Jim Thomas was born in Humboldt, Tennessee, in 1939. He attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied history and government and earned a BA degree. While at Fisk, Jim was invited to sing with the world-renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers. Later, he sang with Robert Shaw Chorale in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Paul Hill Chorale at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
He founded and was the director of the Red Cross Festival Choir. They performed from 1976 to 1999.
The US Slave Song Project INC., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded by James E. Thomas in 2005 and is dedicated to educating the public about the history and interpretation of authentic US slave songs through presentations and performances. Jim serves as president of the choir director for US Slave Song Choir and narrates events and presentations.
Lorna is a retired professor in professional nursing education, premedical and gerontology, and health administration and management.
She remains active with guest lectures and consulting at notable institutions of higher education and community health centers.
She sits on many boards and contributes as a public speaker, lobbyist, and author and workshop designer on issues ranging from strategies we can use for reducing violence in black communities to management of health-care facilities with a special focus on adult day-care facilities in rural areas, such as on Martha’s Vineyard. Her master’s thesis, “Opening Up an Adult Day Health-Care Facility in a Rural Setting,” Cambridge College, August 1986, is used by many rural areas even today!
Virginia has a master’s degree in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Arts, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree in studio art from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She also studied figure drawing under a seminar for college teachers at New York University. In the Anthropology Department of NYU, she studied “African systems of thought” under T. Biederman. Virginia sings in Jim Thomas’s US Slave Song Project Choir with Dr. Lorna Chambers-Andrade.
