Morse, Josiah, 1879-1946

College professor and department head, 1911-1946, of the Dept. of Psychology and Philosophy at University of South Carolina; native of Richmond, Va.; originally named Josiah Moses, he changed his name in 1907 during a period of unemployment, which inspired him to pen what is believed to be the first article on prejudice by an American psychologist; Morse received his BA and MA degrees from Richmond College; and in 1904, he received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Clark University (Worchester, Mass.); Morse began teaching at USC in 1911 as a professor and the lone member of the Department of Philosophy. He served as a one-man department for a number of years and later broadened the department's curriculum to include psychology, teaching courses on the psychology of religion and race relations in the South among many others.