San Bernardino County public defender Phyllis K. Morris will be featured speaker during the Morris Family Reunion Banquet Saturday, August 1, when 200 or more relatives gather at Mt. Gillion M. B. Church.

The weekend reunion will be headquartered at the Concord-Macedonia Community Center, in the area where many Morris relatives live or were raised. The group is taking advantage of Mt. Gillion’s large facilities for the Saturday night banquet.

Morris attended the university of California, Davis, School of Law becoming a lawyer because of her desire to speak up for people who didn’t have a voice according to a 2012 news story in the Daily Press.

She became San Bernardino County’s first black public defender in 2010 and has been with the Public Defender’s office since 1984.

“When I was accomplishing things, I never thought about being the first black,” Morris told the Daily Press. “My goal was always to be the best.”

Morris is the daughter of Garner Morris, a Panola County native who left to spend a career in the Air Force. She is the granddaughter of the late Aurther Morris, Sr. who was a Panola County farmer in the Macedonia area and Deacon of the Macedonia Church. The family continues to own property in the area.