Reverend Velma Maia Thomas (born June 18, 1955) is an author and academic from the United States of America.

Background

Thomas was born June 18, 1955, in Detroit, Michigan. She received her bachelor's degree (journalism) from Howard University and master's degree (political science) from

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

. She also holds a graduate certificate in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. Thomas is an ordained minister at the Church of the Black Madonna in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Career

Thomas's work focuses on

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

history, specifically slavery and emancipation in context of the United States of America. From 1987 to 2000 Thomas worked at the Shrine of the Black Madonna Bookstore and Cultural Center in

. Here she created the Black Holocaust Exhibit, a collection on slavery in America.

Works

From her work on the Black Holocaust Exhibit, Thomas published four interactive books on slavery and emancipation in the United States entitled: * ''Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation'' (1997, Random House) * ''Freedom's Children: The Passage from Emancipation to the Great Migration'' (2000, Random House) * ''No Man Can Hinder Me: The Journey from Slavery to Emancipation Through Song'' (2001, Random House) * ''We Shall Not Be Moved'' (2002, Random House) Thomas also co-authored ''Emancipation Proclamation: Forever Free'' with Kevin McGruder (2013) and was a contributor to Leroy Barber's book ''Red, Brown, Yellow, Black, White? Who's More Precious In God's Sight?'' (2013). Thomas was selected as one of a hundred distinguished Americans to contribute to the book ''Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem'' (2000) She also contributed a chapter to ''Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna and Child'' (2016) and provided the introduction to ''Finding A Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity'' (1999). Thomas has contributed to various academic journals, notably the publication of ''The Odd Fellow City: The Promise of a Leading Black Town'' in the Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians. In 2012, Thomas was an expert and commentator for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary, ''Underground Railroad: The William Still Story.'' Thomas has served as a distinguished scholar at the Penn Center in South Carolina and is currently part of the faculty of the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

Awards

Thomas's first book, ''Lest We Forget'', received an Alex Award in 1998 from the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

. ''Freedom's Children'' was a finalist for the 2000 Georgia Writer of the Year Award for Young Adult Books. ''We Shall Not Be Moved'' received the 2003 Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In 2004 she won the Award for Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of An Archives from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board.

References

External links

Official homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Velma Maia Living people 1955 births African-American women writers Howard University alumni Emory University alumni Georgia State University alumni University of South Carolina faculty American women academics 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women