Her involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, a period of intellectual and cultural awakening in African American communities, allowed her to connect with other artists and activists who were similarly committed to social justice.

In addition to her notable contributions to civil rights activism, Thompson Patterson was also recognized as one of the pioneering Black women to be admitted to the University of California at Berkeley.

She later worked at Hampton Institute, a historically black college (HBCU), in Virginia, where she stood in solidarity with students who staged a protest against the oppressive policies of white administrators in October 1927.

Initially, she pursued a career in social work, but eventually emerged as a significant figure in the literary movement of the time, as she received a scholarship from the Urban League to attend The New School for Social Research, where she collaborated closely with prominent literary figures linked to the Harlem Renaissance such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alta and Aaron Douglas, and Langston Hughes.

Patterson was a vocal critic of racism, imperialism, and capitalism, and she believed that socialism was the only way to achieve true equality and justice.

[citation needed]Despite organizing various protests and establishing a notable Harlem salon, Thompson Patterson's most renowned affiliation was her close companionship with author Langston Hughes.

In 1932, after years of working with the International Labor Defense and the Civil Rights Congress on anti-Jim Crow and anti-slavery legislation, Thompson was introduced to communism for the first time.

The intended purpose of the film project was to showcase the discrimination and oppression faced by African Americans in the United States and to promote the Communist party as a solution to these issues.

However, the project ultimately failed to materialize due to lack of funding and pressures from US business officials to sever diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union, Thompson and Hughes established the Harlem Suitcase Theater, after returning to the United States, with the aim to combat racial stereotypes of African Americans in the arts.

Despite the failed film project, Thompson's involvement with the Soviet Union and her support for the Communist Party USA earned her the nickname "Madame Moscow" from the U.S.

The African-American students at Hampton protested by singing old plantation songs to white visitors every Sunday afternoon, which resulted in Patterson's dismissal from the school.

[citation needed] In addition to her activism in the Civil Rights Congress and the International Labor Defense, Patterson also organized protests against the conviction of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of nine young African American men who were falsely accused of raping a woman in Alabama.

[8] She was also instrumental in creating the Sojourners for Truth and Justice, a radical civil rights organization led by African-American women, such as Shirley Graham Du Bois and Charlotta Bass from 1951 to 1952.

[citation needed] Alongside Shirley Graham Du Bois and Charlotta Bass, Thompson played a key role in founding the radical civil rights group Sojourners for Truth and Justice in 1951.

[citation needed] Louise Thompson Patterson dedicated her life to teaching African Americans about communism and advocating for its potential to create equal footing in society.