Era Bell Thompson (August 10, 1905 – December 30, 1986) was an American writer and editor. Thompson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, to an African American family, the only daughter of Steward “Tony” Thompson and Mary Logan Thompson, the children of formerly enslaved people. She graduated from the University of North Dakota (UND), pursued a career as an author, and was an editor for Ebony magazine in Chicago. Thompson was a recipient of the governor of North Dakota's Roughrider Award, and a multicultural center at UND is named for her.