Mrs. Thomas, who now is in her 50’s, ironically has worked most of her government career in the field of equal employment opportunity with several government agencies.  She wonders if she is carrying on her great-grandfather’s quest for equality with more modern day approaches instead of a violent war.

"I guess in my early teenage years I started learning more about my family.  My grandfather was a quiet man," Thomas said.  "He spoke few words and often did not want to talk about the past so I obtained little information from him.  He probably saw me as just a kid wanting to hold a grown-up conversation with them.  Yes, I was one of those kids that asked a million questions.  What is this, why are you doing that, explain this, etc.

                     Ruby Thomas and family (from left) Gerald Datcher great-grandson,
Tammi Miles, Ruby's daughter, Ruby Thomas and her husband James Thomas.
          

Surely, my grandfather must have viewed me as a 'motor mouth.'  But it was more than that.  Early I realized the importance of learning about my family roots.  He did not realize at that time he was only making me much more curious.  My grandfather, William Henry Brown died on his 77th birthday in 1967 when I was 16 years old and taking with him a great deal of our family history,” Thomas recounted.

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