Sylvia Thompson

Born in San Antonio in 1924, I joined the left progressive movement at the age of 20. I helped to found the Civil Rights Congress in Houston in 1946 and became an organizer for the United Electrical Workers in Winston-Salem in 1947. With the help of the ACLU, I spent three years of my life fighting and winning the right to have the ashes of my husband, Robert Thompson—a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a World War II hero, and a leader of the Communist Party—buried in Arlington Cemetery. I have worked in movements concerning Jim Crow laws and civil rights, and have been active in peace and social movements all of my life. It has been a great journey.