You are cordially invited to attend the Jan. 16 Martin Luther King Jr. March and Ceremony. The march will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the corner of East Alabama Avenue and MLK Drive and end at King’s Chapel AMEC at 1810 San Antonio Ave., Many. The speaker for this year’s event will be Judge Agnelis L. Reese.
Reese is a native of Bastrop and an honor graduate of Bastrop High School. She graduated La. Tech University with a double major in sociology and history. In May 1989, she graduated from Southern University Law Center magna cum laude and third in her class. While at Southern she was vice president of the Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity and president of the Moot Court Board.
After completing law school, she was selected as an honor graduate by the United States Dept. of Justice. She served as an assistant chief counsel for the former Immigration and Naturalization Service from October 2, 1989, to April 25, 1997. In 1995, she was appointed a Special assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
On April 27, 1997, Reese was appointed to be a United States immigration judge. She was the first woman and African American appointed to that position in the state of Louisiana. During her 23-year tenure, she adjudicated thousands of immigration cases. She retired from distinguished service on the bench on June 21, 2019. She mentored dozens of attorneys, 12 of which are now sitting immigration judges.
In Oct. 2018, she received a Master of Divinity from Payne Theological Seminary, graduating with a 3.81 GPA. She is president of the Central North Louisiana Women in Ministry, secretary of the Alexandria-Thibodaux District Ministerial Alliance, a member of the Oakdale Ministerial Alliance and the Colfax Ministerial Alliance. She is also a member of the La. State Bar Assoc. and Delta Sigma Delta Sorority, Inc.