John Lay Thompson

Background

John was born on May 28, 1869, in Decatur County, Iowa, United States. He grew up on his parent's farm and attended local schools as a youth.

Education

As a young man, John moved to Des Moines, Iowa, United States, and attended Callanan Normal School. Later, he attended Iowa Business College in Iowa, United States, graduating in 1896.

In 1901 the 32-year-old earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Law at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, and became licensed to appear before the Iowa Supreme Court. Thompson enjoyed local acclaim as an orator, earning a gold medal at a local competition.

Career

John taught school in Missouri. By the 1890s he was back in Des Moines to stay. Over the ensuing decades, his business interests, law practice, political standing, and, most important, his editorship of Iowa’s leading black newspaper, the Bystander, made him one of Iowa’s most prominent and influential African American leaders. Thompson, whose career and political thinking reflected the self-help philosophy championed by national black leader Booker T. Washington, sometimes used his position as editor of the Bystander as a bully pulpit and also as a vehicle to inspire fellow African Americans to overcome their diminished economic and political status in society.

Thompson secured political positions considered especially prestigious for African Americans in an age of tokenism and unchecked discrimination. A Republican, Thompson was appointed file clerk for the Iowa Senate in 1894 and file clerk for the Iowa General Assembly in 1896. In 1899 he became the first African American elected to the Polk County Republican Central Committee. The following year he ran unsuccessfully for justice of the peace in Des Moines Township. He also served as Polk County’s deputy county treasurer, and in 1911 and 1912 was deputy clerk in the Hall of Archives Historical Building in Des Moines.

In 1896 Thompson put his business training to use by purchasing the Bystander, a newspaper that had just begun publishing two years earlier. His ability to maintain and even expand this fledgling newspaper in an age when black newspapers experienced a low survival rate ranks as a considerable accomplishment. Thompson’s editorship of the Bystander may be the most significant legacy of his life.

Not content to report news about African Americans in Des Moines alone, John broadened coverage statewide by paying summer visits to blacks in communities around the state and reporting their doings, emphasizing good, encouraging stories. He established a network of local correspondents around the state and included their incoming news. The paper had a circulation of about 2,000, and Thompson was known nationally as a publisher. He was a vice president of the Western Negro Press Association in 1907 and treasurer of the National Negro Press Association in 1912. Also in 1912, at Booker T. Washington’s request, Thompson spoke about his editorship of the Bystander at the annual meeting of the National Negro Business League.

A supporter and acquaintance of Booker T. Washington, Thompson espoused Washington’s self-help views in innumerable articles. Like Washington, Thompson encouraged blacks to start their own businesses and support black business owners, measures to uplift the race economically. Washington’s theory, which Thompson echoed, was that if blacks improved their economic status and proved their reliability as hard workers, and de-emphasized political activism, full civil rights would naturally follow. Demonstrating his commitment to this view, Thompson helped form and lead in 1907 the Iowa auxiliary to Washington’s National Negro Business League. In addition to owning a newspaper, Thompson put his principles into practice when he opened the three-story brick Thompson Hotel in Des Moines in 1915. Two years later he wrote and published a pictorial history of the nation’s first training camp for black officers conducted at Fort Des Moines.

In 1920, shortly after John printed the Fort Des Moines book, Thompson sold the Bystander to Laurence Jones, founder of the Piney Woods School in Mississippi. Thompson died 10 years later at the age of 61.

Religion

Thompson became involved as a leader in black society, fraternal life, and church life. He was active in several fraternal organizations. He was a leader in the Union Congregational Church in Des Moines, Iowa, United States.

Membership

Thompson became involved as a leader in black society, fraternal life, and church life. He was active in several fraternal organizations.

Connections

In 1900 John Lay married Maud Olivia Watkins. They had two children, Enola and John.

Spouse:

Maud Olivia Watkins

Son:

John Thompson

Daughter:

Enola Thompson

References

• The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa Iowa has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation’s affairs.
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