- Louise Thompson Patterson
Infobox Person
name = Louise Alone Thompson Patterson
birth_name = Louise Alone Thompson
birth_date = Birth date|1901|9|9
birth_place =Chicago ,Illinois
death_date = Death date and age|1999|8|27|1901|9|9
death_place = Amsterdam Nursing HomeNew York City
known_for =Harlem Renaissance
spouse =Wallace Thurman William L. Patterson Louise Alone Thompson Patterson (
September 9 ,1901 –August 27 ,1999 ) was an American social activist and college professor.Biography
Born in
Chicago ,Illinois , Patterson became a professor atHampton Institute , a black college inVirginia , by age twenty-two. She left after five years for the burgeoning artistic community arising out of the inNew York City . When she first came to theHarlem community she pursued social work, but eventually became a central figure in the movement and married writerWallace Thurman .Though Patterson organized a number of protests and opened one of the premiere Harlem salons, she became best known for her close friendship with author
Langston Hughes . Both admired the Soviet system of government and organized a group of twenty-two Harlem writers, artists, and intellectuals to create a film about discrimination in America for a Soviet film company. After the project fell through due to lack of funding, Patterson and Hughes returned to theUnited States to found theHarlem Suitcase Theater , which presented plays written by Hughes and other black writers and featured all-black casts.For the remainder of her life, Patterson continued to be active in political and social issues. Patterson married Thurman in August 1928 but their marriage broke up six months later when she discovered that he was homosexual. She later married
William L. Patterson , a prominent member of the American Communist Party, she joined her husband in protesting the anti-Communist policies of SenatorJoseph McCarthy . In the sixties, she was also involved in theCivil Rights Movement , though by that time her influence was greatly overshadowed by more notable figures. Patterson died of natural causes inAugust 27 ,1999 , shortly before her ninety-eighth birthday, inNew York City . [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Louise Patterson, 97, Is Dead. Figure in Harlem Renaissance. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E3DD173AF931A3575AC0A96F958260 |quote=Louise Alone Thompson Patterson, an advocate of civil rights and leftist causes, a participant in the Harlem Renaissance and a longtime associate of one of its leading figures, the poet Langston Hughes, died on Friday at the Amsterdam Nursing Home in Manhattan. She was 97. |publisher=New York Times |date=September 2 ,1999 |accessdate=2008-05-31 ]References
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