William J. Thompkins
| William J Thompkins | |
|---|---|
Photo from the Kansas City Sun
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| Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia | |
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In office March 1934 – 1944 |
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| Preceded by | Jefferson Coege |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 5, 1884 Jefferson City, Missouri |
| Died | August 11, 1944 (aged 60) Washington, D.C. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Jessie Embry |
| Alma mater | Lincoln University, University of Colorado, Howard University |
| Profession | Physician, Civil Servant |
| Religion | African Methodist Episcopal Church |
William J. Thompkins (July 5, 1884 - August 11, 1944) was a physician and health administrator in Kansas City, Missouri and served as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia from 1934 to his death. He first received national notice when he challenged Jim Crow Laws in Oklahoma in Federal Courts in the early 1910s. He was a successful physician and was appointed superintendent of the Old General Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri and the Assistant Commissioner of Health in that City. He wrote an influential study of the relationship between housing conditions and tuberculosis in blacks and was active in Democratic politics which garnered him attention at the highest levels of the party. He became president of the National Negro Democratic Association and was a major campaigner for the Democratic Presidential Candidates in campaigns from 1928 until 1940, gaining national level party appointments in 1932, 1936, and 1940. In 1934 he was appointed Recorder of Deeds for Washington, DC. This position was the highest federal appointment given to an African American, a tradition which was started with Frederick Douglass' appointment to the position in 1881.
William J. Thompkins was born July 5, 1884 in Jefferson City, Missouri. He graduated from Lincoln University in Missouri, the University of Colorado, and the Howard University School of Medicine. While at Lincoln University he worked as a hotel bellboy to help pay his fees. In 1905, he took an internship at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington DC. After that, he opened a practice in Kansas City, Missouri.
Thompkins married Jessie F. Embry and had two daughters, Helen and Marian. Thopkins died August 11, 1944 at the Freedmen Hospital in Washington after six months confinement to the hospital with a stomach ailment. His funeral was at the Metropolitan AME Church.
In the early 1910s, Thompkins refused demands to leave a whites-only Pullman car at Vinita, Oklahoma while on a train from Kansas City to McAlester, Oklahoma. Thompkins was arrested for disturbance and fined $15. Thompkins challenged the action and the case reached the United States Circuit Court of Appeals where the court affirmed the decision of the Kansas City District Court not to award Thompkins damages on January 28, 1914.
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