Changes

==Biography==

==Biography==

A son of Taft Young Thomas, a longshoreman, Morris Thomas was born in [[New Orleans]]. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Foster, was also an artist as well as a [[Baptist]] minister and from 1909-1949 the first black employee of the [[Exxon Corporation]] in [[Baton Rouge]]. Foster encouraged the senior Thomas to take a job at Exxon as well, and the parents relocated to Baton Rouge when Morris was two years of age.<ref name=btompkins/> He attended the historically black Southern University Laboratory School in 1953 and completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1960 and a Master of Education in supervision and administration in 1978 from Southern University in Baton Rouge. He also studied at three other universities and from 1998 to 2002 sat on the board of directors of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He taught junior high school for twelve years in Alexandria before his promotion to principal, a position he held for twenty-five years until his retirement in 1997. He was first assigned to A. Wettermark High School in Boyce in northern Rapides Parish and then D.F. Huddle Elementary School in Alexandria. As an assistant principal at Bolton High School in Alexandria, he taught a senior art class. He is a former adjunct professor of art history at Louisiana State University at Alexandria, then a two-year institution since expanded to four years.<ref name=taftsstudio>{{cite web|url=http://www.taftsartstudio.com/about-artist.html|title=Taft's Art Studio: Creative Works of Morris Taft Thomas|publisher=Taftartsstudio.com|accessdate=June 20, 2017}}</ref>

A son of Taft Young Thomas, a longshoreman, Morris Thomas was born in [[New Orleans]]. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Foster, was also an artist as well as a [[Baptist]] minister and from 1909-1949 the first black employee of the [[Exxon]] Corporation in [[Baton Rouge]]. Foster encouraged the senior Thomas to take a job at Exxon as well, and the parents relocated to Baton Rouge when Morris was two years of age.<ref name=btompkins/> He attended the historically black Southern University Laboratory School in 1953 and completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1960 and a Master of Education in supervision and administration in 1978 from Southern University in Baton Rouge. He also studied at three other universities and from 1998 to 2002 sat on the board of directors of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He taught junior high school for twelve years in Alexandria before his promotion to principal, a position he held for twenty-five years until his retirement in 1997. He was first assigned to A. Wettermark High School in Boyce in northern Rapides Parish and then D.F. Huddle Elementary School in Alexandria. As an assistant principal at Bolton High School in Alexandria, he taught a senior art class. He is a former adjunct professor of art history at Louisiana State University at Alexandria, then a two-year institution since expanded to four years.<ref name=taftsstudio>{{cite web|url=http://www.taftsartstudio.com/about-artist.html|title=Taft's Art Studio: Creative Works of Morris Taft Thomas|publisher=Taftartsstudio.com|accessdate=June 20, 2017}}</ref>

Thomas uses stone, wood, clay, metal, and paint in his art, which is drawn from both African and his native Louisiana heritage. Thomas has won numerous awards in sculpture and ceramics. In 2001, he was selected as a representative from Louisiana to make an ornament for the [[White House]] [[Christmas tree]], as [[U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]] and his wife, [[Laura Bush]], invited Thomas to the White House. In 2008, he was named "Louisiana Professional Artist of the Year" by then Governor Murphy J. "Mike Foster, Jr.<ref name=taftsstudio/> 

Thomas uses stone, wood, clay, metal, and paint in his art, which is drawn from both African and his native Louisiana heritage. Thomas has won numerous awards in sculpture and ceramics. In 2001, he was selected as a representative from Louisiana to make an ornament for the [[White House]] [[Christmas tree]], as [[U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]] and his wife, [[Laura Bush]], invited Thomas to the White House. In 2008, he was named "Louisiana Professional Artist of the Year" by then Governor Murphy J. "Mike Foster, Jr.<ref name=taftsstudio/>