Ruth Winifred Howard was the first African American woman to receive a bachelor's degree in psychology.

Early life

Ruth Winifred Howard was born in 1900. In 1916, she graduated from Dunbar high school.

Undergraduate and Graduate Years

She was the first African American woman in the United States to receive a bachelor's degree in psychology. She received a PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1934. She studied human behavior. She attended Simmons College in Boston after high school. In Boston she worked under a National Urban Leagues grant. She majored in social work, receiving her Bachelor's degree in 1921 and Master's degree in 1927. She practiced her social work under the Cleveland Urban League. She also worked in child welfare under the State Welfare agency. Ruth end up going to Howard University to study psychology and under the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fellowship

Laura Spelman Rockefeller

Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller, , , was a philanthropist, the namesake of Spelman College, founded to educate black women in the South, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, and the wife of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil...

she studied at Columbia University's Teacher College and School of Social work She also studied in Minnesota She received her PhD in psychology and Child development.