Charles H. Thompson: Policy Entrepreneur of the Civil Rights Movement, 1932-1954, by Louis Ray. Lanham, MD: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press with Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, 201 pp., $70.00, hardback.Many doctoral students after enduring the frustration of revising and rewriting their doctoral dissertation over a period of time, will complete it, put it on the shelf, and forget about it, but not Louis Ray. Whether the author desired more punishment or whether he simply succumbed to the genius and lingering influence of Charles H. Thompson and his call intellectual treatises to influence public opinion is not known. Nonetheless, the author decided to convert his doctoral dissertation, Revealing The Underlying Assumptions: Charles H. Thompson, Editor, Journal of Negro Education, 1932 To 1941, completed at New York University in 2001, into a book. The book consists of a prologue, 18 relatively short chapters (averaging less than ten pages per chapter), extensive notes, a bibliography, and index.In the Prologue, the author credits John Kingdon defining entrepreneur as an advocate distinguished by his or her singular willingness to invest their resources-time, energy, reputation, and sometimes money to bring a desired public policy to fruition (p. xiii). The author argues that Thompson, as the founder and editor of The Journal of Negro Education from 1932 to 1963, used The Journal and his editorials, for mobilizing activists and shaping public opinion in more humane directions (p. xv). A key focus of Thompson's editorials and yearbooks was the United policy of racial segregation in education, in the military, and in other walks of life. The author illustrates how Thompson assiduously as editor of The Journal of Negro Education from 1932 to 1963 to advance a more democratic notion in the United States (p. xiii).The author interviewed Thompson's former students, colleagues, editors and former employees of The Journal, among others. He scrutinized The Journal, particularly Thompson's editorials and yearbooks, to support his contention that Thompson was a entrepreneur of the Civil Rights Movement during 1932 to 1954. In addition to the writings of Thompson, the author amassed a prodigious amount of material by a wide range of scholars which he used to weave a beautiful tapestry of Thompson's efforts to rid the nation, particularly the southern states, of racial segregation. In the process, he provides the reader with a brief history lesson and some insight into the status of African American education during that period.Among other topics, the author analyzes and discusses Mordecai Johnson (Howard's first African American president) and his relationship with Thompson; Dwight O. W. Holmes who recruited Thompson to Howard; the historical context Thompson's journal; the actual founding of The Journal; accreditation issues incident to African American education; discriminatory federal aid to education; teachers' salary discrimination; attempts by African American students to enter White colleges; treatment of African Americans during WWI and WWII; the call a national conference on the courts and racial integration in education; and the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. He shows how Thompson solicited intellectual treatises The Journal from a broad range of people including graduate students, and how he used those treatises in attempt to change racial segregation policies. He also illustrates how Thompson worked with and influenced the NAACP in its legal struggle to end the policy of racial segregation in education, particularly in higher education. The Sweatt v. Painter (1950) case dealing with Herman Sweatt's attempt to enroll in the University of Texas Law School is a prime example. Thompson testified as expert witness in that case and the author appears to consider Thompson's participation in the Sweatt trial one of the highlights of his book. …
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Jan 28, 2014
Stephanie Degooyer 
Open Access