Thomas Coates was born in 1872 in Virginia to Evalina Coates not long after she left a slave plantation. At age six, his family moved to Jamestown where he spent his formative years. The family sometimes gathered on the rocks at Beavertail Lighthouse to celebrate birthdays. As a young man, Mr. Coates spent summers with his family on Clinton Avenue while attending medical school at Howard University, a respected historically Black university in Washington, D.C.

In Philadelphia he became a leading physician and an advocate for civil rights. In 1912, he encountered police beating another Black man and asked them to stop. In return, he was beaten and shot twice by police. After a court hearing the officers were fired for misconduct.

Dr. Coates established an endowment at Howard for outstanding medical students and helped found the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He died and was buried there in 1952.