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.