Velma Maia Thomas

Velma Maia Thomas is the author of several nonfiction books on African American history, including the award-winning interactive Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation (Random House, 1997). Additional books in the series are Freedom’s Children, No Man Can Hinder Me, and We Shall Not Be Moved. Maia served as manager of the Shrine of the Black Madonna Bookstore and Cultural Center in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1987 to 2000, where she created the nationally acclaimed Black Holocaust Exhibit, a collection of original documents on slavery in America.

Maia holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Howard University, a master’s degree in political science from Emory University, and graduate level certificate in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. She has served as keynote speaker at universities, libraries, and museums across the nation and has served as a distinguished scholar at the historic Penn Center on St. Helena, Island, South Carolina. Maia has been interviewed by the New York Times, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, and the British Broadcasting Corporation. She continues to write, teach, and speak on African American history, using her engaging style to bring history to life (Photo by Michael Dawud Lewis).