MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

Era [Bell] Thompson (1905-1986)
Black North Dakotans were a rarity during the childhood years of Era Bell.  She once remarked that when they traveled thirty miles to join two other black families for Christmas dinner, "there were fifteen of us, four percent of the state's entire Negro population."
Era Bell Thompson was born on August 10, 1905 in Des Moines, Iowa and moved with her family to a farm near Driscoll, ND in 1914 when she was 9 years old. She and her three brothers were excited about the move, because they expected cowboys and Indians. But the most they got was her Uncle James, who had homesteaded here seven years before.

Era's schoolmates had never before seen a black person. The experience was agonizing, with classmates laughing at her, trying to touch her hair and staring at her light-colored palms. After some time, Era made friends, but she felt out of place.

Era’s father had a tough go as a farmer.  Three years later when Era’s mother died, the family moved initially to Mandan, taking up residence at 705 5th Ave NW.  Era attended Mandan High School in 1922-23.  The family moved to Bismarck, where he was worked for Governor Lynn Frazier as a private messenger.

Even in this larger town, there were only two black students.  Again, a hush fell over the schoolyard when Era showed up for school. Now in 7th grade, Era learned to loathe Friday afternoons when boy-girl games were played. Worse, one of her textbooks informed that all black people were “thick-skulled.” And on the days that slavery was discussed, Era cut class. Despite soon 
distinguishing herself as a gifted runner, on the bus she sat in aisle seats so onlookers wouldn’t gawk at her.

She graduated from Bismarck High School in 1924 and subsequently enrolled at the University of North Dakota - Grand Forks.  But the YWCA refused her a room and the  streetcar would pass her by when she tried to board, and job positions were suddenly filled when she applied. She finally found a job working for a Jewish family in the part of Grand Forks known as Little Jerusalem.

In college, she fell back on what she had learned from her experiences in Driscoll and Bismarck. She survived the prejudice and made friends. She also pursued her love of running, breaking five UND women’s track records – in dashes, broad jump and hurdles – and tied two national records. She also began writing for the campus paper, showing herself to have a substantial wit and talent.

Main Street Mandan c. 1920s
She attended UND for two years. Their family had moved to Mandan where her father operated a used furniture store. When her dad died, Era came back to Mandan in 1928 to operate his second-hand furniture store on East Main Street  for a year until she paid off his debts. A white pastor and his family took her in as their foster child encouraged her to return to college and earn her degree.
 
She transferred to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa where earned a journalism degree. After graduation she began her career in Chicago in 1933, first finding work as a housekeeper then with The Chicago Defender.  In Chicago, found just as much prejudice among blacks as among whites.

Despite her college degree, she found very little opportunity for a good job.  With the beginning of the Great Depression, she worked at a Settlement House and got jobs through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In 1945, Thompson was awarded a Newberry fellowship, which supported her while she wrote her autobiography, American Daughter in 1946. Thompson eventually became editor of Negro Digest, then joined Ebony magazine in 1947. She was co-managing editor of the magazine from 1951 to 1964, then international editor from 1964 until she retired.

During her journalism career, Thompson reported from Africa, India, Australia, South America and the South Pacific. In 1953, she traveled through 18 African countries for her book, Africa Land of my Fathers. It recounts her frustrated attempts to comprehend her ancestral heritage, and many of her later essays denounce men's treatment of women regardless of race and class.  She spent a night in a South African jail in 1957 because authorities said there were no hotel rooms for Blacks.

Thompson died on December 30, 1986 in her Chicago home.

The multicultural center at the University of North Dakota - Grand Forks was named after her.   She was inducted into the UND Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.  She was awarded North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award in 1976.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved