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WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Larry Reni Thomas had a unique connection to words, people and music. Revered for decades as a jazz scholar, author, historian, and civil rights leader, when the Wilmington native spoke, people listened. Thomas died Friday. He was 73.
Thomas was educated in New Hanover County schools and was a student during the race riots in the early 1970′s that brought the group, the Wilmington 10, to the forefront. Thomas’ first book was entitled “The True Story Behind the Wilmington Ten.”
Wayne Moore was one of the nine young men and one woman wrongfully convicted in 1971 for arson and conspiracy. He was at Thomas’s bedside shortly before he passed.
“Larry was a true cultural icon,” Moore said. “He had an original style, and whose unique understanding of history, jazz and Black history, will most likely, never be duplicated. The connections he made between the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 and the Wilmington Ten were on point. The fear of many Black leaders in this community to support our boycott was palpable. Larry believed wholeheartedly that the fear was generational and directly related to 1898.”
Thomas attended undergraduate school at North Carolina Central University and received his master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980. He would go on to publish several books and essays.
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July 05, 2023 at 07:58AM
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‘Larry was a true cultural icon’: Veteran jazz artist, civil rights leader dies - WECT
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