Francis Cecil Sumner 18951954

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Francis Cecil Sumner(1895-1954)

• Torie Tracy
• Blake Shipley
• Malissa Smith
• Aimi Nelson

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Overview

• Zeitgeist
• Historical Antecedents
• Professional Obstacles
• Overview of Research Interests
• Experiments/Data/Outcomes
• Sumners Influences
• Summary of Presentation

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The Spirit of the Times

• Born 1895
• 30 years after the end of the US Civil War
• 1 year before the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision

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The Spirit of the Times (continued)

• Died January 12th, 1954
• Five months before landmark Brown vs. Board of
  Education decision May 17th, 1954

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The Spirit of the Times (continued)

• From 1876-1920 only 11 blacks out of 10,000
  recipients had earned PhDs
• (and none in Psychology until 1920)

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Time Line

• 1892 - The APA is founded by 26 (white) men
• 1920 - Francis Cecil Sumner is the first African
  American awarded the PhD in psychology (from
  Clark University)
• 1928 Psychology Department is established at
  Howard University, chaired by Francis Cecil
  Sumner

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Personal History and Education

• Family and Early Education
• Lincoln University (1911-1915)

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Personal History and Education

• Clark College (1915-1916)
• G. Stanley Hall
• Accomplishments
• Relationship to Sumner

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Personal History and Education

• Lincoln University (1916-1917)
• 1917 received M.A. from Lincoln
• Clark University (1917-1918)
• Military Service (1918-1919)
• Clark University (1919-1920)
• June 14th, 1920 Received his PhD in Psychology

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Personal History and Education

• West Virginia Collegiate Institute (1921-1928)
• Offered a position teaching Psychology and
  Philosophy at West Virginia Collegiate Institute
• Published several articles
• Began writing controversial articles and opinions
  about race and education
• Howard University (1928-1954)
• 1930 - Established the psychology department and
  became its chair

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Obstacles Childhood

• Home-Schooled for secondary
• Raised under zeitgeist of racial tension

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Obstacles Education

• Rejected from American U. and Illinois
• Bittersweet relationship with G. Stanley Hall
• Conflicts at Clark University-
• WWI-

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Obstacles Post-Doctoral

• Funding for research
• Ostracized from fellow faculty
• Unrecognized by the discourse community at large

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Research Interest

• Sumner had at least 45 publications during his
  career. Some were in
• Pure Psychology
• Actual Brightness and Distance of Colors when
  Apparent Distance is Held Constant
• Affective Tone of Tactual Impressions
• Applied Psychology
• Measuring the Relevancy of Picture to Copy in
  Advertising and the Influence of Color on the
  Legibility of Copy
• Psychology of Religion
• The Mental Hygiene of Religion

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Examples of Published Works

• Core and Context in the Drowsy State(1924)
• Environic Factors which Prohibit Creative
  Scholarship among Negreos(1925)

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Experiments

• 1931 at Howard University The Mental Health of
  White and Negro College Students Sumner,F.C.,
  Sumner, F.H.
• 1950 at Howard University The Persistence of
  Vocational Preference in Successful Individuals.
  Sumner, F.C., Somerville,Addison

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Influences
?
?

• I thoroly (sic) believe that if you make of your
  study of psychology a practical matter you can be
  of the greatest service to your own people.
• written to Sumner by Dean James Porter, Clark
  University (1917)
• (as cited in Guthrie, 2004, pp. 219)

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First Black American to receive a Ph.D. in
psychology (1920)

• Despite blatant racism and involvement in WWI
• Opened the doors of many Black Americans after him

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Spoke up against inequalities of Black Americans

• 1918 Sparked controversial debates in his
  letters to the editor of the Worcester Gazette
• Actively protested substandard education and
  oppression
• Probably influenced by W.E.B. DuBois
• Americans views of Germans as barbaric,
  immoral were actually projection to minimize
  guilt

W.E.B. DuBois
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Protested for better education of Black students

• Influenced by his own education options
• Argued in a more politically correct way in the
  Educational Review
• Negro as culturally inferior (Sumner, 1927)
• This may have been his only choice, considering
  the Zeitgeist (Sawyer, 2000)

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Professor at Howard University (1928)

• President Johnson at Howard requested him
• Responsible for developing Department of
  Psychology
• 45 publications during his tenure
• By 1972, 300 Ph.Ds had been received by African
  Americans in psychology - 60 of these had been
  undergrads or grads in Sumners department

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Howard University, cont.

• Kenneth Clark as his student
• Kenneth Clark - the most successful and
  influential African American psychologist of the
  20th century (Sawyer, 2000, pp. 136)
• Howard Universitys Department of Psychology
  still exists today

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Peer Mentorship

• A peer mentorship program was developed in his
  name at Clark University

• Helps students to enhance self esteem,
  revitalize interest in the community, and leave
  their own legacies as Sumner did. (Francis C.
  Sumner Mentor Program Homepage, n.d.)

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In Summary...

• A Lifetime of Equal Rights
• Sumners Education through Hardships
• Research Interests
• Influences . Even Today