Professor Thomas

About Professor Ronald Thomas

Ron Thomas has headed the Morehouse College journalism program since 2007, and he now is chair of the Journalism in Sports, Culture and Social Justice Department.

Professor Thomas teaches newswriting and internship courses and helps advise The Maroon Tiger student news organization. More than 100 of the journalism program’s former students and Maroon Tiger staff members now work in the media or the sports industry.

Before coming to Morehouse, for 34 years as a sports reporter Thomas mainly covered professional basketball, football and tennis at prominent newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today, where he was its first NBA reporter.

His book “They Cleared the Lane: the NBA’s Black Pioneers” was the first one written about the integration of the NBA in 1950 after black players had been secretly banned from the league. His 1994 book chapter, “Blacks Still Rare in the Press Box,” chronicled a problem that still exists today. Last year, Thomas’ chapter “The Birth – and Rebirth – of Black Activist Athletes” was published in the book “Slavery and Its Consequences: Racism, Inequities and Exclusion in the USA.” 

Thomas has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester, a master’s in Journalism from Northwestern, and in 2017 he received the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.