Richard W. Thompson was a journalist and public servant in Indiana and Washington, D.C. He was, at various times, an editor or managing editor of the Indianapolis Leader, the Indianapolis World, the Indianapolis Freeman, and the Colored American newspaper in Washington D.C. He was published as a general correspondent in The Colored American, The Washington Post, the Indianapolis Freeman, the Indianapolis World, Atlanta Age, Baltimore Afro-American Ledger, the Cincinnati Rostrum, the Charleston West Virginia Advocate, the Philadelphia Tribune and the Chicago Monitor. His longest lasting relationship was with the Indianapolis Freeman. In 1896, the Black paper, The Leavenworth Herald, edited by Blanche Ketene Bruce (nephew of Blanche Kelso Bruce), called Thompson the "best newspaper correspondent on the colored press."

He was closely associated with Booker T. Washington and twice served as an assistant of Emmett Jay Scott, in 1903, when Scott was Washington's assistant at the Tuskegee Institute, and again in 1918, when Scott was special assistant to the Secretary of War during World War I. He played an important role in the support of Booker T. Washington against attacks by William H. Ferris in 1903. He also had a long running antagonism with William Calvin Chase of the Washington Bee.

Richard's father was a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and died in 1872. Later that year, Richard moved with his mother, Jane, to New Albany, Indiana. In 1875, he moved to Indianapolis where he attended public schools. His performance in school was excellent, but he was forced to leave school before the end of his senior year due to poor health. His mother was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky and died of pleurisy on 25 Feb 1900, age 53. Jane Thompson played a leading role in the community of Jones Tabernacle A. M. E. Zion church in Indianapolis.

Thompson had two wives, Grace Evelyn Lucas and Ella B Gibbs, both of whom taught together in Indianapolis Public Schools. He first married teacher Ella B Gibbs, daughter of Eliza Gibbs, on April 5, 1888. They had one daughter, Vivian Lucille Thompson (b 1893). Another child, Bertram Ferroe Thompson died in 1890 at the age of 18 months. Ella B. Thompson died in the morning of 29 May 1900 after two months illness, aged 33. The funeral was held at Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C.

Even before Ella died, Richard had a relationship with Grace Lucas. In 1892, Lucas was accused in a letter to the Indianapolis Freeman of being a poor teacher and of having an affair with Thompson. After Ella's death, Thompson married Lucas on November 12, 1901 in Jersey City, NJ. Bishop Alexander Walters, a friend of Thompson's, presided. Under the name Grace Lucas Thompson, she occasionally published articles in the Indianapolis Freeman and other newspapers. The pair lived in Washington DC for much of the rest of their lives, and Grace taught public schools in there.

Vivian Lucille Thomas married Walter Scott Turner on 6 Aug 1917. At the time of his death, Thompson was involved in a dispute with assistant superintendent of DC Schools, Roscoe C. Bruce, related with Bruce's alleged opposition to Vivian's appointment as teacher in spite of her passing her examination and being, by those rights, first in line for a position.

In February 1920, Thompson was confined to his home after suffering a nervous breakdown. Thompson died on Friday night, February 12, following an operation at Freedman's Hospital. His funeral was at St. Luke's church; pallbearers were intimate friends of his: Judge Robert Heberton Terrell, John C. Dancy, Walter Singleton, John T. Howe, John A. Lankford, and J. Finley Wilson.

**More info found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_W._Thompson_(journalist)