Velma Maia Thomas

Last updated

Reverend

Velma Maia Thomas
Born (1955-06-18) 18 June 1955 (age 68)
Detroit, United States
NationalityAmerican
Education Howard University, Emory University, Georgia State University.
GenreNon-fiction
Notable worksLest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation
Notable awards Alex Award (1998)
Website
velmamaiathomas.com

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

Contents

Background

Thomas was born June 18, 1955, in Detroit, Michigan. [1] She received her bachelor's degree (journalism) from Howard University and master's degree (political science) from Emory University. She also holds a graduate certificate in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. [2]

Thomas is an ordained minister at the Church of the Black Madonna in Atlanta. [3]

Career

Thomas's work focuses on African American history, specifically slavery and emancipation in context of the United States of America. [2]

From 1987 to 2000 Thomas worked at the Shrine of the Black Madonna Bookstore and Cultural Center in Atlanta. Here she created the Black Holocaust Exhibit, a collection on slavery in America. [4] [5] [6]

Works

From her work on the Black Holocaust Exhibit, Thomas published four interactive books on slavery and emancipation in the United States entitled:

Thomas also co-authored Emancipation Proclamation: Forever Free with Kevin McGruder (2013) [7] and was a contributor to Leroy Barber's book Red, Brown, Yellow, Black, White? Who's More Precious In God's Sight? (2013). [8]

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) [9] She also contributed a chapter to Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna and Child (2016) [10] and provided the introduction to Finding A Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity (1999). [2] [11]

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. [5]

In 2012, Thomas was an expert and commentator for the PBS documentary, Underground Railroad: The William Still Story. [3]

Thomas has served as a distinguished scholar at the Penn Center in South Carolina and once served on the faculty of the University of South Carolina Beaufort. [2]

Awards

Thomas's first book, Lest We Forget, received an Alex Award in 1998 from the American Library Association. [12] Freedom's Children was a finalist for the 2000 Georgia Writer of the Year Award for Young Adult Books. [13] We Shall Not Be Moved received the 2003 Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. [14]

In 2004 she won the Award for Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of An Archives from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emancipation Proclamation</span> 1862 executive order by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln freeing slaves in the South

The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the effect of changing the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as slaves escaped the control of their enslavers, either by fleeing to Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, they were permanently free. In addition, the Proclamation allowed for former slaves to "be received into the armed service of the United States". The Emancipation Proclamation played a significant part in the end of slavery in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution</span> 1865 Reconstruction amendment

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism</span> Movement to end slavery

Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved people around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juneteenth</span> US holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Its name is a portmanteau of the words "June" and "nineteenth", as it is celebrated on the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when as the American Civil War was ending, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. Originating in Galveston, Juneteenth has since been observed annually in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the United States</span>

The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slavery was established throughout European colonization in the Americas. From 1526, during the early colonial period, it was practiced in what became Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition in 1865, and issues concerning slavery seeped into every aspect of national politics, economics, and social custom. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, many of slavery's economic and social functions were continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slave states and free states</span> Historical division of United States in which slavery was legal or not

In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states to be politically imperative that the number of free states not exceed the number of slave states, so new states were admitted in slave–free pairs. There were, nonetheless, some slaves in most free states up to the 1840 census, and the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as implemented by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, provided that a slave did not become free by entering a free state and must be returned to his or her owner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emancipation Day</span> Holiday to celebrate emancipation of enslaved people

Emancipation Day is observed in many former European colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States on various dates to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Lincoln and slavery</span> Involvement of Abraham Lincoln and his views and stance on slavery

Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery in the United States is one of the most discussed aspects of his life. Lincoln frequently expressed his moral opposition to slavery in public and private. "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong," he stated. "I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel." However, the question of what to do about it and how to end it, given that it was so firmly embedded in the nation's constitutional framework and in the economy of much of the country, was complex and politically challenging. In addition, there was the unanswered question, which Lincoln had to deal with, of what would become of the four million slaves if liberated: how they would earn a living in a society that had almost always rejected them or looked down on their very presence.

Lest We Forget may refer to:

Albert B. Cleage Jr. was a Black nationalist Christian minister, political candidate, newspaper publisher, political organizer, and author. He founded the prominent Shrine of the Black Madonna Church, as well as the Shrine Cultural Centers and Bookstores in Detroit, Michigan, and Atlanta, Georgia, and Houston, Texas. All locations are still open and functioning under the BCN mission. Cleage, who changed his name to Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman in the early 1970s, played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement in Detroit during the 1960s and 1970s. He became increasingly involved with Black nationalism and Black separatism during the 1970s, rejecting many of the core principles of racial integration. He founded a church-owned farm, Beulah Land, in Calhoun Falls, South Carolina, and spent most of his last years there. He was the father of daughters Kristin Cleage and writer Pearl Cleage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Americans in the Revolutionary War</span>

In the American Revolution, gaining freedom was the strongest motive for Black enslaved people who joined the Patriot or British armies. It is estimated that 20,000 African Americans joined the British cause, which promised freedom to enslaved people, as Black Loyalists. Around 9,000 African Americans became Black Patriots.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, owned more than 600 slaves during his adult life. Jefferson freed two slaves while he lived, and five others were freed after his death, including two of his children from his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his death, the rest of the slaves were sold to pay off his estate's debts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act</span> 1862 U.S. federal law ending slavery in DC

An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia, 37th Cong., Sess. 2, ch. 54, 12 Stat. 376, known colloquially as the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act or simply Compensated Emancipation Act, was a law that ended slavery in the District of Columbia, while providing slave owners who remained loyal to the United States in the then-ongoing Civil War to petition for compensation. Although not written by him, the act was signed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 16, 1862. April 16 is now celebrated in the city as Emancipation Day.

Pearl Cleage is an African-American playwright, essayist, novelist, poet and political activist. She is currently the Playwright in Residence at the Alliance Theatre and at the Just Us Theater Company. Cleage is a political activist. She tackles issues at the crux of racism and sexism, and is known for her feminist views, particularly regarding her identity as an African-American woman. Her works are highly anthologized and have been the subject of many scholarly analyses. Many of her works across several genres have earned both popular and critical acclaim. Her novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997) was a 1998 Oprah's Book Club selection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reparations for slavery</span> Political justice concept

Reparations for slavery is the application of the concept of reparations to victims of slavery and/or their descendants. There are concepts for reparations in legal philosophy and reparations in transitional justice. Reparations can take many forms, including practical and financial assistance to the descendants of enslaved people, acknowledgements or apologies to peoples or nations negatively affected by slavery, or honouring the memories of people who were enslaved by naming things after them.

The Second Emancipation Proclamation is the term applied to an envisioned executive order that Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement called on President John F. Kennedy to issue. As the Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln to free all slaves being held in states at war with the Union, the envisioned "Second Emancipation Proclamation" was to use the powers of the executive office to strike a severe blow to segregation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrine of the Black Madonna</span> United States historic place

The Shrine of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church, or more simply the Shrine of the Black Madonna, is a church building located at 7625 Linwood Street in Detroit, Michigan. It is significant for its association with civil rights leader Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., and as the location of many significant 20th century African American civil rights activities. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

<i>Emancipation</i> (2022 film) 2022 film by Antoine Fuqua

Emancipation is a 2022 American historical action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and co-produced by Will Smith, who stars as a runaway slave headed for Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the 1860s, after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery in secessionist Confederate states, surviving the swamps while being chased by slave catchers and their dogs. Ben Foster stars as a ruthless slave hunter and Charmaine Bingwa as an enslaved wife and mother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emancipation Memorial (Boston)</span>

The Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman's Memorial or the Emancipation Group was a monument in Park Square in Boston. Designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball and erected in 1879, its sister statue is located in Lincoln Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Boston statue was taken down by the City of Boston on December 29, 2020, following a unanimous vote from the Boston Art Commission on June 30 to remove the memorial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">End of slavery in the United States</span> Review of the topic

From the late-18th to the mid-19th century, various states of the United States of America allowed the enslavement of human beings, most of whom had been transported from Africa during the Atlantic slave trade or were their descendants. The institution of chattel slavery was established in North America in the 16th century under Spanish colonization, British colonization, French colonization, and Dutch colonization.

References

  1. "Thomas, Velma Maia". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Faculty and Staff". University of South Carolina Beaufot. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Who's Who in the Film". Underground Railroad PBS. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  4. Jones, Charisse (2 April 1995). "Bringing Slavery's Long Shadow to the Light". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Author speaks on 150th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation, Feb. 20". Covington News. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  6. Jenn, Nina King (7 February 1997). "It's better to give..." Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  7. McGruder, Kevin; Thomas, Vela Maia; Scott, Georgia (2013). Emancipation Proclamation "Forever Free". Urban Ministries, Inc. ISBN   978-1609978761.
  8. Barber, Leroy; Thomas, Velma Maia (2014). Red, Brown, Yellow, Black, White: Who's More Precious In God's Sight?: A call for diversity in Christian missions and ministry. Jericho Books. ISBN   978-1455574957.
  9. Bond, Julian; Wilson, Sondra Kathryn, eds. (2000). Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem; 100 Years, 100 Voices. Random House. ISBN   9780679463153.
  10. Clark, Jawanza Eric, ed. (2016). Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna and Child. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 117–134. ISBN   9781137546883.
  11. Woodtor, Dee Parmer (1999). Finding A Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity . Random House. ISBN   9780375405952.
  12. "Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation - YALSA Book Finder". YALSA. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  13. 1 2 "GHRAB Award Winners - 2004" (PDF). georgiaarchives.org. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  14. "BCALA announces 2003 literary awards winners". American Library Association. 26 February 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2017.