July 2, 2006: Jim Thomas and the NAACP Chorus at Christ Church

Jim Thomas has spent years performing and researching slave spirituals. His performance includes the songs and the interpretation of their historic meanings and use by slaves. Before the Civil War, slaves sang mournful spirituals to accompany their lives of toil and depravation. They were not allowed to talk as they plowed, planted, picked and cleaned. But they could sing. To their overseers, the songs with faith themes seemed harmless. In a recent interview with Rusty Dennen of the Free Lance Star Thomas said, "Spirituals were much more than songs. Many spirituals are ‘call-and-response’ songs in which one group sings and another answers; minor keys predominate with multiple rhythms. Key words in the Bible appear over and over, but with wholly different connotations. White or black, many people don't know the messages involved in this music. It may surprise most listeners to learn that spiritual music was not born in the black church. Slaves used the language of the white church because it was safe. The unknown composers of the songs needed a method to communicate important information, since conversation was banned. They found that they could sing anything and (white) folks wouldn't become alarmed. Many of slavery's most ardent backers pointed to the illusion that singing slaves must be happy slaves. Observers often remarked, 'Oh, how wonderful,' not having a clue that those in the fields were having important, sometimes lifesaving conversations. Spirituals come in several categories: as a call for gatherings, the crossing from Africa to bondage, descriptions of slavery, the Underground Railroad, faith themes and emancipation. Spirituals, are pre-Civil War, while Gospel music emerged afterwards."

Thomas was born in West Tennessee. He is a graduate of Fisk University in Nashville. He was invited to sing with the world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers and has studied under the direction of Fisk's John W. Work, who is credited with putting musical notes for many spirituals on paper for the first time. Thomas has taught in Nashville schools, is the Founding Director of the American Red Cross Chorus and has served as its director since 1976. He has worked for 40 years with the Red Cross in various positions before retiring in 1999. He resides in Aquia Harbour in North Stafford, Virginia and Martha's Vineyard.