Thomas was the president of the local NAACP chapter in 2019.
[1] That year, Governor Ralph Northam appointed her to the Commission on African American History Education in the Commonwealth.
[2] In 2017, the real estate developer Toll Brothers, which owned the land, donated 2.75 acres (1.11 ha) to a new Loudoun Freedom Center.
In 2021, the developer agreed to donate an additional 4 acres (1.6 ha), which will be used to re-create a schoolhouse and other structures used by enslaved people.
In 2020 Michelle Thomas buried the first free Black in the cemetery: her 16-year-old son, dead of drowning.