It seems fitting that the first two recipients of the Kwame Charitable Foundation Betty & Jack Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award were actually friends and colleagues of Civil Rights leader Betty Thompson and her husband Jack Thompson, founder of Jack Thompson Counstruction. Retired RBC President and CEO Kathy Osborn, the inaugural recipient of the award in 2024, recalled phone conversations with Betty Thompson, an indomitable and legendary service leader, before she presented this year’s lifetime achievement award to St. Louis American Publisher Dr. Donald M. Suggs on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025.
Suggs in his acceptance speech spoke of his respect and admiration for Betty and Jack Thompson for their professional accomplishments and contributions to St. Louis, but also for their outstanding role as parents. Their son Tony Thompson is the founder of the The Kwame Charitable Foundation and the president and CEO of Kwame Building Group, Inc.
The Kwame Charitable Foundation gala raises funds which underwrite tours of HBCUs for promising African American high school students. It also provides grants for college students to help them with travel expenses to go home and cover other living expenses, which academic scholarships don’t typically provide for.