Francis Sumner

Early life

Francis Cecil Sumner was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on December 7, 1895. He was the second son of David Alexander and Ellen Lillian Sumner and younger brother to Eugene Sumner.

Education

Sumner received his elementary education in Norfolk, Virginia, and Plainfield, New Jersey. Sumner then proceeded to self-educate himself, with much help from his parents, of whom were self-educated. His parents gave him many assignments to do, which consisted of many days of intense reading and writing. To buy the school books necessary, his parents would work extra hours. At the time, most secondary schools would not accept females and minorities. Sumner’s applications to schools would read “private instruction in secondary subjects by father.

In 1911, at the age of 15, Sumner passed a written test to gain acceptance into Lincoln University as he did not possess a high school diploma. Sumner graduated as valedictorian from Lincoln College magnum cum laude in philosophy with special honors in English, modern languages, and Greek, in 1915. Sumner then went to Clark University in 1916 and in the fall he received his 2nd Bachelor's Degree in English. He then returned to Lincoln University as a graduate student and as a teacher of psychology and German, After receiving his M.A. in 1917. Sumner was awarded a senior scholarship when he then returned to Clark University where Hall approved his application for a Ph.D. Sumner was drafted by the United States Military in 1918 to 1919. He was sent to Camp Meade Maryland for basic training with the 48th Company, 154 Depot Brigade. After than Sumner remained in France until he was discharged in the middle of 1919. After his doctoral dissertation entitled "Psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler" was accepted he received his Doctorate degree from Clark University on June 14, 1920, making him the first African-American to ever receive a Ph.D in the field of psychology. While at Lincoln Sumner developed close relationships with President Stanley Hall, and Dean of Psychology James P. Porter, the latter being seen as a force behind his decision to choose psychology as graduate program. Sumner continue to intensely read, and at one point thought of becoming a writer, of which he did later on, and in his manuscript "Sumner recalled the support and guidance given to him by Hall at Clark" (Guthrie, 1998)

Career

Upon his graduation Sumner accepted a professor position at Wilberforce University in the fall of 1920. While at Wilberforce, Sumner was a professor of psychology and philosophy. And in the summer of 1921 he went to teach at Southern University in Louisiana, a HBCU. In fall of 1921 he accepted a position at West Virginia Collegiate Institute, where he wrote many articles dealing with the state of colleges and acceptance of African-Americans or the lack thereof. Sumner used these articles to support and raise awareness for the views brought up by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. He remained for the next 7 years. Over time, he failed to receive funding for his research. He claimed that race prejudice was the cause of his inability to attain his and other African American scientists' funding. Sumner resigned from West Virginia Collegiate Institute on August 31, 1928. He then moved on to Howard University in the fall of 1928, and became the acting chairman and professor, until 1930 upon which time he became the fully appointed chair of Psychology and succeeded in making the department independent from Philosophy. Sumner held the position until he died on January 12, 1954.
In an attempt to show support and praise for the excellence of his students, Sumner created an incentive program. This award was given to one of his psychology students who submitted the most superlative essay on a specific theme. One recipient of this award was Kenneth Bancroft Clark. Kenneth Clark was the first African American president of the APA. He went on to study race psychology and used his research on prejudice, discrimination, and segregation in the developing child in the famous Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

Sumner had at least 45 publication throughout his career. His interest in applied psychology led to multiple publications on color and vision. Sumner’s primary focus was in the psychology of religion. He gave a paper to the International Congress of Religious Psychology (Vienna). The paper was on “The Mental Hygiene of Religion.” Sumner was on of the first academics to contribute to the fields of psychology, religion, and the administration of justice
Another of Sumner’s notable achievements was his work with the Journal of Social Psychology and the Psychological Bulletin. For years he was the official abstractor for both journals. He began writing the abstracts in 1946, between the years 1948 and 1949 he wrote 505 abstracts. Sumner wrote over 2,000 abstracts during his time with these two journals. Most of the abstracts he wrote were from French and German authors, others were Russian, Spanish, and English. It was Sumner’s fluency in these languages that enabled him to make this contribution.
Sumner was always described as motivating and encouraging (Bayton, 1975). Kenneth Clark once stated, “And he didn’t just teach psychology. He taught integrity. And, although he led the way for other Blacks in psychology, Sumner would permit no nonsense about there being anything like “Black psychology” -any more than he would have allowed any nonsense about “Black astronomy.” In this and many other ways, Sumner was a model for me. In fact, he has always been my standard when I evaluate myself.”

Sumner's View on "Negro Education"

In 1926, Francis Sumner viewed the African American culture as younger as it was only a few hundred years removed from savagery and less than a century from slavery, while those of Whites was more a pinnacle of Western Civilization. With that in mind, he felt that many inadequacies existed between the teaching methods of African Americans. Sharing the same stance as Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, Sumner emphasized the need for education to be customized for African education. His goal was to culturally elevate the African Americans and stressed the importance of learning trades such as carpentry and plumbing.

Personal life

Sumner married Francees H. Hughston in 1922, the marriage ended in divorce. He then married Nettie M. Broker in 1946. No children were a product of either relationship.

Death

Dr. Francis Cecil Sumner died of a heart attack while shoveling snow outside his home in Washington D.C. on January 12, 1954. He received a military honor guard in memory for his service during World War I. Sumner was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. Many students described Dr. Sumner as a "low keyed and very dedicated"; as a very quiet and very unassuming individual who was brilliant with tremendous capacity to make an analysis of an individual's gestalt"; and as "Howard's most stimulating scholar" (Guthrie, 1998, p. 229).
Despite his struggles against racial inequality, Francis Sumner attained much academic and professional success. He never saw the end of segregation, that which his philosophy somewhat encouraged. After his death, further investigation into the relationship between the law and psychology was ignited.