| 1963 | The APA Ad Hoc Committee on Equality of Opportunity in Psychology (CEOP) is established by the APA Board of Directors in response to a proposal from Division 9 (SPSSI) relative to the training and employment of Negroes [sic]. The committee is charged "to explore the possible problems encountered in training and employment in psychology as a consequence of race..." (APA, 1963; Comas-Diaz, 1990; Wispe et al., 1969). |
The Community Mental Health Center Act, which provided funding for construction and operation of community facilities, is signed into law (Street, 1994). | |
| 1965 | A graduate program in psychology is established at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus (Guillermo Bernal, personal communication, July 24, 1996). |
| 1968 | The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) is established at the APA Convention in San Francisco, with Charles L. Thomas, PhD, and Robert L. Green, PhD, elected as co-chairs (Street, 1994; Williams, 1974). |
ABPsi Co-Chair Charles L. Thomas presents a Petition of Concerns to the APA Council of Representatives that addresses three major issues: (a) the extremely limited number of Black psychologists and Black graduate and undergraduate students in psychology, (b) APA's failure to address social problems, such as poverty and racism, and (c) the inadequate representation of Blacks in the APA governance structure (Guzman et al., 1992; Williams, 1974). | |
| 1969 | The Black Students Psychological Association (BSPA) is established at the Western Psychological Association meeting in Vancouver, BC (Williams, 1974). |
| BSPA President Gary Simpkins presents demands to APA related to the recruitment, retention, and training of Black students and faculty (Figueroa-Garcia, 1994; Guzman, et al., 1992; Street, 1994; Williams, 1974). | |
| CEOP issues report of its national survey of 398 Negro psychologists and reports that between 1920 and 1966, the 10 top-rated departments of psychology had produced 24% of all doctorates in psychology, but only 0.5% of the Negro doctorates in psychology. Furthermore, 48.2% of the respondents stated race had limited their professional opportunities. CEOP concludes, "most black psychologists feel themselves, and until recently were, alienated from American psychology because of the totality of what it means to be black" (Wispe et al., 1969). | |
| 1970 | The Association of Psychologists Por La Raza (APLR) is founded at the APA Convention in Miami (Bernal, 1994). |
| APA establishes the Commission for Accelerating Black Participation in Psychology (CABPP) composed of representatives of BSPA, ABPsi, and APA and charges CABPP to address BSPA's concerns (Blau, 1970; Williams, 1974). | |
| ABPsi provides all graduate departments of psychology its "Ten-Point Program" for increasing the representation of Blacks in psychology; 35 departments agree to immediately implement the entire program (Williams, 1974). |