Trailblazing UC Alumna to be Honored at April Symposium 

In a time when many African Americans dreamed of simply getting an education, Inez Beverly Prosser dreamed big and accomplished much – not the least of which is the distinction of being the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology.

Yet the noteworthy life and career of Prosser, a 1933 UC alumna who died a year after receiving her EdD from the College of Education, aren't well known outside her chosen field.

That's set to change April 3 and 4, when the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychology and the College of Education, Human Services, and Criminal Justice present the Inez Beverly Prosser Memorial Symposium on Black Women in Psychology. Organizers say the purpose of the symposium is threefold: to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Prosser's degree; to provide a forum for critical discourse concerning contributions of women of color to the discipline of psychology; and to reflect on the role of various institutions in advancing graduate training opportunities in psychology for  women of color.

Prosser died at 38 in Shreveport, La., the victim of an automobile accident. What she achieved during her short lifetime, however, is memorable and inspirational to those who follow in her footsteps.

Prosser's recognition "is long overdue and it is commendable that the university and the Department of Psychology are honoring the 75th anniversary of her achievement," says Shawn Bediako, formerly of UC and now assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

"One has to critically examine the context in which Dr. Prosser earned her doctorate," says Bediako, a symposium organizer. "It was truly a time of contradictions in which African Americans were told on hand that they were inferior and 'less than,' but on the other hand understood and valued the transformative power of education, even when there were very few schools in the South that would accept them.

"The fact that most of the early African American psychologists were born and reared in the South, but had to go to the Midwest and Northeast to earn their advanced degrees is demonstrative of how important their training was to them and how it was perceived to be a vital component of their overall goal: to be of service to their people."

A native of Texas, Prosser was valedictorian of her class at Prairie View Normal College, receiving a degree in teacher training. Prosser taught in the segregated schools of Yoakum and then in Austin while a student at Samuel Huston College, where she graduated with distinction in 1924 as an education major. She earned a master's degree in educational psychology from the University of Colorado and then taught education at Tillotson College, where she was dean and registrar from 1921 to 1930. 

A Rockefeller Foundation General Education Board Fellowship paved the way to Cincinnati for Prosser. She earned a PhD in educational psychology in 1933 with a dissertation titled "The Non-Academic Development of Negro Children in Mixed and Segregated Schools," which looked at personality differences between African American children attending either voluntarily segregated or integrated schools.

In addition to a lifelong dedication to young people and helping students find scholarships, Prosser – while still a student herself – established a fund that financed college educations for six of her 11 sisters and brothers. Members of the Beverly and Prosser family will be on hand for the April event.

Bediako concludes that "it is important to note that Prosser could have stayed in the Midwest or Northeast and perhaps had a somewhat comfortable life."

"However, she went back to Texas to use her skills and training to help and inspire others," he says. "It is terrible that her life was tragically cut short, but I think that her story resonates with the themes of tenacity, determination, passion and purpose that many psychologists of color have carried and continue to carry in their own professional journeys."