Marguerite Thompson, Georgine Thompson

Description

Connection to Weeksville: Long-time Brooklyn residents; Weeksville Society Founder Dr. Marguerite Thompson was born in 1930. Dr. Thompson was originally from New Orleans, LA. As a teenager, she was a youth ambassador for the YW and YMCAs: from 1949-1950, she traveled throughout the South giving public speaking addresses. She was able to travel to Europe as part of the youth ambassadors; she remembers tomatoes and eggs being thrown on her front lawn, in protest of her being included in the youth ambassadors. She says that she was unable to get her vaccinations for traveling outside the US in New Orleans, because the hospitals refused to give them to her: she had to get her shots in Washington, DC. She traveled to eight countries, speaking about black youth in America. When she returned, she got a scholarship to Wynona College in Marshall, TX. She continued as a speaker, making tours of historically black colleges in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. She eventually married one of the younger professors at Wynona College, who had served as one of her chaperones during the speaking tour. Her husband was originally from Guyana, and came to the United States to study Agronomics with George Washington Carver at the Tuskegee Institute. Marguerite and her husband moved to New York City to pursue higher education. Dr. Thompson was a teacher in District 16, at PS 243 (then called the Isaac Newton School), when she became involved with the Weeksville Society. She recalls that she first became attracted...

Record Contributed By

Weeksville Heritage Center