Eloise Bibb Thompson Explained

Eloise Alberta Veronica Thompson (Bibb; June 26, 1878 – January 8, 1928) was an American educator, playwright, poet, and journalist. She married fellow journalist and activist Noah D. Thompson.^[1]

Early life

Bibb was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Catherine Adele (Brian) Bibb and Charles H. Bibb. Her father was a federal customs inspector. She trained as a teacher at New Orleans University, then attended Oberlin Academy from 1899 to 1901.^[2] She graduated from Howard University in 1907. She pursued further studies throughout her life, at Columbia University, University of Southern California, and New York University.^[3]

Career

Eloise Bibb taught school in New Orleans as a young woman. Bibb's first book of 26 poems was published in Boston in 1895. From 1908 to 1911 she worked as head resident at the Social Settlement House affiliated with Howard University. Howard University president Wilbur P. Thirkield said, "She is a woman who has accomplished a hard task of colored settlement work by putting her heart in it and her life under it and wrought wonderful results."^[4]

She moved to Los Angeles, California with her new husband in 1911, and wrote for various publications there, including the Los Angeles Tribune, Morning Sun Out West, and Tidings (published by the Diocese of Los Angeles). She was also active in the Catholic Women's Clubs of Los Angeles. The Thompsons were considered members of the "Ink Slingers" literary circle in Los Angeles.^{[5] [6] [7]}

Bibb Thompson's A Reply to the Clansman (1915) was a screenplay in response to the film The Birth of a Nation.^{[8] [9]} She wrote at least four plays: A Friend of Democracy (1920), Caught (1920), Africanus (1922, about the life of Marcus Garvey; it was directed by Olga Grey),^[10] and Cooped Up (1924), and she was associated with the National Ethiopian Art Theatre in New York.^{[11] [12] [13]}

Personal life

Eloise Bibb married editor and fellow writer Noah Davis Thompson in 1911, in Chicago. The couple moved from Los Angeles to New York in 1927, for his work in publishing. She died there from cancer early in 1928 at Edgecombe Sanitarium aged 49 years. She had first sought treatment for cancer in Vienna in 1914.

External links

• A 1922 letter from Eloise Bibb Thompson and Noah D. Thompson to W. E. B. DuBois, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
• A poem by Eloise Bibb Thompson, "After Reading Bryant's Lines to a Waterfowl" (1924), in Maureen Honey, ed., Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance (Rutgers University Press, 1989).
• A short story by Eloise Bibb Thompson, "Masks" (1927), appears in Judith Musser, ed., "Tell It to Us Easy" and Other Stories: A Complete Short Fiction Anthology of African American Women Writers in Opportunity Magazine (1923–1948) (McFarland 2011): 79–83, . It is also included in Lorraine Elena Roses, Ruth Elizabeth Randolph, eds, Harlem's Glory: Black Women Writing, 1900-1950 (Harvard University Press, 1996): pp. 38–44; .

Notes and References

1. News: March 1933 Noah D Thompson obit. The New York Age. 25 March 1933. 1.
2. Book: Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. May 4, 2003. Infobase Publishing. 9781438130170. Google Books.
3. http://www.creolegen.org/2014/05/23/an-honor-to-womankind-eloise-bibb-thompson-poet-journalist-playwright-social-worker-laywoman/ "An Honor to Womankind: Eloise Bibb Thompson (Poet, Journalist, Playwright, Social Worker, Laywoman)"
4. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17596999/eloise_bibb_thompson_1911/ "Eloise A. Bibb and Noah D. Thompson"
5. Lorraine Elena Roses, Ruth Elizabeth Randolph, eds, Harlem's Glory: Black Women Writing, 1900-1950 (Harvard University Press, 1996): 530–531.
6. Delilah Leontium Beasley, The Negro Trail Blazers of California (Times Mirror Printing 1919): 130, 253–254.
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=JcgZAAAAIAAJ&dq=Eloise+Bibb+Thompson&pg=RA1-PA398 "Survey of the Month"
8. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17594840/eloise_bibb_thompson_obituary_1928/ "Eloise Bibb Thompson, Playwright, Author, Dead After Long Illness"
9. https://books.google.com/books?id=JcgZAAAAIAAJ&dq=Eloise+Bibb+Thompson&pg=PA63 "A Playwright"
10. https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/civil-rights/crisis/0400-crisis-v23n06-w138.pdf "The Looking Glass"
11. Heather Martin, "National Ethiopian Art Theater" in Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman, eds., Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y (Taylor & Francis, 2004): 868.
12. Jean Fagan Yellin, The Pen is Ours: A Listing of Writings by and about African-American Women (Oxford University Press, 1991): 163. .
13. Bernard L. Peterson, Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers: A Biographical Directory and Catalog of Plays, Films, and Broadcasting Scripts (Greenwood Publishing, 1990): 181–182. .