Brief Biographies


James Arthur Bayton
Born: 1912 in Whitestone, Virginia
Died: 1990

Education
1935 B.A. in Psychology from Howard University
M.S. in Psychology from Howard University
1943 Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania

Landmarks
1939-1943 Associate professor of psychology at Virginia State College.
1943-1945 Social science analyst with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
1945 Appointed professor of psychology at Southern University in Louisiana.
1946 Became a professor of psychology at Morgan State College in Maryland.
1947 Returned to Howard as a professor of psychology.
1948 Rejoined the Department of Agriculture on a part-time basis to provide assistance in their consumer behavior studies.
1953-1962 and 1966-1967 Vice president of National Analysts.
1962-1966 Vice president of Universal Marketing Research.
1966-1969 Chairman of the psychology department at Howard University.
1967-1968 Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
1968-1976 Senior staff psychologist at Chilton Research Services.
He served on the Research Advisory Committee, Social security Administration, HEW (1962-1964) and the Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Agricultural Science from 1965-1968.
He was also chairman of the committee appointed to study equal employment opportunity policies in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Contributions
He directed marketing research for DuPont, IBM, Armstrong Cork, Chrysler, Eli Lilly, Curtis Publishing, Johnson and Johnson, Schick, Pet Milk, America Dairy Association, Federal Reserve Board, Smith Kline, French, Proctor and Gamble, and the Office of Naval Research.

He was responsible for a series of research projects over a span of thirty years dealing with the self-concept of Black people. Also, he served as an expert witness for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in cases dealing with legal aspects of school desegregation and discrimination in employment. In addition, he studied the factors related to racial tension in military settings.

Honors
Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lincoln University

Affiliations
Phi Beta Kappa fraternity
Sigma Xi fraternity
Omega Psi Phi fraternity

Key words
Market research, agriculture

Web links

Selected Works and Publications
Tension in the Cities −Three Programs for Survival
“Single Stimulus Versus Comparative Methods in Determining Taste Preferences”
“Interrelations Between Levels of Aspiration, Performance, and Estimates of Past Performance”
“Intervening Variables in the Perception of Racial Personality Traits”



Albert Sidney Beckham
Born: September 21, 1897 Camden, South Carolina
Died: 1964

Education
1915 B.A. from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania
1916 B.A. from Ohio State University
1917 M.A. in Psychology from Ohio State University
1930 Ph.D. from NYU

Landmarks
1917-1918 Taught as a war professor in psychology at Wilberforce University in Ohio.
1921-1922 Editor of the New York City Dispatch.
1924 He accepted an instructorship at Howard University.
1925-1928 Assistant psychology professor at Howard.
1929-1930 Fellow at the National Committee for Mental Hygiene at the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research.
1931-1933 Senior assistant psychologist at the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research.
1935-1964 Affiliated with Chicago’s Board of Education Bureau of Child Study including DuSable High School.
1960-1963 Psychological consultant at Ada S. McKinley Community House in Chicago where he evaluated retarded children, adults, and women in vocational training classes.

  • He was also a board member of the Chicago Friends of the Mentally Ill and the People’s Rehabilitation Foundation

Contributions
He conducted research and developed such reports as “Minimum Levels of Intelligence for Certain Occupations” which became a guide for state institutions for training the mentally handicapped.

He counseled thousands of Black youths at DuSable and innovated the services of a school psychology clinic and developed parent counseling groups in which the study of adolescence helped parents to deal with their children. He also brought together ministers whose parishes included families of DuSable students; allowing for the first time a church-neighborhood-school relationship in that community.

The unpublished, “A Study of Retarded Children and Their Mothers” details physical handicaps of retarded children and the relation between child’s and mother’s tested intelligence.

With his wife Dr. Ruth Howard, he conducted a practice in clinical psychology known as The Center for Psychological Service; servicing private and public agencies including the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

Honors
Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lincoln University

Affiliations
Chicago Board of Education
National Committee for Mental Hygiene
Chicago Psychology Club
Illinois Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
America Association for the Advancement of Science
Beta Kappa Xi scientific society
Boy Scouts of Chicago
The Planned Parenthood Society Grace Church Community Center
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
The America Heritage Society
America Forestry Association

Key words
Mentally handicapped, School psychology

Web links

Selected Works and Publications

  • “A Study of Race Attitudes in Negro Children of Adolescent Age”
  • “A Study of the Intelligence of Colored Adolescents of Different Social Economic Status in Typical Metropolitan Areas” for the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago surveyed the largest number of Black children to be included in one study.
  • “Incidence of Frustration in Counseled and Non-Counseled High School Group”
  • “Narcolepsy Among Negroes”
  • “Incidence of Albinism in Negro Families”


John Henry Brodhead
Born: 1898 in Washington, New Jersey
Died: 1951

Education
1919 Graduated from the West Chester State Normal School in Pennsylvania
1937 Doctorate of Education in Educational Psychology from Temple University

Landmarks
1919-1951 Teacher and principal in the Philadelphia school system.
1940’s Principal of Reynolds School, one of the largest schools in Philadelphia.
1949 Elected president of the American Teachers Association (ATA)

Contributions
He was active in a number of educational movements and organizations. He also served as president of the Associations of Pennsylvania Teachers, the New Era Educational Association, and the Pennsylvania Educational Association and was a charter member of the Philadelphia Commission on Participation of Negroes in National Defense.

He was an organizer and chairman of the Citizens Committee for Integration of Negro Nurses. This committee ultimately led to the admittance of black nursing trainees into the Philadelphia General Hospital.

Honors

Affiliations

Key words
Educational psychology, nursing

Web links

Selected Works and Publications

“The Educational and Socio-Economic Status of the negro in the Secondary Schools of Pennsylvania”



George Herman Canady
Born: 1901 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Died: 1970

Education
1927 B.A. Sociology and a minor in Psychology from Northwestern University
1928 M.A. Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University
1941 Ph.D. in Psychology from Northwestern University

Landmarks
1928 Joined the faculty and assumed chairmanship of the psychology department at West Virginia Collegiate Institution (now West Virginia State College).
1946 Visiting lecturer to schools and colleges under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee.
1947 Consultant to the Pacific Coast Council on Intercultural Education and Intercultural Projects of the San Diego City Schools.
1948-1953 Part-time clinical psychologist for the Mental Health Unit at Veterans Administration in Huntington West Virginia.
1947-1968 Part-time clinical psychologist for the West Virginia Bureau of Mental Hygiene.
1950 Designated Diplomate of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology.
1954-1955 President of the West Virginia State Psychological Association.
1952-1953, 1955-1956 Chairman of the Department of Psychology at the West Virginia Academy of Science.

Contributions
He was the first to study the race of the examiner as a possible source of bias in IQ testing. His master’s thesis, “The Effects of Rapport on the IQ: A Study in Racial Psychology,” criticized the neglect of the importance of the race of the examiner in establishing testing rapport and offered suggestions for establishing an adequate environment and subsequently became a historical treatise and a classic in its field.

His dissertation, “Test Standing and Social Setting: A Comparative Study of the Intelligence-Test Scores of Negroes Living Under Varied Environmental Conditions,” became a widely quoted study in sociology and psychology.

He was instrumental in founding the West Virginia Psychological Association, the West Virginia State Board of Psychological Examiners, and the Charleston (West Virginia) Guidance Clinic.

Honors
1923 Charles F. Grey scholarship
1939 General Education Board fellowship
1949 Alpha Chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity Man of the Year
1951 Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity Middle-Eastern Provincial Achievement Award
Northwestern University’s Alumni Merit Award
Honorary doctor’s degree from West Virginia State College

Affiliations
Sigma Xi fraternity
Alpha Kappa Delta
Kappa Alpha Psi
Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science
Fellow of the American Psychological Association
Chairman of the Department of Psychology of the American Teachers Association
American Association of University Professors
West Virginia State Psychological Association

Key words
Intelligence testing

Web links
http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/calendar/cal1009.html
http://www.guilford.edu/academics/index.cfm?ID=100003280

Selected Works and Publications
“Adapting Education to the Abilities, Needs and Interest of Negro College Students”
“Individual Differences and Their Educational Significance in the Guidance of the Gifted and Talented Child”
“Psychology in Negro Institutions” (the only published research effort that evaluated the status, training, and research efforts of early psychologist in Black colleges and universities)



Kenneth Bancroft Clark


Kenneth & Mamie Clark

Born: 1914 in Panama Canal Zone
Died:

Education
1935 B.S. in Psychology from Howard University
1936 M.S. from Howard University
1940 Ph.D. from Columbia University

Landmarks
1940 First Black to receive a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia.
1941 Taught at Queens College in New York.
1942 Professor of psychology at City College in the City University at NY.
He was a visiting professor at Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard University.
1962 Founded the Northside Center for Child Development and Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited HARYOU.
1967 Founded and was president of the Metropolitan Applied Research Center.
Member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago.
Member of the New York Urban Development Corporation.

Contributions
His work was essential in the case of Brown v. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas). He had studied the responses of more than 200 Black children who were given a choice of white or brown dolls. From his findings that the children showed a preference for the white dolls from as early as three years old, Clark concluded that segregation was psychologically damaging. This conclusion played a pivotal role in the decision of the Supreme Court outlawing segregation in education.

Dr. Clark was the first Black president of the American Psychological Association. He was also president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Honors
1961 Awarded the Spingard Medal by the NAACP.
1966 Received the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award by the Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues.
He received honorary degrees from Haverford College, Yeshiva University, Oberlin College, Johns Hopkins University, Amherst College, New York University, Columbia University, and the University of Massachusetts.

Affiliations
Sigma Xi fraternity
Phi Beta Kappa

Key words
Brown v. Board of Education, segregation, Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark

Web links
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/r?faid/faidfr:@field(SOURCE+@band(clark+kenneth+bancroft))
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/283/Kennth_B_Clark_activist_psychologist_and_author

Selected Works and Publications
Prejudice and Your Child (1965)
The award winning; Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power (1965)
He was co-author with Jeannette Hopkins of Relevant War Against Poverty (1968) and co-editor with Talcott Parsons of Negro American (1968)
Pathos of Power (1974)



Mamie Phipps Clark


Kenneth & Mamie Clark

Born: April 18, 1917 in Hot Springs, Arkansas
Died: August 11, 1983 in New York

Education
1938 B.A., magna cum laude, in Psychology from Howard University
1939 M.A. in Psychology from Howard
1944 Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University

Landmarks
1944-1945 Research psychologist for the American Public Health Association.
1945-1946 Assumed duties as a research psychologist for the United States Armed Forces Institute, New York Examination Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.
1946 Became executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development in New York City.
1945-1946 Psychologist for the Riverdale Children’s Association.
1958-1960 Visiting professor of experimental methods and research design at Yeshiva University.
Member of the board of directors for the New York Mission Society, Teachers College at Columbia, Museum of Modern Art, and the Phelps Stokes Fund.
Served with several advisory groups including the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU) and the National Headstart Planning Committee.

Contributions
Dr. Clark's work with children's race-recognition and self-esteem showed that Black children became aware of their racial identity at about three years old. Concurrently, these children began to see themselves negatively, reflecting the views that society held about them. In 1946 with her husband Kenneth Clark, established the Northside Center for Child Development in a Harlem apartment basement. The center provided a homelike environment for children.

She suspected that many Black children who were tested and told they were retarded, or had some other learning disability, were in fact not retarded. The I.Q. tests were racially and economically biased toward white children. Mamie said this about the many cases. "Following psychological testing it was found that most of the children were in fact above the intelligence level placement in CRMD (Class for Children of Retarded Mental Development) classes (I.Q.=70) and that actions on the part of public school personnel were illegal in those schools located in minority and deprived areas" (M. P. Clark, 1983).

Honors
1957 Received an Alumni Achievement Award from Howard University for outstanding post-graduate service in psychological research.
1972 Received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letter degree from Williams College.

Affiliations
American Psychological Association
Phi Beta Kappa
Fellow, American Association of Orthopsychiatry

Key words
Psychology of minorities, segregation, White Doll Test, Black Doll Test, children's self-image, Kenneth Clark

Web links
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2196/Mamie_Clark_a_supporter_of_the_Black_child
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/mamieclark.html
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~acrobert/

Selected Works and Publications
“Segregation as a Factor in the Racial Identification of Negro Pre-school Children”
“The Development of Consciousness of Self and the Emergence of Racial Identification in Negro Pre-school Children”
“Skin Color as a Factor in Racial Identification of Negro Pre-school Children”
(All three pieces were done with her husband Kenneth B. Clark)



Robert Prentiss Daniel
Born: 1902 in Ettricks, Virginia
Died: 1968

Education
1924 B.A. magna cum laude from Virginia Union University
1928 Master’s in Education from Columbia University
1932 Ph.D. Educational Psychology from Columbia University

Landmarks
1923-1925 Math instructor at Virginia Union University.
1926-1928 Assistant professor of Education at Virginia Union.
1928-1936 Professor of Education and Psychology and Director of the Extension Division at Virginia Union University.
1932-1936 Director of the Division of Educational Psychology and Philosophy at Virginia Union.
1936-1950 Inaugurated as President of Shaw University in North Carolina.
1950-1968 President of Virginia State College.

  • He was also an ordained Baptist minister who served on numerous church governing boards and was active in many education and psychological organizations

Contributions
He was the author of “A Psychological Study of Delinquent Negro Boys” and numerous other journal articles in the fields of psychology and education.

Honors
1948 Distinguished Service Award in Education- Urban League
1953 Nominated president of Conference of Presidents of Negro Land Grant Colleges

Affiliations
American Psychological Association
National Association for the Study of Negro Life
American Association of School Administrators
American Teachers Association
The National Education Association

Key words
Virginia State University (Virginia State College), education

Web links
http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/vsu/vivadoc.pl?file=vipets00052.xml

Selected Works and Publications
“A Psychological Study of Delinquent Negro Boys”



Oran Wendle Eagleson
Born: March 14, 1910 in Unionville, Indiana
Died: 1997

Education
1931 B.A. Psychology from Indiana University
1932 M.A. Indiana University
1935 Ph.D. Indiana University

Landmarks
1936 Taught courses in psychology, sociology, economics, and philosophy at North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, North Carolina.
1936 Accepted a position at Spelman College in Atlanta, also served as an exchange professor at Atlanta University while teaching at Spelman where he offered courses and directed theses for graduate students.
1954 Became Dean of Instruction at Spelman.
1970 Appointed Callaway Professor of Psychology at Spelman.

Contributions
Previously at Spelman, psychology courses were for elective supplementary purposes not a major but after it was listed as a major field of study Dr. Eagleson encouraged many students to consider psychology as a major field, and gradually the number of psychology majors increased.

He served as special lecturer and consultant in orientation and training projects conducted by the Peace Corps, Head Start, and several school systems in Georgia.

He was associated with the research program of the Cooperative Experiment Summer School of the Atlanta University Center and was co-director of the Morehouse-Spelman Intensified Pre-College Program.

Honors

Affiliations

Key words
Child development, triplets

Web links
http://www.spelman.edu/academics/programs/psychology/departmenthandbook91803.pdf#search='oran%20eagleson'

Selected Works and Publications
“Comparative Studies of White and Negro Subjects in Learning to Discriminate Visual Magnitude”
“The Success of Sixty Subjects in Attempting to Recognize Their Handwriting”
“Identification of Musical Instruments When Heard Directly and Over a Public-Address System”



Carlton Benjamin Goodlett
Born: July 23, 1914 Chipley, Florida
Died: January 25, 1997

Education
B.S. in Psychology from Howard University
Master’s Degree in Abnormal Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley
1938 Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley
M.D. from Meharry Medical College in Tennessee

Landmarks
1933 First Black to study psychology in the graduate division at the University of California.
1938 Taught educational psychology, learning, and statistics at West Virginia State College.
While at Meharry he taught courses in psychology at Fisk University and Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College. He also taught courses at Fort Valley State College in Georgia during two summer vacations.
Interned at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis and then became a house physician at Maury County Colored Hospital in Columbus Tennessee.
1947 Became first co-publisher of the San Francisco Sun Reporter and then publisher in 1951.
1967-1968 Taught a course at San Francisco State College entitled “Group Conflict in Urban America”.
He was president of the San Francisco NAACP, president of the San Francisco Foundation to Study Our Schools, and a director of the San Francisco Council of Boy Scouts of America.
He was a member of the National Committee on Africa.
He also served as chairman of the California Black Leadership Conference, a trustee of the Third Baptist Church, and vice president of the San Francisco Council of Churches.
1966 Ran in the gubernatorial primary election in California, coming in third in a field of six Democrats.
He was a three-time president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Contributions
He sponsored a three or five year study that examined “The Role of Alcohol, Hard Drugs and Narcotics on the Black Experience”, by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, National Bar Association, National Business League, and the National Medical Association.

Dr. Goodlett and two other physicians were the only Black doctors in San Francisco in the 1940s. For years they were allowed to treat their patients only outside the hospitals. Goodlett led a fight to win access for all Black doctors.

In 1947 he spearheaded the fight against San Francisco's public transit for failing to hire Black workers. Today the workforce at MUNI is over 40 percent African American.

He was elected to the Presidium of the World Peace Council and led American delegations to numerous peace assemblies, including the World Without Bomb Conference in Accra, the Stockholm Conference to End the War in Vietnam and the World Assembly for Peace held in Germany. He also traveled many times to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and visited Vietnam in 1975.

Dr. Goodlett was arrested at San Francisco State University in 1968 during protests by students demanding a Black studies department.

Dr. Goodlett was an early tireless champion in the AIDS epidemic and served on Mayor Art Agnos’ HIV Task Force in 1990.

Honors
National Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity scholarship to study at Howard

Affiliations
National Newspaper Publishers Association
NAACP
Sigma Xi

Key words
Civil Rights Movement, NAACP

Web links
http://www.freepress.org/fleming/flemng77.html
http://www.workers.org/archives/1997/goodlett.html

Selected Works and Publications
“The Mental Abilities of Twenty-Nine Deaf and Partially Deaf Negro Children”
“The Reading Abilities of the Negro Elementary Child in Kanawha County, West Virginia”
“A Comparative Study of Adolescent Interests in Two Socio-Economic Groups”



Ruth Winifred Howard
Born: 1900
Died: unknown

Education
1921 B.S. in Social Work from Simmons College in Boston
1927 M.S. degree from Simmons College
1929-1930 Under a Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fellowship for Parent Education she studied at Columbia University’s Teachers College and School of Social Work
1930-1934 Under a second Rockefeller fellowship she studied at the University of Minnesota.
1934 Ph.D. in Psychology and child Development from the University of Minnesota

Landmarks
1923-1929 Practiced social work, first in community organization with the Cleveland Urban League and later in child welfare with the State Welfare Agency.
1934 The first Black woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in psychology while at the University of Minnesota.
1940-1964 Co-director, with husband Albert S. Beckham, for the Center for Psychological Services in Chicago.
1940-1964 Psychologist for Chicago’s Provident Hospital School of Nursing while consulting with schools of nursing in Kansas City, Missouri, and Jacksonville, Florida.
After a clinical internship at the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research, she entered into private practice in clinical psychology.
1953-1955 Consultant to adolescents for the Evanston Illinois Public Schools.
1955 Reading therapist at the University of Chicago’s Reading Clinic.
1966-1968 Staff member for Worthington and Hurst Psychological Consultants.
1964-1966 Psychologist for the McKinley Center for Retarded Children.
1968-1972 Psychologist for the Chicago Board of Health, Mental Health Division.
Psychological consultant for children’s programs at Abraham Lincoln Centre and Daniel D. Howard Associates in Chicago.

Contributions
Her doctoral research, “A Study of the Development of Triplets,” was the first published study of a sizeable group of triplets of varying ages from several ethnic groups.

Honors
1968 San Antonio, Texas at the HemisFair exposition she was cited for her contribution to Texas culture.
Rockefeller Foundation General Education Board Fellowship

Affiliations
Chicago Psychology Club
Illinois Psychological Association
America Psychological Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
International Reading Association
Board member of the YWCA of Chicago
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
American Association of University Women
National Association of College Women
International House Association
Art Institute of Chicago
Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference
Delta Sigma Theta sorority

Key words
Child development, triplets

Web links
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1335/Educator_and_more_Ruth_W_Howard_Beckman
http://archive.blackvoices.com/research/blackfacts/bl_fact_169.asp

Selected Works and Publications
“A Study of the Development of Triplets”
“Fantasy and the Play Interview”
“Intellectual and Personality Traits of a Group of Triplets”
“Developmental History of a Group of Triplets”



Martin David Jenkins
Born: 1904 in Terre Haute, Indiana
Died: 1978

Education
1925 B.S. in Mathematics from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Degree in Teacher Education from Indiana State College (now University)
1933 Master’s Degree from Northwestern University
1935 Doctorate from Northwestern University

Landmarks
1930-1932 Instructor of education at Virginia State College (University).
1934 Awarded a graduate fellowship from Northwestern University, the first of its kind given to a Black American at Northwestern.
1935-1937 Registrar and professor of Education at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College.
1937 Accepted the position of Dean of Instruction at Cheyney State Teachers College in Pennsylvania.
1938-1948 Professor of education at Howard University with a one-year duty assignment as a Senior Specialist in Higher Education, Office of Education.
1948-1970 President of Morgan State College in Maryland.
1970-1974 Director of the Office of Urban Affairs, American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.

Contributions
His Ph.D. dissertation, “A Socio-Psychological Study of Negro Children of Superior Intelligence,” became an educational psychology classic. His investigation into intelligence test scores found that intelligence levels for Blacks were as high as those for whites. He also discovered a representative sample of “superior” Black students, one of whom had the highest IQ then on record. He lectured widely on educational psychology in the U.S. and under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State at various college and universities in France, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Italy, and Lebanon.

In addition, he was a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology (ABEPP) and published more than eighty books, monographs, and articles.

Honors
He was decorated by the Liberian Government as Knight of the Liberian Humane Order of African Redemption.
Andrew White Medal from Loyola College
The Department of the Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal
"A Commendation for Model Cities Activities" by the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare and Housing and Urban Development.
He was awarded honorary doctor’s degrees by the University of Liberia, Delaware State College, Howard University, Indiana State University, Johns Hopkins University, Lincoln University, and Morgan State College
1974 the Martin David Jenkins Behavioral Science Center at Morgan State College was dedicated in his honor.

Affiliations
Phi Beta Kappa honor society
Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity
Sigma Pi Phi fraternity

Key words
Intelligence testing

Web links

Selected Works and Publications
“A Socio-Psychological Study of Negro Children of Superior Intelligence”



Howard Hale Long
Born: 1888 in News Ferry, Virginia
Died: 1948

Education
1915 B.S. and Bachelor’s Diploma in Education from Howard University
1916 Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from Clark University
1933 Doctor of Education degree in Educational Psychology from Harvard

Landmarks
1916-1917 was a psychology instructor at Howard University.
Served in WWI as an infantry first lieutenant in Europe.
Dean at Paine College in Georgia.
1923 Appointed Dean of the School of Education at Knoxville College.
1924 Supervising principal in the public school system of Washington, D.C.
1933 First graduate of Howard University to earn a Doctor of Education degree in educational psychology from Harvard.
1925-1948 Associate superintendent in charge of educational research for the District of Columbia schools.
1949 Dean of Administration at Wilberforce State College in Ohio.

Contributions
He published several research monographs in educational psychology and provided leadership for many research projects. His early publications “An Analysis of Some Factors Influencing Alpha Scores by States” and “On Mental Tests and Racial Psychology” were frequently quoted in the field of psychometry.

Honors

Affiliations
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity

Key words
Psychometry, Educational psychology

Web links

Selected Works and Publications
“An Analysis of Some Factors Influencing Alpha Scores by States”
“On Mental Tests and Racial Psychology”



James Thomas Morton, Jr.
Born: 1911 in Greenwood, South Carolina
Died: 1974

Education
1934 B.A. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign
1935 M.A. from Northwestern University
1942 Ph.D. in Psychology from Northwestern

Landmarks
1936 Taught at Bennett College in North Carolina prior to earning his Ph.D.
Drafted into the army as a private and near the end of his military career he was given a direct commission as a psychologist, the only Black American to receive such an appointment during World War II.
Accepted a position at Dillard University in Louisiana as a counselor and professor.
1946 Accepted an appointment at Tuskegee Veterans’ Hospital in Alabama, becoming the first Black chief psychologist for the VA.
1948 Designated Diplomate in Clinical Psychology in the APA’s first listing of Diplomate status awards.
1953 Entered private practice and became employed at the VA Hospital at Downey, Illinois.
At the time of his death he was coordinator of training for psychology Ph.D. candidates at the VA Hospital at Downey.

Contributions
On a voluntary basis, as a high school student, he taught classes in Negro history to member of the Evanston community and various church groups.

He produced an unpublished study of Black psychologists, hoping to use the data to assist in the recruitment of young Black scholars in psychology.

He compiled an immense data bank relating to the intelligence of Black Americans as measured by the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Test.

He was a pioneer for Blacks in clinical psychology and a strong advocate for equal education and employment opportunities for minority youth.

Honors
Elected to Fellow status in the APA

Affiliations

Key words
Clinical psychology, social psychology

Web links

Selected Works and Publications



Inez Beverly Prosser
Born: 1897 in Yoakum, Texas
Died: 1934

Education
Prairie View Normal College
1924 B.A. “with distinction” from Samuel Houston College in Education
Masters in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado
1933 Ph.D. Educational Psychology from the University of Cincinnati

Landmarks
Taught education at Tillotson College in Austin Texas.
1921-1930 became Dean and Registrar at Tillotson College.
1930 Accepted a teaching position and administrative duties at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi.
1933 First Black American woman to receive a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

Contributions
Her dissertation the “Non-Academic Development of Negro Children in Mixed and Segregated Schools”, for which she earned her Ph. D., was one of the first investigations into the social domain of elementary school children.

Provided encouragement and a college fund to assist all of her eleven brothers and sister attend college that wanted to; allowing all to complete high school and six complete college.

Honors
1968 San Antonio, Texas at the HemisFair exposition she was cited for her contribution to Texas culture.
Rockefeller Foundation General Education Board Fellowship

Affiliations
Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority
African Methodist Episcopal Church

Key words
Education, Texas history, Segregation

Web links
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/PP/fpr30.html
http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/prosser.html

Selected Works and Publications
The Non-Academic Development of Negro Children in Mixed and Segregated Schools”



Shearley Oliver Roberts
Born: 1910 in Alexandria, Virginia
Died: 1984

Education
1932 B.A. degree with honors from Brown University
1933 M.A. degree with honors from Brown
1944 the University of Minnesota conferred a Ph.D. in Child Welfare (Child Development) and Psychology.

Landmarks
Studied at the University of Minnesota with J.E. Anderson, F. Goodenough, B.F. Skinner, and D.G. Paterson.
1933-1936 Instructor at Atlanta University.
1942-1943 Acting dean at Dunbar Junior College.
1939-1942 and 1944-1945 Teacher and Dean of Students at Arkansas AM&N College.
Lecturer in psychology at Meharry Medical College.
1950 Delegate to the White House Conference on Youth.
1950 Inaugurated the Program in Child Life and Development at Fisk.
Served on the Council of Psychological Resources in the South, the Governor’s Committee on Training and Research in Tennessee, the board of the Mental Health Center of Middle Tennessee, the Nashville Metropolitan Action Commission (as member and vice chairman) and other scientific and professional groups. He was also a delegate to the White House Conference on Youth in 1950.
Participated in the Thayer Conference on Psychology and Schools.

Contributions
He was editor of the Fisk-Meharry Local Preparatory Commission’s Report on “Negro America Youth, Mental Health and World Citizenship.” From 1951-1952 he was a professor of psychology and education and the chairman of Fisk University’s psychology department. Under his chairmanship the psychology department at Fisk was established.

Honors
Fellow of the Society for Research in Child Development and of the Division of Developmental Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

Affiliations
Sigma Xi Society
Psi Chi Society

Key words
Child development, mental health principles, testing, cultural difference, personality adjustment

Web links

Selected Works and Publications



Francis Cecil Sumner
Father of Black American
Psychologists
Born: 1895 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Died: January 12, 1954 in Washington, DC

Education
1911 at the age of 15 he enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania
1915 at the age of 19 or 20, he graduated magna cum laude with special honors in English, Modern Languages, Greek, Latin, and Philosophy.
1916 he was awarded a second B.A. in English from Clark University in Worcester Massachusetts
1917 he received his M.A. degree from Lincoln University.
On June 14, 1920 when he received his Ph.D. from Clark University, Francis Cecil Sumner became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. degree in psychology.

Landmarks
1916 As a graduate student at Lincoln University he taught psychology of religion, mysticism, rationalism, experimental psychology, social psychology and intermediate and advanced German.
1920-1921 Took his first teaching position at Wilber force University in Ohio.
1921 (summer) Taught at Southern University in Louisiana.
1921 (fall) Accepted an appointment as instructor of psychology and philosophy in the college department at West Virginia Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State College).
1928 Resigned from West Virginia after becoming restless and assumed the acting chairmanship of the department of psychology at Howard University where he remained until his death in 1954.
1931 Had the opportunity to attend the First International Congress for Religious Psychology held at the University of Vienna. There he presented a paper entitled, “Mental Hygiene and Religion” and met many leaders among European psychologists of religion.

Contributions
Sumner believed that in order to develop a strong program to train Black psychologists adequately, psychology departments needed to be autonomous units. With the help of then Howard University’s president, Mordecai Johnson, a separate department of psychology was permanently established and he was appointed full professor and head of the department in 1930.

Sumner did vast amounts of research concerning equality and justice between Blacks and Whites. For example, he studied the attitudes of Blacks and Whites towards the administration of justice with the goal of administering justice on a more democratic basis. Along with his graduate students more than two thousand college students were surveyed for the research.

Under Sumner’s tutelage many of his students went on to become leading psychologists in their own right. One such student was Kenneth Bancroft Clark whose psychological research on prejudice, discrimination and segregation in the developing child was used in the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

At the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Sumner created a prestigious award that was given to a psychology student with the most outstanding essay on a particular topic.

Sumner was an official abstractor for both the Journal of Social Psychology and the Psychological Bulletin, where he translated more than three thousand articles from German, French, and Spanish.

Honors
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Affiliations
Psi Chi fraternity
Pi Gamma Mu fraternity
Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity
Fellow, American Psychological Association
American Association for the Advancement of Science
America Educational Research Association
Eastern Psychological Association
Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology
District of Columbia Psychological Association.

Key words
Social psychology, psychology of religion, father of Black psychologists

Web links
http://www.earlham.edu/~knigher/sumner.htm
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~tmoney/
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~tmoney/page2.html

Selected Works and Publications
His Ph.D. dissertation “Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler” was published in the Pedagogical Seminary later named The Journal of Genetic Psychology and it was called an outstanding interpretation of psychoanalytic theories.
“Core and Contest in the Drowsy State” contributed to the American Journal of Psychology.
“The Idea of Holiness”
“The Structure of Religion: A History of European Psychology of Religion”



Charles Henry Thompson
Born: 1896 in Jackson, Mississippi
Died: 1980

Education
1917 B.A. Virginia Union University
1918 Degree from the University of Chicago
1920 Masters in Education and Psychology from the University of Chicago
1925 Ph. D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Chicago

Landmarks
1925 First Black American to receive doctor’s degree in educational psychology.
1920-1921 Psychology instructor at Virginia Union University.
1922-1924 Director of Instruction at Alabama State Normal School.
1925-1926 Instructor in psychology and social science at Summer High School and Junior College in Kansas City, Kansas.
1926-1980 Lifelong association with Howard University holding positions as: Professor of Education, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Dean of the Graduate School.

Contributions
As Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Negro Education, Dr. Thompson was responsible for making it into a highly prestigious periodical. He also wrote more than 100 articles and editorials.

Honors
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Affiliations
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Key words
Howard University, Journal of Negro Education

Web links

Selected Works and Publications



Alberta Banner Turner
Born: 1909 in Chicago, Illinois
Died:

Education
1929 B.S. Home Economics Ohio State University
1931 M.S. Education Ohio State University
1935 Ph.D. Psychology Ohio State University

Landmarks
1935 First African American to receive a doctorate degree in psychology from Ohio State University.
1935-1936 Head of the home economic department at Winston-Salem College in North Carolina.
1936-1937 Professor of psychology and head of the department of Home Economics at Lincoln University in Missouri.
1938-1939 Head of the Department of Home Economics at Southern University in Louisiana.
1939 Head of the home economics department at Bennett College for Women in North Carolina.
1944 Clinician at the Ohio Bureau of Juvenile Research.
1963 Promoted to the Central Administrative Office of the Ohio Youth Commission and became the Director of Research for the Ohio Youth Commission, while teaching a variety of graduate courses at Ohio State University and being a psychologist at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
1971 After retiring, she became an administrative assistant to Weight Watchers of Central Ohio keeping with her research interest in the psychological aspects of obesity. She was also a Mary Kay cosmetics director.

Contributions
Turner was the founding president of the Columbus chapter and the first national program director of The Links Inc., which has 10,000 members nationwide. She has been instrumental in establishing the Prelude Scholarship and Recognition Program, a partnership of Links, Ohio State and the Columbus Public Schools to honor minority students. Links also has funded an endowed scholarship at Ohio State to support minority students.

Turner has served as a role model and counselor for young people, especially troubled teen-agers, and she has been a pioneer for African Americans in the diagnosis and treatment of delinquent behavior.

She has been a strong advocate for racial, civil and religious rights and has worked tirelessly to ensure them for others.

Honors
1966 Named one of the "Ten Women of the Year" by the Columbus Citizen-Journal.
1971 Given a citation from the State of Ohio and the Ohio Youth Commission read, “Alberta Banner Turner, Ph.D., has been synonymous with mention of the field of juvenile rehabilitation and treatment in Ohio for over 27 years. She has played a very active role in its history”
Gamma Psi Kappa
Alpha Kappa Alpha Award for Community and Scholastic Endeavors
Pi Lambda Theta Citation
She holds Diplomat status in Clinical Psychology (ABEPP) and is certified by the Ohio Psychological Association.

Affiliations
Criminal Justice Supervisory Commission
Ohio Society for Crippled Children and Adults

Key words
Home economics, psychological aspects of obesity, juvenile rehabilitation

Web links
http://www.osu.edu/osu/newsrel/Archive/99-08-24_Commencement_Honors_for_Five.html

Selected Works and Publications
“The Effects of Practice on the Perception and Memorization of Digits Presented in Single Exposure”
“The Psychologist ant the Juvenile Diagnostic Center: Past, Present and Future”



Charles Henry Turner

Please visit the official Charles Henry Turner website at http://psychology.okstate.edu/museum/turner/turnermain.html



Frederick Payne Watts
Born: 1904 in Staunton, Virginia
Died:

Education
1926 Bachelors degree in French and Psychology from Howard University
Master’s Degree from Howard University
1941 Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania

Landmarks
1928 After teaching briefly at Kittrell College in North Carolina he returned to Howard to teach.
1941 First Black person to receive a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
1942 Called to serve in the army as a pre-induction classification officer and personnel consultant during World War II, setting up psychological testing facilities for the Baltimore induction station and supervising the assignment and counseling of enlisted personnel in various military installations.
1945 Upon his discharge as a captain in the adjutant general’s department, he was appointed assistant chief clinical psychologist for the Veterans Administration regional office in Philadelphia.
1948 Returned to Howard to establish the Liberal Arts Counseling Service, which later came to encompass the total student body (renamed the University Counseling Service)
1949 director of the University Counseling Service and taught psychology part-time at Howard until his retirement in 1970.

Contributions

Honors
Diplomate in Clinical Psychology (ABEPP)

Affiliations

Key words
Delinquents, counseling, clinical psychology, vision

Web links

Selected Works and Publications
Rivalry Between Uniocular Negative After Images and the Vision of the Other Eye” with Francis Sumner.
A Comparative and Clinical Study of Delinquent and Non-Delinquent Negro Boys”
Initial Group Counseling of Freshmen”
A Study of the College Environment”
The Development of a Behavior Judgment Scale”
Developmental Counseling”



Roger Kenton Williams
Born: 1914 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Died: 1989

Education
B.A. degree, magna cum laude, in Sociology from Claflin College in South Carolina
1946 Ph.D. in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University in College Park

Landmarks
1941 Accepted an appointment as associate professor of education and psychology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College.
Called into the U.S. Coast Guard as a Chief Yeoman in Recruitment and Morale during World War II.
1946-1948 Became a professor of psychology and Director of the Veterans Administration Guidance Center.
Professor of education and Director of Student Personnel at Morgan State College.
1949-1972 Professor of psychology and chairman of the psychology department at Morgan State.
1958-1968 Director of Morgan’s Independent Study Project and was a consultant for the Ford Foundation.
1968-1969 Acting dean of the graduate school at Morgan State.
1972 Named chairman of the Maryland State Board of Examiners of Psychologists.
1972-1973 Vice President for Academic Affairs and was later named Vice President for Planning and Operations Analysis at Morgan State University.

Contributions
He researched “Creating Institutional Opportunities for Producing More Black Ph.D’s in Psychology”, “Appearance, Features and the Concept of Black Militancy”, and a number of academic placement tests. He also had research interests in student research supervision, independent study design, and statistical application of qualitative data.

Honors

Affiliations

Key words
Statistical application of qualitative data

Web links

Selected Works and Publications
“Creating Institutional Opportunities for Producing More Black Ph.D’s in Psychology” with Bayton and Roberts.
“Appearance, Features and the Concept of Black Militancy” with Gregory Shannon.
“A Comparison of College Students Classified by Psychological Clinic as Personality Maladjustment Cases and as Vocational Guidance Cases”



Howard Emery Wright
Born: 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: 1988

Education
1932 B.A. from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania
1933 M.A. in Psychology from Ohio State University
1946 Ph.D. in Psychology from Ohio State University

Landmarks
1933 Principal of the Campus Laboratory School at Albany State College in Georgia.
1936-1939 Principal of Aracoma High School in Logan West Virginia.
1940-1945 Principal of the Campus Laboratory School at Prairie View College in Texas. He was also associate professor of education and director of teacher training at Prairie View.
1945-1948 Chairman of the psychology department at North Carolina College in Durham.
1948-1953 Chairman of the division of education and psychology at Texas Southern University.
1953 Returned to North Carolina to reassume the chairmanship of the psychology department.
1961 Appointed president of Allen University in South Carolina.
1965 Regional director of Community Action Programs fro the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C.
1966-1967 Branch chief of the Division of College Support for the U.S. Office of Education.
1967 Accepted the academic deanship at Maryland State College in Princess Anne, Maryland.
1970 Acting chancellor at the University of Maryland.
1972 Director, Division of Social Sciences at Hampton Institute in Virginia.
1974 Professor of psychology at Salisbury State College in Maryland.
He served as a board member of the Home for Dependent Children in (Houston, Texas), Child Guidance Clinic (Durham, North Carolina), and Advisory Committee to the Civil Rights Commission and Vice President of Victory Savings Bank (Columbia, South Carolina).

Contributions
He researched the areas of social psychology and attitudinal testing.

Honors

Affiliations
The Elks
The Masons
Omega Psi Phi fraternity
American Association of University Professors
American Psychological Association

Key words
Education, social psychology attitudinal testing

Web links

Selected Works and Publications
“An Analysis of Results with Certain Tests of Interests and Attitudes”


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