Uncrowned Community Builders

Josephine H. Thompson was the sixth of eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Hunley of Deatsville, Alabama.

She accepted Christ as her savior and joined the St. James Missionary Baptist Church where she was later baptized in Mortar Creek. As a child she was inspired by the Word and would go to a stump near her home to pray, never realizing God's program was in progress - From the stump to the pulpit.

Josephine was an active member of her church and worked in all the auxiliaries. Along with her late husband, she organized a family singing group. The group sang throughout the cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, Erie, Niagara Falls, Youngstown, and Baltimore.

She loved being on the Usher Board, doing missionary work, and singing in the choir. But that was not all that God had in store for her. There was a turning point in her life. Being born in Jesus, she was called to the ministry in 1957. Due to the Orthodox Baptist rulings concerning Women Ministers, she separated from Calvary and united with the St. Paul's Missionary Baptist Church and was licensed by the Reverend M. Tidwell. In the same year Reverend Thompson became the Assistant Pastor. She held that post faithfully until 1959, at which time she became Pastor of St. Paul's.

During a journey to the desert of Arizona, Reverend Thompson was inspired to organize African-American women into the ministry according to their divine calling. In 1958, she formed the Women Ministers' Christian Association and established chapters in Baltimore, Detroit, Buffalo, and Cleveland. She has been a national leader and primary advocate for the ordination of black women into the ministry of Jesus Christ in America. She also has been one of the powerful forces in the field of religion to empower and strengthen the role of black women in the leadership of church and society.

She continues to help and aid all people who are called to do God's work and accepts the toils and tribulations that man has placed on the shoulders of a woman preaching the Word of God. Let the works she's done speak for her!