She was one of four children of John Henry Thompson and Clara Jane Gray, both former slaves from Virginia.

[1] Poor health prevented her from becoming a schoolteacher, but she wrote, lectured, and taught Sunday school.

[2][3] Thompson self-published two books of poetry, Ethiope Lays (1900) and Gleanings of Quiet Hours (1907).

Her poetry covers a variety of subjects, including religion, slavery and the African-American experience, and small-town life.

[5] A profile of her was published in Wendell Phillips Dabney's 1926 book on the Cincinnati's Colored Citizens.