Hackney Library is pleased to host the Honorable Albert S. Thomas, Jr., attorney and retired judge, North Carolina Court of Appeals, as featured speaker at our annual Constitution Day reception and program. The event will be held this year on Monday, September 18, 2017 at Hackney Library from 5:00-7:00 pm.This free event is sponsored by Hackney Library and is open to the Barton community as well as to the general public.

(Constitution Day is traditionally celebrated each September 17 to mark the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution on that date in 1787, but since it falls on a Sunday this year, the commemoration of the 230th anniversary is on the following Monday instead.)

The reception, which begins at 5:00 pm in the Learning Commons on the first floor, will feature refreshments, followed by the program at 5:30 pm, during which Judge Thomas will address “The United States Constitution: Why the Debate Will Never End.” After the presentation, a question-and-answer period will conclude the program.

A native of Wilson, The Honorable Albert S. Thomas, Jr. is a Fike High School graduate. He received an A.B. in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also received his law degree. He has been practicing law with Thomas Law, P.A., since January 2003. He served for more than sixteen years as District Court Judge from 1980 to 1996, for five years as Chief District Court Judge of the Seventh Judicial District from 1996 to 2001, and for two years as judge with the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 2001 through 2002. Prior to his service on the bench, he served as an attorney with the Farris, Thomas and Farris law firm from 1975 to 1980.

Thomas has been involved in a wide range of legal activities across the state, including two terms of service on the executive board of the Governor’s Crime Commission, as well as service on the Sate Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice, the North Carolina Supreme Court Custody Mediation Subcommittee, the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, the Governor’s Juvenile Code Revision Committee, the Guardian ad Litem Advisory Committee, the State Blue Book Committee that wrote the book Juvenile Justice Procedures, and the Advisory Committee for Governor’s Commission on Juvenile Crime and Justice. He has also served as Instructor for Certification of Judges for Juvenile Court, as chairman of the Conference of District Court Judges’ Juvenile Justice Committee, and as a council member of the Friends of the Institute of Government. In addition, Thomas directed and wrote the film “Alternatives,” which has been used in the training of judges, court counselors, and other professionals for juvenile court.

Thomas has also served as an adjunct instructor at both North Carolina Wesleyan College as well as Barton College, where he has been an adjunct professor at various times, and continuously since 2010 to the present.

Community service represents a large portion of Thomas’s portfolio. Thomas has served on the founding boards of both Y.O.U.T.H. of Wilson and Wilson Families in Action, the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Wilson County Chamber of Commerce, the Wilson County 4-H and Youth Advisory Board, the Wilson 2000 Board, the Wilson Criminal Justice Partnership Board, the Nash Community College Criminal Justice Curriculum Review Committee, and the Wilson County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. He currently serves on the Wilson Arts Council Endowment Committee and the Wilson Area Habitat for Humanity Board. He has served on the Wilson YMCA Board since 2003 and on its Executive Board since 2006, for which he serves as president-elect for the 2017-18 year. Thomas is a member of St. Therese Catholic Church, where he has served on its Parish Advisory Council.

Thomas and his wife, Georgia, live in Wilson, and have two children, Sara Caroline and Albert Cooper.

We hope you will join us for this timely Constitutional program on Monday, September 18!