Intro
Kenneth Bancroft Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark were a married team of American psychologists who were active in the Civil Rights movement and are most known together for their research on black children.1 The Clarks were the first African Americans to obtain PhDs in psychology from Columbia University. This launched their research on internalized research and the effects of segregation. Most notably, the Clarks conducted the “doll test”, studying children’s preferences for black versus white dolls.1 Their scientific expertise combined with their passion for research on black children allowed them to testify as expert witnesses under the U.S. Supreme Court, in several school desegregation cases. Their work contributed significantly to both the field of psychology and the social fabric of their time, moving toward equal education for black children.
The discrepancy between identifying one’s own color and indicating one’s color preference is too great to be ignored. The negation of the color, brown, exists in the same complexity of attitudes in which there also exists knowledge of the fact that the child himself must be identified with that which he rejects.
- Kenneth and Mamie Clark
