her affiliation and a being a member of the Urban Institute that helped fund her career at the New York School of Social Work. Patterson also became involved and organized several protests over the conviction of the Scottsboro boys. In Alabama, a woman accused nine young African-American boys of committing an act of rape against her. Patterson is also credited with helping create the Sojourners for Truth and Justice which were a radical civil rights organization led by African American women such as Shirley Graham Du Bois and Charlotta Bass from 1951 to 1952. They viewed Black women as a vessel that would help bring about social change to a country that they believed was against women and African-Americans. It is important to note that Thompson's political involvement included literary critiques as well. In her groundbreaking article, "Toward a Brighter Dawn," Thompson expressed her concern for the plight of Black household workers. Focusing on the Bronx slave market, Thompson detailed how Black women are the most exploited section of the American working class population due to the intersection of their racial, gender, and class identities. The use of the term "triple exploitation" was the first time it explicitly appeared in print, marking a significant moment in the history of Black feminism. Marriage and family She had a short marriage to the writer Wallace Thurman. Thompson married Thurman in August 1928 but their marriage broke up six months later when she reached the conclusion that he was homosexual. She later married William L. Patterson, a prominent member of the American Communist Party. Later Years She joined her husband in protesting the anti-Communist policies of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. In the 1960s, she was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, though by that time her influence was greatly overshadowed by more notable figures. Patterson died of natural causes on August 27, 1999, shortly before her ninety-eighth birthday, in New York City. For the remainder of her life, Patterson had continued to be active in political and social issues. Legacy In 2012 Patterson was profiled in California Magazine, a publication for alumni of the University of California, Berkeley. Patterson provided insight on daily life as an African-American individual during the "early West" using the events that place in her life as the broader changes and issues facing civil rights in America as well as highlighting those issues overseas in Russia. Going