03/01/2017
TIME CAPSULE
America's first black female psychologist
Despite the odds, Inez Beverly Prosser earned her doctorate in psychology 75 years ago and went on to do historic work, though her life was abruptly cut short.
By Ludy T. Benjamin Jr., PhD
2008, Vol 39, No. 10
Print version: page 20
Old watch and letters
Inez Beverly Prosser, PhD, had a most improbable life. Born into a family of 11 children at the end of the 19th century in south central Texas and educated in its "colored schools," she taught for 18 years, earning a PhD in psychology in 1933, the first such degree earned by a woman of her race.
A year later, family, friends and students gathered in San Antonio to mourn her death. She was approximately 38 years old (her birth year is unknown).
Prosser had a lifelong passion for education and an understanding of the power it offered for changing lives. Her family planned to send her older brother, Leon, to college, believing that they could afford it for only one of their children. But Prosser's desire was clearly greater, and Leon convinced his parents to pay for her instead. It proved to be a good investment: Her eventual success as an educator enabled her to contribute advice and money that helped five of her siblings graduate from college.
