To showcase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dedication to community service and equality, the Center for Energy Education will host a celebration of his life and legacy Thursday, January 16, through remarks from a leader within North Carolina’s highest court and recognition of area volunteers.

From 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at its Roanoke Rapids campus, at 460 Airport Road, C4EE invites elected officials, community leaders, students and the public to highlight Dr. King as a champion for justice and equity by welcoming North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita S. Earls as the event’s keynote speaker. Justice Earls has served on the state’s supreme court since 2019.

Prior to her judicial service, Justice Earls was a civil rights attorney, litigating employment and housing discrimination cases, school desegregation cases, police misconduct and voting rights cases as well as criminal defense cases.

Appointed by President Clinton, Justice Earls served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division from 1998 to 2000 in Washington where she managed cases related to the division’s disability rights, educational opportunities, voting, and coordination and review sections. 

From 2000 to 2003, she led the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Returning to North Carolina in 2003, she served as director of advocacy at the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights. 

In 2007 Earls founded the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a non- profit legal advocacy organization, and as its executive director for ten years, she litigated voting rights and other civil rights cases.

Her service includes the NC State Board of Elections, the NC Equal Access to Justice Commission and she currently co-chairs the Governor’s Task Force on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. 

Justice Earls has taught as an adjunct professor at the UNC and University of Maryland law schools and in the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke University.

Justice Earls graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political economy and philosophy. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School.

“Dr. King preached lessons about justice for all, a message we believe is very much aligned with the work that we do at the center,” said Mozine Lowe, executive director of C4EE. “Justice Earls will address Dr. King’s inspiration in her work to strengthen civic engagement through education, service and legal advocacy.”