History of the Association of Black Psychologists

Book excerpt: This book, The History of Black Psychologists: Profiles of Outstanding Black Psychologists is about the origins and development of African/Black psychology. It is essentially a sequel to Robert Guthrie's book Even the Rat Was White: a historical view of psychology (1976). Whereas Guthrie's book contains the history of early Black Psychologists (as Drs. Francis Cecil Sumner, Kenneth Clark, and Martin Jenkins to name a few) from 1920 to 1950, this book contains valuable information from the 60's through 2000 about why, where, and when the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) was organized and developed. In addition, the book includes the autobiographical and biographical profiles of the lives, achievements and contributions of nearly 50 outstanding Black psychologists. There are many hard working, dedicated, and educated black men and women professionals whose success stories have not been told. Although their peers and colleagues respect many of these professionals, only a select few have been reported as "outstanding." What is it, then, that qualifies one as being exceptional, above the ordinary and outstanding? It is hard to define in terms of human traits and accomplishments. What is easier is to provide examples rather than explanations of what it means to be outstanding. Such individuals who exemplify the definition of outstanding are many unknown Black Psychologists. This book will present some of these Scholar Activists. It is apparent that the majority of the Black psychologists made it against the odds. Many of these psychologists were born in southern states and had to migrate to northern states to receive a graduate education. For Black achievement is invariably a triumph over odds, a victory over struggle. In order to receive graduate education these psychologists report how they had to overcome the destructive effects of racism. Frequently, they were the only Black students in the graduate program. But they still made