1931 Syracuse graduate fought for civil rights, women's equality in the workplace

   Otoe County and America were in the depths of the Great Depression when Ruth A. Thomson departed Syracuse on a path to become a “change-agent,”  passionate YWCA director and advocate of civil rights.

   Thomson, who died at the age of 98 on May 29 in Claremont, Calif., was editor of the high school newspaper in 1931. In her last issue of the “The Green and White” she broke from the routine of sports and classroom activities for a feature on how the cotton gin, free public schools and the fight against tuberculosis impacted American society.

   In school, students listened to a dramatization of the Louisiana Purchase on the radio program “American School in the Air” and Miss Gilbert described her recent trip to Italy.

   When the seniors challenged the juniors to a spelling match, Thomson and fellow senior Evalin Wiles were the last two standing.

  While she prepared to enter the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, one of four students from Syracuse to receive a scholarship, famous Nebraska authors Willa Cather and Bess Streeter Aldrich were releasing new novels.

   Womens groups across the nation were calling for world disarmament and Otoe County Attorney Thomas E. Dunbar was warning that copies of "Art Magazine" were falling into the hands of adolescents.

Thomson taught school after earning her degree from the university and began her association with the YWCA with volunteer service work in Lincoln.

   By 1942, she was serving as director of programs for "business and industrial" girls at Waterloo, Iowa. As it was during World War II, Miss Thomson helped organize numerous programs and events for workers in nearby plants that had war contracts requiring long and exhausting hours.

   She took similar roles in Gary, Ind., and St. Louis, Mo., and earned a master's degree at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work in St. Louis. Her career took her to Ohio and New York and finally to Hartford, Conn., where she served as executive director before retiring in 1976.

   Her remarkable career led her to four states and the organization's national board of directors. In the 1960s, she had regular lunch meetings with the leader of the Urban League of New York.
She testified before the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the Equal Pay Act of 1962.

   A book by Gretchen Ritter says Thomson told Congress that the United States should be a leader in gender equality.

   “If the United States is to make an effective contribution to groups such as the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women,” Thomson said, “We must be willing to be counted among those giving full support to measures, designed to enable women to be full citizens in our modern world.”

   "At a time when strength and independence in women was not socially endorsed, Miss Thomson preached these values and inspired countless women to embrace and strive after them," says Keitha Thomson of Nebraska City. Thomson is the aunt of Dr. Dean Thomson.

   Her YWCA friends said she brought an "old-world elegance with a wise acceptance and understanding of today's youth."

   Her understanding of the world was likely influenced by the Depression era and the labor issues that frequently made headlines in Otoe County.

   One article reported that Master White Goods Company had started two years prior with five women, but had grown to employ 60 women and three men.

   Another said Otoe Food's canning factory was employing both men and women to earn $2 to $3.50 a day peeling tomatoes.

   Most articles, however, indicated dire circumstances for a growing number of unemployed.

   A near riot occurred, the newspaper said, when 50 unemployed men went to the worksite of a sewer project hoping that some of the employed men would not show up, but found a man from Hamburg, Iowa, working there. Contractor W.M. Beltz ended the uprising by firing the Iowa man saying "we are working only hometown men."

   Other headlines told how Judge Monroe Neihart was sentencing vagrants to cut weeds, Hector Balthazor was fined $100 for possession of intoxicating liquors and men could work "pitching and shocking" grain for 75 cents a day.

   Issues of fairness and equality were a frequent topic of the day, leading the Federal Council of Churches to declare “it is an indictment of society for allowing an economic system which makes it possible for the stark contrast of vast fortunes and breadlines."

   Thomson would participate in numerous civil right marches and demonstrations. Her lifelong friend Dorothy Andrus was also an activist who fought for equal health benefits for women working for the YWCA.

   The YWCA awarded Thomson the Women of Achievement Award  for her life-time efforts in fighting racism and the oppression of women.

 Marilyn Brunger, also a retired YWCA professional, called Thomson a change-agent who brought a sharp mind and clear focus to whatever she undertook.