The University of North Dakota has opened its new multicultural center named to honor Era Bell Thompson. The new center is on the third floor of the Memorial Union on the University of North Dakota campus.
Era Bell Thompson was born in 1905 in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up in Driscoll, North Dakota. In 1924, she enrolled at the University of North Dakota as a track and field athlete. She later transferred to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where she earned a degree. After college she became a journalist and eventually was named a top editor for Ebony magazine. She was the author of Africa Land of My Fathers (Doubleday, 1954). In 1976 she was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, the highest honor given out by the state of North Dakota. As a result of the award, her portrait hangs in the state capitol building in Bismark. Era Bell Thompson died in 1986 in Chicago.
Below is a video about the new center.
