James G. Thomas, Sr.
Leland
James G. Thomas, Sr. (known as “T” to his friends) was born on April 23, 1940, in Leland, Mississippi. His father was Sam Thomas, originally of Greenville (born in Bishmazzine, Lebanon), and his mother was Victoria Mary Ellis Thomas, originally of Jackson and Port Gibson.
His parents first lived together in marriage in Greenville, where Sam immigrated to as a young man. Sam’s father, Abu Anees Mafrij (the spelling varies, depending on the source), first came to the Delta from Bishmezzine around 1911 to begin peddling around the Greenville area. Just before World War I broke, Sam’s father returned to Bishmezzine to gather his family and then return to Greenville, which he did. Abu Anees understood what the ramifications of the deteriorating political situation occurring in Syria would mean for his family, and he decided his move to Mississippi would be permanent. Thus, Abu Anees resolved to take on not only a new homeplace but a new name to accompany it. Thomas (or a variation of it) was the name of a Mafrij family elder, and he thought it would be a suitable one for his family. Once he returned to the States, his family’s last name would henceforth be Thomas, and he would be known as George.
In Greenville, George and his sons opened a grocery store on Nelson Street. By 1927 the grocery store had become established and had flourished into a successful business, but when the levees broke on the Mississippi during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the store was flooded to the roof. The eldest Thomas son moved to Vicksburg with his wife, but the rest of the Thomas family remained in Greenville and reopened grocery stores and dry goods stores. Many of the decedents of Abu Anees still live in Greenville, with others making up a large portion of the Lebanese population in nearby Leland.
George Thomas’s grandson, James George Thomas, Sr. was raised in Leland, attended Leland public schools, and went to Mississippi Southern College (the University of Southern Mississippi). He was a lifetime member of the Leland United Methodist Church.
Thomas is the father of this project’s author, James G. Thomas, Jr.
This interview with my father took place on November 11, 2017, at 615 E. 3rd St. in Leland, in the house in which he was born and raised.
AUDIO (Click to listen):
In these two audio clips, James G. Thomas, Sr. talks about two similar Mississippi social events, one in which non-Lebanese were often invited, and the next in which Lebanese were often included. In the first, he talks about attending Lebanese conventions in his youth and as a young adult, and in the second he talks about attending debutante dances as a teenager in the Delta.
“Daddy didn’t socialize much except with family. His family would come over here or they would go to Greenville. Play cards, play Rook.”
“My mother cooked the best kibbee in the world. And squash, stuffed squash, grape leaves, tabbouleh, and laban. I don’t know where they’d get it, but I loved to put laban on my grape leaves. It was really good. And then when you make kibbee, [my mother would say], ‘Jimmy, always put the sign of the cross on it when you are done.’” Note: The common practice is to press the sign of the cross into the raw kibbee once preparation is complete.
“When they built the Deer Creek Town and Racquet Club—I’ve told you this story years ago—they came to my mother and asked her to join, and at first she turned them down. Eventually she joined. So we were the first Lebanese family to be a member of society. First Lebanese to be invited. And then a couple of years later they needed more members. . . .”
—James G. Thomas, Sr.
IMAGES (Click to enlarge):
The images in this collection illustrate common examples of the rapid Americanization of first-generation Lebanese-Mississippians and the customs driven by social class aspirations prevalent in the Jim Crow South. In the first image, the Thomas children (and a friend) pose for a photograph with Lucile, the children’s caregiver and Thomas family housekeeper. The following three images illustrate the 1940s and 1950s model of American social participation through team sports (left-right: James [“Jimmy”] Thomas played basketball on the Leland High School team in the 1940s; Thomas on the Powerglides Little League team in Leland, 1940s; and Thomas as an elected member of the Mississippi Southern College cheerleader squad (front left), 1959.
DOCUMENTS (Click to enlarge):
The documents in this collection were preserved by the Thomas family and can be considered a snapshot of how the family saw itself situated within the community. The first is a letter received by the family containing a “unique tribute” written by members of the African American community and published in the Port Gibson Reveille. The next document is an invitation to Thomas’s mother, dated September 2, 1965, to join the Deer Creek Town & Racquet Club in Leland—a sign that the proscription against Lebanese joining various social clubs and organizations was breaking down by the mid-1960s. The third document is a letter, in both English and Arabic, dated November 1, 1977, that gives power of attorney to a relative in Lebanon in preparation to sell the last remaining Thomas property there, signaling the final step in the move from the Middle East to America.