Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser was a prominent public school teacher, university professor, and psychologist. Photo Cedit: Find a Grave

It’s Women’s History Month, and in honor of the many outstanding educators who have made significant contributions to our nation’s history, we shine a spotlight today on Inez Beverly Prosser, a prominent African American pubic school teacher, university professor, and psychologist.

Even as a child, Inez was passionate about education. When her parents could only afford to send one of their children to college, she persuaded her to choose her to be the one. The choice was a wise one. After she completed her degree, Inez was able to put five of her siblings through school.

After earning her degree at Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black college northwest of Houston, Inez inaugurated her career as a teacher in Austin, Texas. She taught first in a Black elementary school, and then at a high school. Her career as a public school teacher spanned the years of 1913 through 1926, when Inez graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from Samuel Huston College in Austin. In 1933, she earned her Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Colorado. She went on to earn her PhD in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati. Her research was one of several studies conducted in the 1920s and 30s about how segregated schools under the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 affected students.

Inez was among the first group of African American women who ea and she was the first to earn a Doctorate in Psychology. Her presence on the cover of The Crisis in August 1933 celebrated the importance of her achievement.

In September, 1934, on her way to Mississippi after visiting family in Texas, she was killed in a car accident in Louisianna. She was just 38 years old.