Vivien Thomas Thomas was born in a small town in Louisiana during the Jim Crow era, but sources disagree on which small town. Most sources say that he was born to Willard Maceo Thomas and the former Mary Alice Eaton in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1910. He...
More
Vivien Thomas Thomas was born in a small town in Louisiana during the Jim Crow era, but sources disagree on which small town. Most sources say that he was born to Willard Maceo Thomas and the former Mary Alice Eaton in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1910. He listed New Iberia as his birthplace in his World War. II draft card, and when he died in 1985, The Baltimore Sun's obituary for him also included New Iberia. But in his autobiography, published shortly after his death, Thomas writes that he was born in Lake Providence, Louisiana. New Iberia was his mother's hometown, Lake Providence his father's. Either way, the family didn't stay in Louisiana long, moving to Nashville, Tennessee, when Thomas was about two years old. Thomas attended Pearl High School in Nashville in the 1920s, graduating in 1929. Thomas's father was a carpenter and enjoyed passing on his expertise to his children. Thomas worked with his father and his brothers every day after school and on Saturdays, performing tasks
Less
