Thompson to Step Down as Westside Community Center Director

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Longtime city councilwoman and educator Beatrice Thompson will soon step down as executive director of Anderson’s Westside Community Center, an organization she founded. Thompson has said she also has no plans to run for re-election for city council in the April 2026 elections.

A tireless advocate for her constituents and the city as a whole, Thompson, who is now 91,  has been a pioneer in Anderson, from even before her election as the first African-American to serve on Anderson City Council in 1976. She also spearheaded efforts to move from all at-large seats on city council to election by districts for better representation.

For more than half a century Thompson has had a long-standing and influential voice in local government and as president of the South Carolina Municipal Association.

Born in Townville to tenant farmers, her parents recognized the importance of education, which led to them boarding Beatrice in Anderson so she could attend Reed Street High School. After graduation from South Carolina State University, she returned to Reed Street to teach English and eventually earned a Master's Degree in English from Howard University, a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Georgia.

Her career in education spanned 38 years in Anderson School District Five, where she served as a teacher, guidance counselor, school psychologist, and coordinator of psychological services.

Thompson has also been an activist for voter registration, teen pregnancy prevention programs and the Democratic Party. In 2014 she created a task force of ministers, community leaders and Anderson Police Chief Jim Stewart to foster better relations between law enforcement and the city’s African-American Community. The group, which became known as the “Dream Team” continues to promote unity in the community.

She is the driving force behind the Church Street Heritage Plaza, an effort to commemorate the history of the African-American community in Anderson which pays tribute to the once-thriving Black entrepreneurial district. Thompson also contributed to the book "The Legacy of Black Pioneers: 1907-1980 East Church Street.”

But it is the Westside Community Center that might be the jewel in her crown.

The center, often called Anderson’s “haven on the hill," is a community hub for health care, job training, recreation, children’s programs, meeting rooms and a gymnasium.

The building served as home to Westside High School until it opened at its current location in 1972, and was used as West Franklin Elementary School until its closing shortly after Principal Dennis Hepler was murdered there during a late-night armed robbery on Aug. 31, 1988.

Thompson led a group of community activists to transform the building into a community center, which opened its doors in 1998.