Age: 98
Hometown: Mumford
Current residence: Center City
Occupation: Philanthropist and community champion
On September 1, Midge Thomas will turn 99 years old.
The times and accomplishments for which she’s most remembered — her marriage to Dr. Freddie Thomas, the establishment of a foundation and community center in his honor after his untimely death, the dedication of the Miss Jane Pittman drinking fountain at the Liberty Pole — are all decades past.
What remains is smaller and quieter. A modest first-floor apartment on Liberty Pole Way. Inside, a kitchen table with a crisp red tablecloth and a glass of cool water for a visitor.
“We talk a lot about the red tablecloth,” Thomas said. “A lot of good stuff happens right here. … It’s a comfortable environment where people sort of relax.”
Smaller and quieter, in the same way that Thomas’ voice has softened, but still deeply resonant with the presence she has maintained in Rochester since she moved here from Mumford in 1957.
In her 2023 book, “Letters to Freddie: The Biography of Midge Thomas,” biographer Laura Shillitoe DiCaprio described the home Thomas shared with her husband more than 50 years ago, and its place in the local Black community:
“Midge supported Freddie’s accumulation of bright, ambitious students, many of whom visited the Thomases daily. … She asked how their days were … [and] loaded up on half-priced cookies and brownies from the local bakery to provide as after-school snacks.”
A dignified place setting, a simple act of hospitality, a comfortable environment for relaxation, understanding and inspiration — those are the things on which Thomas’ legacy rests.
“The thing is, I can’t let go,” she said. “It’s in me. … I’ve lived long enough to know the whole thread.”
It would be inaccurate to say that Midge Thomas has finished her work. That’s certainly not how she sees it. She’s working with the Gamma Iota Boule Foundation to help launch a scholarship fund for teenagers looking to enter the trades. She’s active with Downtown ROCS, a beautification organization in the city center, and is soon to be honored with the Midge Thomas Community Garden at South Clinton Avenue and Andrews Street. There will be a celebration of her life at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28 at City Hall.
“God uses her as a vehicle to get her work done, and she’s not concerned about what she’s going to get out of it,” said Mario Howell, a close friend. “We all have the qualities, but it’s a matter of what we prefer most. ‘What am I going to get out of it?’ … She cuts all of that loose.”
That frame of mind is something Thomas inherited from her mother and father. Increasingly, she thinks back across the century to them.
“The foundation and the strength of who I am and what it’s about – my identity – it’s because of my parents,” she said.
Both sides of her family have roots in antebellum Virginia. Her father, Milton Banks, belonged to one of the first Black families to come to Mumford from Culpeper, Virginia, after the Civil War. They donated the land on which the Black church there was built. Her mother, Ethel, was born in Richmond; Midge’s maternal grandfather established a string of African Methodist Episcopal churches across the state.
The Banks were hard workers and churchgoers who instilled in their children the importance of education and the obligation to serve their community. Midge, their oldest daughter, brought those qualities to her marriage with Freddie Thomas, an early Black scientist in Rochester who dedicated his too-short life to the same principles.
Following his death in 1974, Midge has carried on in his memory.
“God has already ordained who you are,” she said. “He has already got a plan that you’re going to do: one, two, three, four, five, whatever it is. And you are obligated to follow what He has planned for you.”
What does God have ordained for Midge Thomas? Only He and she knows that. For as many more years as she’s given, she’ll continue to carry it out from her seat at the table with the red tablecloth.
Justin Murphy is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
