Albert Sidney Beckham
Albert Sidney Beckham
(1897-1964)
Beckham was born on September 21, 1897 in Camden, South Carolina to Elizabeth and Calvin Beckham. His father was a local merchant and businessman. From early on his parents put great emphasis on and were very supportive of his education. They sent him to Christian schools and provided him with tutors.
Given the government sanctioned segregation at the time, the type of proactive stance towards education that Beckham’s parents took was really the only way for an African American to get a quality education. The battle with educational segregation only worsened when Beckham began to look towards higher education. College education in the south was almost not an option for African Americans at this time, moving north was a necessity.
In 1915, he graduated from Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree, then received a second bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1916. He received his master's degree in Psychology in 1917 and subsequently his PhD in psychology from New York University.
Beckham eventually earned a Ph.D in educational psychology and began working for the Institute for Juvenile Research. It was working at the institute that he met his wife, Ruth Howard. She, too, was a psychologist working at the institute.
Albert Sidney Beckham, PhD, is known as the first African-American to hold the title of school psychologist. He received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Lincoln University under the supervision of Francis Sumner. After graduating, he went on to receive a master's degree from Ohio State University. As he advanced his education, Beckham also had a desire to serve his country by joining the military. He served his military duties as a war professor of psychology at Wilberforce University. After the completion of his duties, he moved to New York City to begin his doctoral study in psychology. However, his doctoral studies were interrupted when he was offered a teaching position at Howard University.
Beckham became the first professor to teach psychology at Howard University. In fact, he taught all the psychology courses at Howard. He also established the first psychological laboratory on campus, which provided counseling, intelligence testing and consultations. Although his time was well spent at Howard University, he eventually moved back to New York and completed his doctoral degree at New York University in educational psychology.
As a distinguished professor of psychology, Beckham left New York to accept a position at the Institute of Juvenile Research in Illinois. At the institute, Beckham treated childhood disorders, administered vocational and educational tests in the areas of reading and math, provided in-service training to teachers and conducted mental health assessments of children. Beckham met Ruth Winifred Howard, a distinguished scholar and psychologist in her own right who became his wife. Eventually, they started a private practice. In addition to that practice, Beckham pursued other interests and became a school psychologist working for the Chicago public schools.
As a school psychologist for over three decades, Beckham contributed significantly to the field of psychology as a visionary, prolific writer and researcher. He not only established the first psychological clinics in a public school at DuSable High School, but he also published over 20 articles on the effect of counseling on high school students, childhood behavioral problems, intelligence testing and life satisfaction. His contributions and lifelong career deserve to be recognized and honored by all psychologists.
Source: http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/albert-sidney-beckham.aspx