the Longwood University Health & Fitness Center. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. For more information regarding ticket purchases or sponsorship information contact (434) 315-8775 (ext. 6), sherre.atkins@ motonmuseum.org, or visit http://www.motonmuseum.org/banquet-2/.