In celebration of the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial, the U-M Library partnered with the national oral history organization StoryCorps to record and preserve stories from our community. During the Fall Festival Bicentennial Celebration, participants had conversations with friends, classmates, family members and colleagues about meaningful experiences at U-M. These stories, presented and curated by the U-M Library in collaboration with StoryCorps, capture the essence of the U-M’s past and present.

Interview No. 2: Laurita Thomas & Lemar Thomas

Laurita Thomas speaks with her son Lemar Thomas about her upbringing and how that impacted her approach to her life and work. She also talks about her efforts to advance conditions for women and people of color at U-M throughout the years. Laurita is the Associate Vice President for Human Resources at the university and Lemar is a performance consultant in the Office of Patient Experience (OPE) at Michigan Medicine.

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“I participated in shutting down the university, this university, with strikes and sit-ins so that more students that looked like me could come here and be successful.” —Laurita Thomas