Kenneth and Mamie Clark
[4] The Clarks' work contributed to the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in which it determined that de jure racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the Brown v. Board of Education opinion, "To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.
[9] Despite the small number of opportunities for Black students to pursue higher education, Phipps Clark was offered several scholarships for college.
In the fall of 1938 Mamie Clark went to graduate school at Howard University to get a master's degree in psychology and while she was enrolled her father would send her an allowance of fifty dollars a month.
Believing in a tangible end to segregation inspired Phipps Clark's future studies, the results of which would help lawyers, such as Houston and Marshall, to win the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case in 1954.
In 1939 they received a three-year Rosenwald Fellowship for their research that allowed them to publish three articles on the subject and also permitted Phipps Clark to pursue a doctoral degree at Columbia University.
[8] During her time at Columbia, Mamie was the only black student pursuing a doctorate in psychology and she had a faculty adviser, Dr. Henry Garrett, who believed in segregation.
In 1945 she was able to get a better job working for the United States Armed Forces Institute as a research psychologist; but, as World War II ended they did not feel the need to employ her anymore.
She was on the boards of directors for several community organizations, along with being involved with the Youth Opportunities Unlimited Project and the initiation of the Head Start Program.
[11] One of Phipps Clark's early, published studies was titled The Development of Consciousness of Self and the Emergence of Racial Identification in Negro Preschool Children.
It should also be noted, that Phipps Clark's tendency to remain in her husband's shadow occurred in the backdrop of blatant sexism and racism in the psychological field and it is believed that the extent of her contributions was significantly downplayed.
Kenneth Clark arrived in New York City as ethnic diversity of Harlem was disappearing such that his elementary school was predominantly black.
During his years at Howard University, he worked under the influence of mentor Francis Cecil Sumner, the first African American to receive a doctorate in psychology.
After earning his master's degree, Sumner directed Clark to Columbia University to work with another influential mentor, Otto Klineberg (Jones & Pettigrew, 2005).
[20][21][22][23] After the Brown v. Board of Education case, Clark was still dissatisfied by the lack of progress in school desegregation in New York City.
In a 1964 interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?, Clark expressed his doubts about the efficacy of certain busing programs in desegregating the public schools.
Clark argued that a new approach had to be developed to involve poor blacks, in order to gain the political and economic power needed to solve their problems.
Clark called his new approach "internal colonialism", with hope that the Kennedy-Johnson administration's War on Poverty would address problems of increasing social isolation, economic dependence and declining municipal services for many African Americans (Freeman, 2008).
When it was placed under the administration of a pet project of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1964, the two men clashed over appointment of a director and its direction.
[25] Clark retired from City College in 1975, but remained an active advocate for integration throughout his life, serving on the board of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, of which he was Chairman Emeritus until his death.
[12] Mamie and Kenneth did this experiment in order to investigate the development of racial identity in African American children and examine how a negro child’s color and "their sense of their own race and status" influenced "their judgment about themselves" and their "self esteem.
"[29] This study was titled, "Emotional Factors in Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children," and was not created with public policy or the Supreme Court in mind, lending credibility to its objectiveness.
The Clarks testified as expert witnesses in several school desegregation cases, including Briggs v. Elliott, which was later combined into the famous Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
In 1954, Clark and Isidor Chein wrote a brief whose purpose was to supply evidence in the Brown v. Board of Education case underlining the damaging effects racial segregation had on African-American children.
[34] In a 9–0 decision for Brown, the Court decided that segregation based on race in public schools violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
[35] The Supreme Court declared that separate but equal in education was unconstitutional because it resulted in African American children having "a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community.
"[2] The Doll Study is cited in the 11th footnote of the Brown decision to provide updated and "ample" psychological support to the Kansas case.
Garrett and George argue that the Court overlooked the "mental difference" between races, and that Clark’s evidence was invalid and misleading because "integration, not segregation, injured the Negro child’s self-image.
[18] Kate Clark Harris directed the Northside Center for Child Development for four years after her mother's death.
A 60 Minutes report in the 1970s noted that the Clarks, who supported integration and desegregation busing, moved to Westchester County in 1950 because of concerns about failing public schools in the city.
