Early Life
Inez Beverly Prosser was born to Samuel Andrew and Veola Hamilton Beverly in Yoakum, Texas on December 30, 1895. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a waiter. Prosser was the eldest daughter and second eldest of eleven. At the time of her youth, there were few educational opportunities for African-Americans, and her family moved many times to seek the best education they could find for their 11 children. Prosser graduated valedictorian from Yoakum Colored High School in 1912 and then went on to receive a degree in teacher training from Prairie View Normal College (now Prairie View A&M University) where she was also valedictorian.
After receiving her degree she went back to Yoakum and taught for a short time at their segregated schools. The family moved between several cities early in Prosser’s life, most likely because of the lack of educational opportunity for Blacks in rural Texas during the 1900s. Eventually they relocated to a small town called Yoakum, Texas, were Prosser graduated high school. To contribute to the household, Prosser started a college fund to support her younger siblings’ education. Of the eleven children, all graduated from high school and six went on to earn college degrees. During Inez Beverly Prosser's lifetime she was also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She also established a fund, all while completing her own education, which enabled her sisters and brothers to obtain a college education.
Prosser spent the majority of this time as a faculty member of Anderson High School where she taught English and coached a girls’ team for spelling competitions. During this period, Prosser met and married Allen Rufus Prosser, who worked as an elevator operator at a department store in Austin, and the two were married in 1916. Upon graduating, Prosser taught in Texas segregated school system for several years but soon returned to get her Bachelors of Arts in Education from Samuel Huston College in 1924. Prosser soon received several awards and embraced the opportunity to continue her education. She went on to receive a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Colorado and finally, she became one of the first Black woman to earn a PhD in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 1933
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