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Francis Sumner: a Short Essay James A New Directions Volume 7 | Issue 1 Article 2 10-1-1979 Francis Sumner: A Short Essay James A. Bayton Follow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections Recommended Citation Bayton, James A. (1979) "Francis Sumner: A Short Essay," New Directions: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 2. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol7/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Francis Sumner was born on December 7, Sumner had a deep interest in lan- 4 This school year marks the 1895, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His elemen- guages. One of the most unusual aspects golden anniversary of the tary school education took place in Plain- of his career was the work he did for arrival at Howard University field, New Jersey, Washington, D. C, and Psychological Abstracts. His specialty of the late Francis C. Sumner, Norfolk, Virginia. His parents were dis- was preparing abstracts of articles pub- psychologist and teacher. satisfied, apparently, with the level or lished in foreign journals of psychology_ qual ity of secondary education avai labIe Over the years, he did approximately Who was this man whose to Black students in Virg inia at that time. 2000 abstracts. During the school year influence has touched This is shown in the fact that Sumner's ap- 1948-1949 alone, he did 505 abstracts generations of students, piication for employment at Howard stated from articles in French, German, Spanish beginning with the school that he had received "private instruction and Russian. in secondary subjects by (his) father." Throughout his professional years. year 1928-1929 until his In any event, Sumner applied for admis- Sumner was concerned with psychology death in 1954? What did he sion to Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) as it applied to Black life. This is evident stand for? and was admitted "by examination" in in his own research and in the MS theses 1911. He was 15. Four years later, in 1915, by students working under him. There was Sumner earned the AB degree, magna research on the mental health status of cum laude, with special honors in English, Black college freshmen and on environ- modern languages, Greek, Latin and phi- ment as a factor prohibitinq creative losophy. He continued his education at scholarship among Blacks. In 1940, one Lincoln, receiving the MA degree in 1917. of Sumner's students did an MS thesis on attitudes toward the administration of jus- Sumner entered Clark University (Mas- tice as it related to Blacks, (how contem- sachusetts)-at that time one of the lead- porary they sound I). ing centers for psychology in the coun- Sumner's monument, however, is the try-in the fall of 1917 and received the psychology department at Howard. PhD. in 1920. While at Clark, he was From Sumner's time, the departmen named a University Fellow, 1917-1918and has been one of the most productive in 1919-1920. (During 1918-1919 he was in the College of Liberal Arts and the Gradu- the infantry in France). ate School. It is estimated that there are Among Sumner's professors were some approximately 700 Black holders of the of the great names in the history of psy- PhD. in psychology. Eighty of these indi- cholcqy= G. Stanley Hall, E. Boring, T W. viduals received their BS and/or MS de- Baird, S.W. Fernberger and K. Karlson. grees from Howard. Sumner taught at Wilberforce Univer- The department has been the main sity from 1920 to 1921, and at West Vir- single source of Blacks who eventually ginia College from 1921 until he joined became PhDs in the field of psychology. Howard in 1928. In addition, there are about 300 individu- als who work professionally as psycholo- During his long career, Sumner pro- gists who received, as their last degree, duced at least 45 publications. the MS at Howard. There is no other de- His interest in applied psychology led partment of psychology in the nation that him to write a number of articles on has had anywhere near this total impact measuring the relevancy of pictures to on the production of Black psychologists. copy in advertising, and the influence of Sumner, 50 years ago, initiated the pro- color on the legibility of copy. But one of gram and the spirit that has produced this his main interests was the psychology of record. When he came, the department religion, which he taught as a subject had two other teachers (Max Meenes and while at Howard. In that course, he famil- Frederick Watts.) Today, the faculty com- iarized his students with, among other prises 22 full-time persons, each with the books, William James' famous "Varieties PhD. The department is fourth in number of Religious Experience." of majors in the College of Liberal Arts, NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1979 I I I i controversial theories of leaming, per- the fact that in the journals in which they 5 ceptual defense and validation of projec- published, 85 percent of the manuscripts I tive testing techniques. These seminars submitted are usually rejected. I were so outstanding that the then dean of Last May, the department held a lunch- i College of Liberal Arts (J.St.Claire Price), eon to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the associate dean (Carroll Miller), and the coming of Sumner to the university. It faculty members from other departments was a fitting tribute to a scholar whose attended regularly. contributions- both as teacher and as Sumnerwas particularly alert to spotting chairman-greatly enhanced the devel- young Blacks with potential for achieving opment of the department. 0 a career in psychology. These individuals were encouraged to go on to the Ph.D. James Bay ton, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at Howard University. degree. Those who did so went on to suc- cessful doctoral work at other leading uni- versities, among them Columbia, Pennsyl- vania, Cornell, California, McGill, Roches- ter, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas, Clark, Tufts, and Colorado. They included Keturah Whitehurst, long-time chairman of the psychology program at Virginia State; Bernard Harleston, dean of Francis Sumner the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Tufts; with approximately 100 graduate students. Clayton Stansbury, a vice president at Sumner and his early colleagues put Morgan State;Gloria Twine Chisum, direc- great emphasis on teaching the funda- tor of a key research facility at the Office mentals of psychology. They gave rigor- of Naval Research, and Lawrence John- ous courses in the basic areas of psy- son, of Johnson Associates. chology-experimental psychology, The individual universally recognized leaming, developmental psychology, per- as the major Black figure in psychology, sonality, abnormal psychology, appl ied Kenneth B. Clark, was a BS and MS prod- psychology. uct of the Sumner years. Among Clark's The MS degree program was designed many accomplishments was being to prepare students for the Ph.D. level elected president of the American Psy- study at other institutions. There was more chological Association. His wife, Mamie intensive work in the fundamental areas to Clark, (BS and MS from Howard) is the di- which the students had been introduced rector of an outstanding child develop- as undergraduates. Atthat period, passing ment center in New York.These are but a examinations in German and French were few of the alumni of the Sumner psychol- required for all Ph.D.candidates. Sumner ogy department and are cited to demon- and Meenes taught, therefore, courses in strate the variety of accomplishments to "Readings in German Psychology" and be found in the group. "Readings in French Psychology." Now, the enlarged program of the psy- There was a course in "Psychological chology department still represents the Joumals," which was designed to ac- basic approaches establ ished by Sumner. quaint students with the contemporary There is still emphasis upon teaching the research being published in major jour- fundamentals of contemporary psychol- nals of psychology. StiII another important ogy. There still is emphasis upon the re- activity was the departmental graduate search aspects of psychology. For exam- seminars. All students and faculty at- ple, in the past two years, at least six tended these seminars, and students pre- students have had their M.S. theses or sented published research on the issue Ph.D. dissertations published. This ac- assigned for a given semester, such as complishment must be weighed against NEW DIRECTIONS OCTOBER 1979.
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