By Marian Wright Edelman
Harvard Medical School scholar Dr. Alvin Poussaint, who passed away February 24, was a renowned psychiatrist and educator whose research included studying the ways racism and discrimination impact African Americans’ self-esteem and mental health, including Black children and young people. He worked behind the scenes helping ensure positive portrayals of Black families in television and other media, but he also had a profound direct effect on generations of students, practitioners, and scholars who now cite him as an influence. At a moment when so much similar work is under threat, the end of Black History Month is an especially fitting time to remember how scholars like Dr. Poussaint have shaped so much of our current understanding about the many ways racial bias affects children and young people and how much work remains to be done.
Dr. Poussaint’s own work was influenced by pioneering earlier Black scholars like Dr. Kenneth Clark and Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark, the architects of the famous “doll study.” The Clarks originally designed this study in 1939 as a method of learning more about the ways very young Black children were already being influenced by stereotypes about race. During their sessions they showed Black children two matching baby dolls, one Black and one White, asking them which doll was pretty, which was nice, which was bad, which doll they preferred to play with, and which one looked like them. In order to carry out the study the researchers had to paint the “Black” dolls themselves with brown paint, since Black dolls were not readily available. They found the majority of the children they interviewed said the White dolls were the nice, pretty ones and the Black dolls were bad. The majority also said they would rather play with the White doll, and some children became visibly upset and even left the room crying when they were asked to choose which doll looked most like them. The Clarks’ research would ultimately be used in Brown v. Board of Education as part of the evidence demonstrating the ways racial segregation caused psychological damage to Black children.
Dr. Poussaint was part of the generation of Black psychiatrists who started their training soon after that landmark decision. He grew up in East Harlem, New York, and after attending Columbia University on a scholarship he enrolled in Cornell Medical School in 1956 as the only African American student in his class. During the Civil Rights Movement he chose to go South. He served as the Southern Field Director of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in Jackson, Mississippi, where we overlapped when I was directing the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, and provided medical care for events like the final Selma to Montgomery March, walking the entire length of the 50-mile route with a case full of medical supplies and prepared to use his earlier emergency medicine training to give needed treatment on the spot. The Selma march in particular left him impressed with the spirit of many of the local marchers, including teenagers, who were so willing to risk their own safety in order to fight for their rights. His experience working in Mississippi also gave him a sustained first-hand experience of segregation and the constant threat of racial violence that continued to shape his research and advocacy.
Throughout his career, his advocacy for Black children and families included highlighting the need for policies and programs that support children and young people’s positive self-image and psychological health. He worked to break stigmas around mental health in Black communities, and called for more Black psychiatrists and psychologists to enter the field and for mental health services to be more accessible and responsive to the needs of Black families. Dr. Poussaint’s work also helped raise awareness about the importance of addressing children and young people’s trauma, stress, and emotional struggles, especially for young people growing up in marginalized communities. While some of his arguments would be widely embraced and others would prove controversial, as Harvard Medical School Dean for Medical Education Dr. Bernard Chang said, “Dr. Poussaint’s life and work had an immeasurable impact on the profession and practice of medicine in this country, the social movements for civil rights and human rights, the representation of people of color within our institution and in medical education more broadly, and our collective understanding of the impact of racism on the health and lived experiences of Black Americans.” This is a moment to reaffirm the importance of making sure the next generation of scholars, educators, and care providers remain committed to determining what is needed to ensure all children and young people can grow up safe, healthy, joyful, and thriving.