Confrontations and Change 487The 1954 Supreme Court Brown vs. Boarddecision set in
motion a mammoth pattern of change. The late 1950s saw
Governor Faubus resist school integration in Little Rock,
Arkansas, and President Eisenhower reluctantly used federal
troops to uphold the court’s decision. School busing led to
riots in Boston.
The 1960s saw a continuation of great social ferment
and change in America. The Atlanta bus boycott, the lunch
counter sit-ins, the protest demonstrations, the freedom rid-
ers, the school desegregation actions of the federal govern-
ment, the marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. and others,
the whole civil rights movement, the Great Society, all com-
bined to change America, and in the process to change
psychology. The escalating protests against the Vietnam War
were occurring at the same time as the civil rights demonstra-
tions, often on the same campuses. Some of the goals of
African American students were the opposite of the goals
of the white students. The African American students wanted
more admissions, more scholarships, more socially-relevant
classes. The white students, like Students for a Democratic
Society, wanted an end to ROTC and to support for the war in-
cluding the military draft and the increasing military presence
in Vietnam. They (the white protestors) were often willing to
close the universities. In the late-1960s, the new Association
of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) began pushing for changes
in APA that would lead to support for more African American
admissions to graduate schools and to a sharing of power in
the APA governance.
At APA’s 1968 convention in San Francisco, ABPsi pre-
sented a “Statement of Concerns” to the APA Council. At that
same time, all watched on TV the “police riot” at the Democ-
ratic party’s presidential nominating convention in Chicago.
As a direct result, the APA Council voted to move the 1969
APA convention out of Chicago. The ABPsi invited APA to
meet in Watts, a section of Los Angeles, and there was actually
some talk of this possibility, but logistical considerations led to
the choice of Washington, DC, despite threats of a lawsuit by
Chicago venders over contract violations. Actually, because of
the fortuitous August timing, APA was the first of many
national organizations to shun Chicago for meetings.
Also at the 1968 San Francisco convention, there was a
momentous confrontation. On the last day of the convention,
Tuesday afternoon, the APA board of directors was meeting,
discussing the many issues raised by the move of the next
convention, but also the increasing demands from ABPsi,
(and from radical groups like Psychologists for a Democratic
Society and Psychologists for Social Action) pushing for
increased civil rights, an end to segregation and support for
a stronger minority presence in psychology. During the
meeting, the door opened and in walked the entire board of
directors of ABPsi. They were well-prepared with the clear
facts about racism in psychology and with specific demands
for changes in APA and for changes in admissions policies
in colleges and universities that had long excluded African
Americans and other minorities. (The long-time exclusion of
women from psychology training was to assume a major
focus a year later.)
The APA board expressed general support for the issues
raised by ABPsi but argued that it could not dictate to educa-
tional institutions, and that changes in APA governance would
require by-law changes voted on by the membership. Mem-
bers of ABPsi were impatient with what they saw as conven-
tional stalling tactics. By the end of the day, it was agreed that
APA would host a “conference on recruitment of black and
other minority students and faculty” at the APA headquarters
building in Washington, DC. The conference was held April
18 to 20, 1969. The APA board nominated nine white male par-
ticipants and ABPsi nominated eight black male participants
(mostly from black colleges and universities) and Ernestine
Thomas (who was active in helping organize the Black Stu-
dent Psychological Association and who was administrative
office manager at the psychology department at Case Western
Reserve University where I was then Chair).
Also invited to the conference (that I chaired) were men
from the Behavioral Science Training Branch of the National
Institute of Mental Health and male resource people from
APA’s Office of Educational Affairs and Executive Office.
(See Albee, G. W., 1969, for a complete list of participants
and a detailed report on the Conference.) The council was
urged, along with APA boards and committees to “expand op-
portunities for black and other minority group students and
faculty to enter the mainstream of psychology.” Advice was
offered to the Conference of Graduate Department Chairmen
[sic], and to other APA groups like the Committee on Sub-
doctoral Education in Psychology. Looking back with the
wisdom of hindsight, the recommendations seem mostly
bland. Among the concrete results were ensuring that there be
nondiscrimination in APA Central Office hiring and staffing,
and that a new Central Office position be created with a focus
on relating psychology and social problems, especially
including racism.
The report of this Conference was published in the
American Psychologistin August, 1969 just before the con-
vention in Washington, DC. Then things exploded! For the
first time in its 77-year history, APA meetings were physi-
cally disrupted. A group of black graduate students appeared
in force at George Miller’s presidential address, prepared to
demonstrate. After negotiation, they agreed to leave in ex-
change for an invitation to present their case to the APA coun-
cil the following day.