Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint was a psychiatrist whose work studying the impact of racism on Black populations filled books and fueled debates about culture and politics.
- Died: February 24, 2025 (Who else died on February 24?)
- Details of death: Died in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts at the age of 90.
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Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint’s legacy
In many ways, Dr. Poussaint helped change the conversation about race in America – or at least aided in offering new avenues through which to explore the impact that hate, bigotry, and racism has on the American landscape.
Born in Harlem, New York to Haitian immigrants, Poussaint earned a pharmacology degree from Columbia University, later graduating from Cornell Medical School, where he was the only Black student admitted in his first year. Fueled by his own experiences being an outcast due to his race, Poussaint began to study the toll repeated experiences with racism have on Black Americans.
By 1965, Poussaint was in Jackson, Mississippi, serving as the Southern field director of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, committed then to help desegregate the area. He eventually worked with and befriended Rev. Jesse Jackson. (Two decades later, he was Massachusetts’ co-chairman for Jackson’s 1984 campaign for president.) In 1968, Poussaint co-wrote the influential article, “Black Power: A Failure for Integration within the Civil Rights Movement,” and in 1969, he began his long tenure at Harvard Medical School. Books he authored – such as 1972’s “Why Blacks Kill Blacks” and 1975’s “Black Child Care,” co-written by James P. Comer, now released as “Raising Black Children” – proved to be provocative works that explored both systemic racism and potential paths forward.
In the 1980s, Poussaint’s reach extended to pop culture, when he was brought on to serve as a script consultant on television programs like “The Cosby Show” and its HBCU-set spin-off, “A Different World,” helping those popular sitcoms address negative stereotypes and portray Black families in a positive light.
Over the years, he earned many honors, including the John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement, a New England Emmy Award for producing “Willoughby’s Wonders,” the American Black Achievement Award in Business and the Professions, several honorary degrees, and more accolades. Other books Poussaint co-authored include “Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans” and “Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors,” in 2000 and 2007.
On racism in America:
“I began to understand how deeply it was embedded in American culture: It was part of the way the country saw itself, the way people behaved and established their own sense of worth, using blacks and some other groups as scapegoats.” — interview with the Boston Globe, 1996
Tributes to Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint
Full obituary: The New York Times
