Thomas J. Bowers (c. 1823–October 3, 1885), was an American concert artist. He studied voice with African-American concert artist Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield and toured with her troupe for a few years before embarking on his own successful solo career. He was the brother of professional singer Sarah Sedgwick Bowers, known as "the Colored Nightingale", His mother's name was Henrietta.<!-- note 78 --> As a youngster, Thomas showed a desire to learn music and was taught piano and organ by his older brother John. At the age of 18, he succeeded his brother as organist of St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. He and his brother were trained as tailors and operated a "fashionable merchant tailor shop" catering to upper class gentlemen and businessmen in Philadelphia.
Concert artist
Despite his natural aptitude for music and enjoyment of singing, Bowers deferred to his parents' wishes not to perform outside the church. He declined offers to sing with the famous Frank Johnson's Band of Philadelphia, among others. but agreed to be billed as "Mareo". and afterwards embarked on a successful solo career.
Bowers specialised in "romantic ballads and popular arias from well-known operas".
Bowers found the stage an ideal platform from which to espouse his opposition to racial inequality. He was purportedly reluctant to launch a public singing career until he realised: "What induced me more than any thing else to appear in public was to give the lie to 'negro serenaders' (minstrels), and to show to the world that coloured men and women could sing classical music as well as the members of the other race by whom they had been so terribly vilified". He became famous for refusing to perform before segregated or white-only audiences.
Other activities
Together with other members of his family, Bowers was a national organiser of "black opposition to the fugitive slave laws of the 1850s and a state representative of the Equal Rights Convention.
Personal
Bowers married Lucretia Turpin, a native of New York, sometime before 1850. They had one daughter, Adelia.
Bonanza episode
In a 1964 episode of Bonanza titled "Enter Thomas Bowers", Thomas was portrayed as the African American opera singer by actor William Marshall.