James Thibodeaux was born in St. Martinville, Louisiana on 7 July 1911. He moved to Dallas at a young age and operated a soft drink stand on Commerce Street, acted in local plays including on the Stage of the Dallas Negro Players, and graduated from St. Peter's Catholic school at age 17. Soon after, Thibodeaux was sent to New York by his father to get a better education than he could have gotten in Dallas as a gifted black student. Thibodeaux studied art at Cooper Union School and lived in Harlem while working at radio station WOR for 47 years. In the 1936 Texas Centennial, a few of his paintings were displayed in the Hall of Negro Life at Fair Park. During World War II, he served as the army's first African American Artistic Instructor in the Army's special services. Thibodeaux then came back to Dallas around 1980 to live in a house his father had previously purchased. He continued his artwork, both painting and photography, until his death in August 2004.