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Although the majority of psychologists early in this century were white males, it is important to note that a number of African-Americans and women contributed significantly to the field.
One of William James's students, Mary Whiton Calkins was born in 1863. She was not allowed to receive her Ph.D. because she was a woman. Indeed, Harvard University only allowed her to take classes as a visiting student. Calkins established a psychological laboratory at Wellesley College, where she pioneered in the study of human memory. In 1905 she became the first woman president of the American Psychological Association. Margaret F. Washburn, the first woman to earn her Ph.D. in psychology, graduated from Cornell University in 1898. A comparative psychologist, she taught at Vassar College, and in 1921 became the second woman president of APA. Washburn wrote an influential book, The Animal Mind in 1908. Many early comparative psychology courses used her book, exposing many students to the study of animal behavior. The first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology was Francis Cecil Sumner, who was born in Arkansas in 1895. Sumner studied under G. Stanley Hall at Clark University, and received his degree in psychology in 1920 (Houston, 1990). After graduating from Clark University, Sumner taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio before accepting the chair of the psychology department of Howard University in Washington DC in 1928. He was interested in the psychology of religion, and remained at Howard University until his death in 1954. The first African-American female psychologist was Beverly Prossor, who earned her Ph.D. in 1933 from the University of Cincinnati. Charles Henry Thompson earned his doctorate in educational psychology in 1925 from the University of Chicago. During the next 50 years, he served as a faculty member and administrator at Howard University. Thompson served as editor of the Journal of Negro Education for 30 years, and did much to promote African-American psychology before his death in 1975. Kenneth B. Clark, an African-American social psychologist, was born in 1914. After attending Howard University, he earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1940. Clark became interested in the area of self-concept and racial identification. In a 1939 classic study, he and his wife found that African American preschoolers preferred White dolls to Black ones. He taught at City College of New York City from 1942 until 1975 when he retired. He served as president of the American Psychological Association, and in 1987 was presented APA's gold medal award for contributions by a psychologist in the public interest. |
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