Overview

African American in Imperial Russia chronicles the life and experiences of Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas, who was born in Mississippi in the latter part of the 1800s to parents who had been born into slavery. Tomas was born just seven years after the abolition of slavery. Following their emancipation, his family acquired several hundred acres of land. However, they faced jealousy from a wealthy planter who attempted to take their land from them. The family eventually moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Young Tomas then traveled to New York before continuing on to London, England, in search of better opportunities. He ultimately settled in Russia, where he became a prosperous man in a Marxist-Leninist society. But due to the outbreak of war, Tomas, along with his wife and children, had to leave Russia for Turkey. He found it challenging to maintain his wealth as he had in Moscow, leading him to go into debt, which he was unable to repay. Consequently, he was imprisoned for debt and passed away in impoverished circumstances. Otis D. Alexander is recognized as a distinguished librarian, educator, journalist, researcher, and artist. He has directed academic, public, and prison libraries in Washington, DC; Virginia; Florida; Indiana; and Texas, as well as internationally in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Republic of Liberia, and Dominica. He has also conducted Applied Music workshops in Camagüey and Havana, Cuba, at the Instituto Superior de Arte. Alexander was commissioned to create original choreography set to the work of the renowned poet and activist Audre Lorde, which was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His paintings have been exhibited in Washington, DC, Virginia, and in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan, Egypt. His research has appeared in Scribner's Encyclopedia of American Lives, African American National Biography, Florida Libraries, Virginia Libraries, New York Amsterdam, and Miami Times, with his doctoral work featured in Public Library Quarterly.

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