ABSTRACT
Francis Cecil Sumner was an American psychologist whose perseverance in his struggle against racial prejudice led to academic and professional successes despite the era in which he lived. Sumner lived his entire life in a racially segregated America. He did not live to witness the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that sounded the death knell for racially separate schools and also served as a precursor for legislation barring separate public accommodations based on race. He lived during an age in which inequitable and disproportionate academic programs were permitted and governmental financial support for Black students was rare. He also lived at a time when there were significant differences between the professional activities of White scholars and those of the few Black scholars who persevered despite the obstacles. For instance, although high rewards came to White psychologists who built and tested theories, established laboratories, conducted experiments, published books, and wrote journal articles, Black psychologists struggled to establish undergraduate degree programs, without which Black students would not have been able to pursue degrees in psychology.
