Episode 160: Honoring a Mental Health Pioneer

Dr. Melvin P. Sikes was a member of renowned unit of African American fighter pilots who flew during World War II known as the Tuskegee Airmen. After the war, Dr. Sikes earned a doctorate in education administration from the University of Chicago. He went on to become dean of Wilberforce University in Ohio and Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, a clinical psychologist with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Houston, and as we knew him best at the Hogg Foundation – a University of Texas at Austin professor of education psychology and a one-time member of the Hogg Foundation’s National Advisory Council. For Black HIstory Month, we are taking a look back at this remarkable man and his impact.

In this episode of Into the Fold, not only do we get contemporary analysis courtesy of Elizabeth Stauber, Hogg Foundation archivist and records manager, but we hear from Dr. Sikes himself, by way of a vintage 1972 interview in which he discusses the challenges of balancing intellectual rigor with a commitment to inclusivity, how higher education can answer the call of a rapidly changing society, and what support committed academics need in order to succeed while avoiding burnout.

In a bonus segment, we also include a brief interview with Adrian Fowler, former Hogg Foundation program officer and a close friend and colleague of Dr. Sikes. 

 Related links:

• From the Archives: Roy Wilkins on the Mental Bondage of Race

• From the Archives: Dr. Kenneth Clark on Racism and Child Well-Being

• From the Archive: Efua Sutherland on Theatre, Literature and Self-rediscovery