Francis Cecil Sumner: The Father Of Black Psychology

Francis Cecil Sumner: The Father of Black Psychology Francis Cecil Sumner helped to pave the way for me to be able to major in child psychology. I chose to write about Francis Cecil Sumner because of the renowned work he did and the social and cultural contributions he made to psychology. He worked tremendously hard to succeed in the field of psychology, and it is even more admiring that he did this in a time when the United States was overall callous, uncaring, and hostile towards minorities. Sumner became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology, he overcame racial and discriminatory adversities, and he made lasting contributions to the field of psychology.

Background & Education
To begin, Francis Cecil Sumner was born on …show more content…
The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology is an organization for psychologists in the Southern United States (Thomas, 2011). If someone wanted to become a member of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP) and they were not a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) or the American Philosophical Association, and they were not graduate students in philosophical or psychological fields, they were required to be endorsed by two members of SSPP and they had to be voted in by SSPP members during the yearly business meeting (Thomas, 2011). Sumner was a member of the APA, he had two SSPP endorsements, and he paid the first year of his membership but his membership was delayed by the governing council in 1939 (Thomas, 2011). While his membership was pending, members of the council proposed that an amendment be added to the SSPP constitution (Thomas, 2011). The proposed amendment would eliminate automatic membership to APA and American Philosophical Association members (Thomas, 2011). Eventually, Sumner was allowed to join the SSPP (Thomas, 2011). This is just one example of how Sumner harder as a minority in order to reach the heights he did in his …show more content…
in psychology, he was successful despite the racial and discriminatory adversities, and he made lasting contributions to the field of psychology., it was extremely difficult to find information on Francis Cecil Sumner. Although I did not find the amount of accredited information that I hoped to find on him, the information that I did find showed me who Francis Cecil Sumner really was. Sumner was born only 50 years after the abolishment of slavery. He went to college at age 15 and from there, he soared. Studying under G. Stanley Hall, the first American to receive a Ph.D. in psychology, Sumner became the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in psychology. Fighting racism and discrimination throughout his life and his career, Sumner made lasting contributions to the field of psychology, whether it was through teaching psychology to students or through his articles calling for education reform. Being the first African American in American to earn a doctoral degree in psychology is a big accomplishment, one that Sumner did not take for granted. He used his degree to teach others and to help others and he paved the way for me and every other African American studying psychology