Thomas W. Anderson, a native of Virginia, was educated at the Keystone-Eckman High School, Keystone, West Virginia, the Bluefield Colored Institute, Bluefield, West Virginia, and Walden University, Nashville, Tennessee. He was connected with the National Baptist Publishing House , Nashville, Tennessee for seven years; was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1918 by Rev. R. L. Bradby of the Second Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan, and was pastor of the Second Baptist Church, Adrian, Michigan for about eighteen months. He was elected clerk of the Chain Lake Association . He served as an elected member of the Hamtramck, Michigan Township Review on the Republican ticket in 1919; was appointed water inspector and assistant clerk of the village council of Hamtramck in October 1919. He was deputy sheriff and member of the Wayne County Republican Committee, president of the Hamtramck branch of the NAACP, and president of the Adrian Michigan branch, which he organized.

In December 1921 Anderson became Commissioner to Louisana for the Universal Negro Improvement Association, where he organized 62 divisions and served until the convention of 1922, when he was appointed and elected Assistant Secretary-General. He served in this capacity until April 1923, when he became First Assistant; after about four months he was appointed to the position of Minister of Labor and Industry by the President-General.