John B. Thompson, a Presbyterian religious ethicist well known for his opposition to racial and religious discrimination and economic injustice, was born in Tennessee in 1907 and spent his early childhood in various southern states. He received a B.A. in 1926 after attending the University of Wisconsin and Beloit College. From 1926 to 1929 Thompson worked as a public utilities accountant. In 1935 he received a B.D. from the Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He also studied at the University of Edinburgh. While a seminarian, Thompson worked as director of religious education in a New York City church.
As a student of Reinhold Niebuhr at the seminary, Thompson began a long association with the Highlander Research and Education Center, and from 1932 to 1933 he was one of the school's first staff members. Thompson taught in the Religion Department at the College of Ozarks from 1935 to 1937, when he moved to Norman, Oklahoma to become a minister at the First Presbyterian Church and a part-time professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Oklahoma. It was at this time that he became active in the peace and civil rights movements, and in 1940 Thompson assumed the presidency of the American Peace Mobilization. From 1940 to 1942 he was also president of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, remaining on its board until 1948. From 1944 to 1950 he was on the board of the Southern Conference Educational Fund. During this period he was also very involved with many youth groups, particularly the YMCA and the YWCA, and the Oklahoma Youth Legislature. He also worked on numerous youth conferences and was a frequent public speaker. Throughout his career Thompson published occasional articles and reviews in the Christian Century and other journals.
From 1948 to 1958 Thomspon was dean of the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago and associate professor of Christian ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School. While there he became involved in such organizations as the Chicago Council Against Racial and Religious Discrimination and the Committee for Peaceful Alternatives and various civil rights organizations.
During the early 1950s Thompson experienced personal criticism for his many social involvements, particularly his work for racial and economic justice and his involvement in the American Peace Mobilization and other anti-war activities before, during, and after World War II. In his later years Thompson ministered to the Berkeley Community Church. He died in 1974.
