Our Team
Candace Thomas-Reese
Founder | Researcher | Virtual Tour Guide
Dr. Candace Thomas-Reese started the Juneteenth Pilgrimage as a way to connect her family back to their Galveston roots.
Inspired by her doctoral research on Alice Walker activism through storytelling, Zora Neale Hurston’s ethnographic research in the American south, Reese decided to collect, write and promote the life stories of remarkable people in the struggle for freedom, liberty, and justice for all.
As an internationally recognized educator and former Miss Juneteenth, Candace offers talks on the history and culture of Juneteenth through the eyes of Texas.
Lawrence “B-Bone” Thomas
Organizer | Storyteller | Galveston Tour Guide
Lawrence Benjamin Thomas is a Galveston legend and masterful storyteller. During the Juneteenth Pilgrimages, he offers little known Galveston history and add important nuances to our journey.
Everyone in Galveston knows him and he knows everybody. He was a coach and assistant principal at Ball High School in Galveston until his retirement.
He is the founder of the James B. Thomas Clef Club and he mentors children through music, building on his father James B. Thomas’ legacy of service.
Courtney Thomas
Researcher | Historian | Storyteller
Courtney Thomas is historian and lifelong educator in Galveston County. She and her father, Lawrence “B-Bone” Thomas, travel the country looking for new insight on the Thomas - Peachey family history.
She is an active member of the Galveston Historical Society and her beloved Delta Sigma Theta.
Scottie Stapleton
Researcher | Historian | Activist
Scottie Staple recorded Thomas - Peachey family history, collected it, and published it in 2006. We owe Scottie a tremendous debt as she did much of the leg work in the 1990s-2000s to clarify the stories that were told about our family on both the Thomas and Peachey side.
Alex Stapleton
Filmmaker | Historian | Emmy Award Winner
Alex is a sixth generation descendant and an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker for film and television. She is currently directing a project for HBO entitled God Save Texas (Jigsaw Productions). Her episode of The Playbook (SpringHill), a new show for Netflix aired this Fall and over the past two years she’s also had the privilege to showrun a six-part, docu-series for FX called Pride, which chronicles the American LGBTQ+ Civil Rights movement.
Other recent credits include Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea (Netflix/CondeNast) and Shut Up & Dribble (Showtime/SpringHill). Stapleton made her directorial debut with the critically acclaimed film, Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (A&E), starring Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard and competed at top festivals like Cannes, the New York Film Festival and Sundance. Past producing credits also include The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey (CBS) Big Fish Texas (Nat Geo) and TakePart World (Participant Media).
Awards
NAACP Award Nominee, Shut Up and Dribble (Showtime/Springhill Entertainment), 2019
Emmy Award Winner, SoCal Connected (PBS/KCET), 2017
Camera d'Or Award Nominee, Corman's World (A&E), 2012
James E. Thomas Jr.
Researcher | Screen Writer
James E. Thomas Jr. is sixth generation descendant and a screenwriter. He has written three Juneteenth based screenplays based Thomas family history.
Eugene Thomas
Organizer | Television Personality | Galveston Tour Guide
Eugene was featured in the African American food series, “High on the Hog”, where he discussed the history of Juneteenth in Galveston and the food associated with the holiday.