In honor of Black History Month, º£½ÇÂÒÂ×’s student organization the Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity Alliance created a weekly spotlight on Black trailblazers in psychology. Each week, IDEA created a flyer highlighting one trailblazer and shared it via weekly emails and social media posts throughout Black History Month. As Black History Month comes to a close, we’re excited to share the contributions of these amazing Black psychologists with you.
Dr. Beverly Greene, PhD is one of the pioneers of intersectionality. As one of the first openly lesbian African American psychologists, she is best known for her work on racism, sexism, and intersecting marginalized identities. With over 100 publications and 11 books, she was recognized for her work by the APA in 2023 with the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. She is currently a professor at St. John’s University, but graduated from Adelphi University with her PhD in 1983.
Dr. Greene has oftentimes expressed that she did not intend to become a scholar or writer. Early in her career, she worked at Kings County Municipal Hospital’s Inpatient Child Psychiatry Division in Brooklyn. While working there, she was placed in charge of training interns and residents and began writing about the things she was teaching. These writings ultimately transformed her career and launched her body of work that boasts 12 works which have received national awards for pioneering and distinguished contributions to the literature.Â
Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser, PhD is the first Black woman in the United States to have earned a doctorate in Psychology. Dr. Prosser focused on education and the effects of racism. She studied how racism impacts children’s mental health and Black children’s learning experience in differing educational settings. Dr. Prosser evaluated whether the negative impact of children being potentially exposed to racism at school may outweigh the advantage of attending integrated schools.Â
Dr. Prosser contended educational opportunities were persistently limited by racial inequality, although she acknowledged that some may thrive within integrated educational systems with better educational opportunities. Equity in education and concerns of racial bias in educational settings remain a national issue today. Dr. Prosser taught in Black colleges, Tilloston College in Austin, Texas, and Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. She aided many Black students in receiving funds for further education. Dr. Prosser made contributions to improving education and was an outstanding voice for the Black community. Her improvements in education are still evident today in many teaching policies.Â
Dr. Reginald Wilson, PhD, did not start his life knowing that he wanted to be a psychologist. His childhood dream was to be a pilot, which bore fruit when he enlisted during WWII and became one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, Dr. Wilson took advantage of the GI bill to get his PhD in psychology at Wayne State University (where he also completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees). He received the Distinguished Service Medal from the City of Detroit for his contributions to urban reform.Â
Dr. Wilson was also involved in civil rights protests in the 60s and 70s and founded one of the first Black ski clubs in the United States. One of Dr. Wilson’s lifelong projects was the advancement of racial equity in education. He was the founding director of the Office of Minority Concerns at the American Council on Education, one of the founding members of the Michigan chapter of ABPsi, and the president of Wayne State Community College for 10 years. He was also the editor of journals such as Minorities in Higher Education and Race and Equity in Higher Education, and authored books such as Think About Our Rights: Civil Liberties and the United States.Â
Dr. Francis Cecil Sumner is recognized as the “Father of Black Psychology” and was the first African American to earn a PhD in psychology. As a teenager without a formal high school education, he passed the entrance examination to Lincoln University and graduated with magna cum laude honors. He later enrolled at Clark University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1916. Following his graduation, Sumner returned to Lincoln University as a graduate student and was mentored by psychologist G. Stanley Hall. His academic progress was interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I.Â
After returning, he re-enrolled in the doctoral program at Clark University. In 1920, he successfully completed his dissertation titled “Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler.” Dr. Sumner went on to publish multiple scholarly articles, despite facing racial discrimination and being denied research funding because of his race. Dr. Sumner’s legacy as a scientist, educator, and trailblazer establishes him as an essential figure in the history of psychology. His perseverance in the face of institutional barriers allowed him to make enduring contributions to the advancement of psychology and society for future generations.Â
A special thanks to Francesca Belisario (PsyD 2) and IDEA for their work on these spotlights.Â