Thompson chaired the Macon City Council Library Committee, which quietly opened services to [[African Americans]]. "Not a word was said about it. We just did it. No big to-do. No press releases to inflame folks. and we started putting branch libraries in different neighborhoods. Nothing racial about it," Thompson recalled.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=su2g0MFHfpgC&pg=RA1-PA188&lpg=RA1-PA188&dq=will+d+campbell+ronnie+thompson&source=web&ots=5ttOIp_gzf&sig=eS3tR54AnASFJxQ77eTFE77MsmM&hl=en#PRA1-PA189,M1</ref>
Most African Americans in Macon, however, opposed the Thompson administration. In 1969, Thompson blocked the popular [[boxer]], [[Muhammad Ali]], from fighting at the Macon Coliseum, which Thompson had helped to complete, because Thompson objected to Ali's [[Conscientious Objector]] status during the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>http://www.mindspring.com/~teeth/caution/macontg100years.htm</ref>
When racial rioting broke out in Macon on June 20, 1970, Thompson issued "shoot-to-kill" orders to [[police]] to stop [[looting]]. He drove a [[National Guard]] [[tank]] onto a Macon [[elementary school]] campus to intimidate would-be criminals . He authorized [[billboards]] in Macon warning that [[armed robbery|armed robbers]] would be "shot on sight".<ref>http://laughingwolf.net/archives/2005_08.html.</ref>
In midsummer of 1971, a racial crisis erupted when a black city employee was shot and killed by a white policeman, who a month later was cleared of [[involuntary manslaughter]].<ref>Robert Friedman, "City Votes to Pay Officer's Defense," ''Macon Telegraph,'' June 30, 1971, p. A1; Grant Jackson, "Mayor to Keep Beck on Duty," ''Macon Telegraph,'' June 30, 1971, p. A3; Jackson, "Beck Case Dismissed by Jury," ''Macon Telegraph,'' July 16, 1971, p. A1.</ref> Mayor Thompson imposed a 36-hour [[curfew]] after several suspected fire bombings. He fired a [[carbine]] in the air, heard over police [[radio]], while he accompanied a police patrol.<ref>http://www.mindspring.com/~teeth/caution/macontg100years.htm</ref> He further angered [[liberal]]s by publicly discussing the "best type of bullet" to use against the criminal element. Critics called him "Machine Gun Ronnie", a [[sobriquet]] to which he did not object though he never handled a [[machine gun]]. In fact, he paid for his campaigns by selling [[memorabilia]] containing the name "Thompson" on model machine guns.<ref>http://www.rru.com/~meo/ga-folk/ga.5.html; http://www.civilrights.uga.edu/bibliographies/macon/mayor_thompson.htm</ref>