An Individual of Exceptional Promise: Frances Euphemia Thompson

By Tranae Chatman Inspired by the work of Booker T.& & Washington, Julius Rosenwald established the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1917 for “the well-being of mankind.” Over the next 30 years, the fund would make financial contributions to support Black education, particularly in the South. In addition to thousands of rural schoolhouses built, the Rosenwald fund began to offer fellowships in 1929 to “individuals of exceptional promise.”[1]& These fellowships helped to support a generation of Black leaders in Tennessee, including renowned sociologist and Fisk professor Charles S. Johnson (1893-1956), author and Fisk librarian Arna Bontemps (1902-1973), and& Tennessee State University& art educator Frances Euphemia Thompson (C.1900-1992). Frances Euphemia Thompson, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University, “The Tennessean 1955” (1955). Tennessee State University Yearbooks. 14.& https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/yearbooks/14& Agricultural and Industrial State Teacher College, 1930-1935, Tennessee State Museum, 95.19.65 Thompson’s life and legacy provides an example of what the fellowship qualified as an “individual of exceptional promise.” Born in Springhill, Tennessee around 1900, Thompson attended Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial Normal School, formerly Tennessee A&I and now Tennessee State University. It was there that art professor Olive Giovanne Talieaferro noticed Thompson’s potential as an artist. Talieaferro, a Massachusetts School of Art graduate, encouraged Thompson...