Sumner's Contributions

• First Black to receive a Ph.D. in Psychology
• In his lifetime, Sumner made many contributions to the education of black people, including establishing an independent department of psychology at Howard University,
• Sumner challenged his students to work hard and under his guidance they received a quality education . One such student was Kenneth Bancroft Clark. Clark's psychological research on prejudice, discrimination and segregation in the developing child was used in the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education.
• At the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, Sumner created a prestigious award that was given to a psychology student with the most outstanding essay on a particular topic.
• Sumner was an official abstractor for both the Journal of Social Psychology and the Psychological Bulletin.
• Sumner was a member and contributed to numerous organizations. They include:The American Psychological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Educational Research Association, Eastern Psychological Association, Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and The District of Columbia Psychological Association.
• Sumner was a member of Psi Chi, Pi Gamma Mu, and Kappa Alpha Psi.
• Sumner did vast amounts of research concerning equality and justice between Blacks and Whites. For example, he studied the attitudes of Blacks and Whites towards the administration of justice with the goal of administering justice on a more democratic basis.