 She was the widow of Sen. Joseph Medill McCormick as well as the sister-in-law of "Chicago Tribune" publisher Robert Rutherford McCormick.The McCormicks were a powerful Chicago family whom Thompson opposed.President Woodrow Wilson pronounced white participants the instigators of the prolonged riots in Chicago and Washington, D.C. As a result, he attempted to promote greater racial harmony through the promotion of voluntary organizations and through the enactment of legislative improvements by Congress.