Charles Thompson

Background

Thompson was born in 1896 in Jackson, Mississippi to Patrick Henry and Sara Estelle Thompson.

Education

Thompson went to school in Virginia at Wayland Academy where he graduated from high school in 1914. He graduated in 1917 with a Bachelor’s Degree by doubling his course load. He then attended the University of Chicago and fulfilled a second undergraduate degree in 1918.

Career

Straight after high school Thompson enrolled in Virginia Union University. After graduation, he trained as an army cadet in Des Moines, Iowa. Thompson was drafted into the army in Camp Grant and then France.

He remained in the Army for nineteen months, where he was an Infantry Personnel Regimental Sergeant Major.

When he got discharged, he returned to the University of Chicago, double majoring in education and psychology. He received a Masters degree in 1920 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1925.

Thompson had a strong desire to become a psychiatrist, but settled for educational psychology because there were not any known African Americans with a degree in psychiatry. He became an instructor at Virginia Union University between 1920 and 1921.

In 1922 he became the director of instruction at Alabama State Normal School, a historically black college, serving until 1924.

He was a social science and psychology professor from 1925 through 1926 at Sumner High School and Junior College located in Kansas City. Thompson finally settled at Howard University, where he held various posts, including professor of education, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and the Dean of the Graduate School.

Achievements

• Founder of the Journal of Negro Education, he has been characterized as "arguably the most prominent dean in African American higher education during the era of segregation".

Membership

Thompson was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.