Dorothy Perry Thompson

Dorothy Perry Thompson (; 1944—2002) was an American poet, educator, scholar, teacher and activist. She was the second African American person to receive a doctorate in English from the University of South Carolina, as well as the university's first African American person to complete a creative writing dissertation. She later taught English at Winthrop College and helped establish and coordinate the university's African American Studies program.

Early life and education Dorothy Perry was born in Springfield, South Carolina in 1944 and grew up in the Wheeler neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina, with her five siblings. Her mother was a laundress, and her father was a carpenter. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1962.

Career Thompson started her career as a public school teacher. From 1974 to 1985, Thompson taught at various public schools, including Riverside High School, Lower Richland High School, and Dreher High School.

Thompson joined Winthrop College in 1985. In 1990, she suggested that the university establish a minor in African American Studies. She later became the first professor hired to teach in the discipline.

Thompson died of breast cancer in Rock Hill, South Carolina on January 4, 2002.

Selected works "Africana Womanism", 1992 Fly with the Puffin, 1995 "Daddy Saved in Snatches: The Quilting," 1997 Priest in Aqua Boa, 2001 Out of The Rough, 2001 Hurrying the Spirit: Following Zora, 2002