February 2021

On December 7, 1895, Dr. Francis Cecil Sumner was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The second child of  David  Alexander and Ellen Lillian Sumner and the younger brother to Eugene Sumner. Dr. Sumner started his education journey by attending elementary school system in Norfolk, Virginia and Plainfield, New Jersey.  Once he completed elementary school. He started to self-education himself with the help of his parents. His father, who was also self-educated, gave him assignments on reading and writing. Sumner did not go to High school. At the age of 15, Sumner enrolled at Lincoln University in 1911. In order to attend college, he had to pass a written exam. He completed Lincoln University and graduated magna cum laude with honor in 1915.  In 1916, he enrolled in Clark College to receive his second undergraduate degree.

In 1917, he earned his M.A. degree while teaching at Lincoln University.  He went back to Clark to obtain his Ph.D. Before G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark College, could consider his dissertation on  difference between Freud and Adler; he was drafted into the US Army to serve in World War I and served as a Sergeant in 808th Pioneers. Pioneer infantry are non-combat units. In summer of 1919, Sumner was able to return to school and published Psychoanalysis of Freud and Alder or Sex-determination and Character Formation. On June 14, 1920, he obtained his Ph.D in psychology.