Black Pioneers in Mental Health

Herman George Canady was a prominent Black clinical and social psychologist. He is credited with being the first psychologist to study the influence of rapport between an IQ test proctor and the subject, specifically researching how the race of a test proctor can create bias in IQ testing. He also helped to provide an understanding of testing environments that were suitable to help Black students succeed.

Mamie Phipps Clark was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate degree in psychology from Columbia University. She previously earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University. Her experience in college and specifically graduate-level courses helped her realize the shortage of psychological services available to the African American community and other minorities. The Clarks are best known for the famous “Doll Study” in which more than 200 Black children participated. Both Mamie and Kenneth Clark worked on this study, providing invaluable evidence in favor of ending school segregation in the supreme court case Brown vs. The Board of Education, citing that school segregation was psychologically harmful to black children. Dr. Kenneth Clark was the first-ever black president of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark's dedication and passion for adequate mental health services for all prompted Dr. Clark to open her own agency to provide comprehensive psychological services to the poor, blacks, and other minority children and families. In February 1946, Dr. Clark and her husband opened the doors of “The Northside Center for Child Development” for those in the Harlem area. She worked in the center counseling and providing other psychological services from 1946 until 1979 when she retired. Although retired, Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark served on different advisory boards and was still very active within her community.

Dr. Cornely was a founder of the National Student Health Association in 1939, president of the Physician's Forum in 1954, and founder and first president of the District of Columbia Public Health Association in 1962. Dr. Cornely was also the first African-American elected as President of the American Public Health Association in 1968. Dr. Cornely's professional work focused on the development of public health initiatives aimed at reducing healthcare disparities among the chronically underserved. He also made significant contributions to civil rights movements through his efforts to desegregate health facilities across the U.S. Additionally, Dr. Cornely conducted research studies on tuberculosis, venereal diseases and scarlet fever; utilization of physicians' extenders and their effect on the cost and quality of health care; and the effects of social and cultural factors on health and health care utilization. He published over 100 scientific and popular articles. Dr. Cornely retired in 1973 as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Community Health and Family Practice of Howard University College of Medicine.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the first African American and the second woman to be sworn in as the Surgeon General of the United States. During her tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. Elders advocated for universal health coverage, comprehensive health education, including sex education in schools. Unfortunately, Dr. Elders only held the position of Surgeon General for 15 months as she was asked to resign. Nevertheless, this does not diminish her accomplishments including the fact that Dr. Elders was the first person in the state of Arkansas to become a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist, conducted an extensive amount of research on growth and diabetes in youth, as well as issues related to teen pregnancy and congenital abnormalities. Additional efforts by Dr. Elders included her extensive work to address minority health issues, particularly when she was appointed by then-Governor Clinton to head the Arkansas Department of Health where she focused her efforts on improving minority health, which led her to establish an internal Office of Minority Health within the Arkansas Department of Health. Currently, Dr. Elders is a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Beverly Greene is the author of the landmark article "When the Therapist is White and the Patient is Black: Considerations for Psychotherapy in the Feminist Heterosexual and Lesbian Communities." She is a pioneer of intersectional psychology, and her work on heterosexism, sexism, and racism has illuminated how different intersecting facets of a person's identity shape their experiences of privilege, oppression, and mental health. Dr. Greene's work earned her the honor of the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology in 2008.

Freda C. Lewis-Hall earned her B.S. degree from Johns Hopkins University and her medical doctorate from Howard University in Washington, DC. She served as Pfizer, Inc.'s Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President until the end of 2018 and as Chief Patient Officer and Executive Vice President during 2019. Trained as a psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis-Hall has held an array of leadership roles across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, as well as in academia, medical research, and direct service provision. In 2010, Dr. Lewis-Hall was appointed by the Obama Administration to the inaugural Board of Governors for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and in 2012 she was appointed chair of the Cures Acceleration Network Review Board and a member of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative and on numerous other boards, including those of Harvard Medical School, The Institute of Medicine's Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, and Save the Children. Dr. Lewis-Hall has received several recognitions including being named as one of Savoy's Top Influential Women in Corporate America in 2012, named "Woman of the Year" by Healthcare Businesswomen's Associations in 2011, as well as being recognized in 2010 as one of the nation's 75 Most Powerful Women in Business by Black Enterprise Magazine and among the 25 Most Influential African Americans in health care by Black Health Magazine.

Harriette Pipes McAdoo worked with her husband, researcher John Lewis McAdoo, on the Family Life Project which studied Black families in the Washington, DC area with a focus on the middle-class, rather than the working class and those living below the poverty line. Her research was some of the first work that challenged the widely-held, harmful racial stereotypes held about Black families. Harriette McAdoo's work on the Family Life Project earned her a spot in the White House Conference on Families, appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

Dr. Myers specializes in psychology and culture; moral and spiritual identity development; healing practices and psychotherapeutic processes; and intersections of race, gender, and class. Internationally known for her work in the development of a theory of Optimal Psychology; Dr. Myers has conducted trainings in England, South Africa, Ghana, and Jamaica. She is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and five books, including Understanding an Afrocentric World View: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology; and, most recently, co-editor of Re-centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice. Dr. James Myers' Oneness model of human functioning offers a trans-disciplinary focus that builds on insights from the wisdom tradition of African deep thought and converges with modern physics and Eastern philosophies. Her current research interests comprise the application of that model to a broad range of issues from health and education to business ethics. Dr. James Myers has received numerous honors and awards for excellence in research and scholarship, including being named Distinguished Psychologist by the Association of Black Psychologists; the Bethune/Woodson Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Development of Promotion of Black Studies from the National Council of Black Studies; Oni Award by the International Black Women's Congress; and, the Building to Eternity Award from the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization, among others. Professor James Myers is a recipient of the O.S.U. College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, a member of the national honor societies of Phi Kappa Phi and Psi Chi, a past president of the Association of Black Psychologists, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities.

Francis Cecil Sumner is another person who gets called "the Father of Black Psychology," because he was the first Black man to earn his Ph.D. in psychology. Dr. Sumner was accepted into Clark University's doctoral psychology program, but was then drafted to serve in WWI. Upon his return, he re-enrolled and his dissertation was accepted. Dr. Sumner struggled to get his research published because of the color of his skin, but persisted nonetheless and was able to publish several articles. He is also one of the founding members of the Howard University Psychology Department.

Robert Lee Williams, II was the creator of the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity, an intelligence test specifically oriented towards Black experiences, language, and culture. The data collected from this test helped to shatter the notion that Black people had lower average intelligence than white people and showed, rather, that differences in previous IQ data were likely the result of speech and experiential differences skewing IQ test results in favor of white people. He was also a founding member of the National Association of Black Psychologists and served as the second president of the organization.