Kenneth and Mamie Clark facts for kids

Kenneth and Mamie Clark were American psychologists, a married couple who studied children and were very active in the Civil Rights Movement. They started the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem and an organization called Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU). Kenneth Clark was also a professor at City College of New York and the first Black president of the American Psychological Association.

They are famous for their experiments in the 1940s. They used dolls to understand how children felt about race. The Clarks shared their research in court cases like Briggs v. Elliott (1952), which became part of the big Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case. Their work helped the U.S. Supreme Court decide that racial segregation (keeping races separate) in public schools was against the law. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that separating children by race made them feel less important, which could hurt their hearts and minds forever.

Mamie Phipps Clark: Early Life and Work

Mamie Phipps Clark was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1917. She was the oldest of three children. Her father was a doctor and also managed a resort. Her mother helped him and encouraged all their children to get a good education. Mamie's brother later became a dentist.

Even though Mamie grew up during the Great Depression and a time of racism, her family had a comfortable life. Her father's job allowed them to live well, and they could even go to some places usually only for White people. Still, Mamie went to segregated schools, meaning Black and White students were kept separate. She graduated from high school in 1934 when she was only 16. This upbringing helped her see how differently society treated Black and White people. This understanding led her to study racial identity in Black children.

Mamie received scholarships to college, which was rare for Black students then. She chose Howard University in Washington D.C. There, she worked part-time in the psychology department, learning a lot about the field. In 1937, during her senior year, she married Kenneth Clark. They had to get married secretly because her mother wanted her to finish college first. Mamie earned her degree in psychology in 1938 with great honors.

After graduating, Mamie went to graduate school at Howard University to get her master's degree in psychology. She also worked as a secretary for Charles Hamilton Houston, a famous civil rights lawyer. She saw lawyers like Thurgood Marshall working on important cases. This experience made her believe that segregation could truly end, which inspired her future studies. Her research later helped lawyers win the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case.

While working on her master's degree, Mamie became very interested in how children develop. She got the idea for her master's thesis from working at a nursery school for Black children. She studied how young children became aware of their own race. Her thesis was called "The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School Children." This research became the foundation for the Clarks' famous doll study.

Kenneth was very interested in Mamie's research. After she graduated, they worked together to improve the doll and color tests. In 1939, they received a special grant that allowed them to publish three articles and for Mamie to pursue her doctorate at Columbia University.

At Columbia, Mamie was the only Black student studying for a doctorate in psychology. Her advisor believed in segregation, but Mamie still finished her research paper. In 1943, Mamie Phipps Clark became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. She was the second Black person to get a psychology doctorate from Columbia, after her husband, Kenneth.

Mamie Phipps Clark: Career and Contributions

After getting her Ph.D., Mamie Clark faced challenges finding a job as an African-American woman psychologist in New York. She lost opportunities to less qualified White people. In 1939, she worked as a secretary for civil rights lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston, where she saw plans to challenge segregation laws.

In 1944, she found a job analyzing research about nurses, which she disliked. She then worked as a research psychologist for the United States Armed Forces Institute, but she felt stuck in a limited role. After World War II ended, she was let go in 1946.

Later that year, Mamie found a rewarding job at the Riverdale Home for Children in New York. She gave psychological tests and counseled young, homeless Black people. She noticed that there wasn't enough mental health help for minority children. Many children were wrongly labeled as having intellectual disabilities by the state. Mamie tested them and found their IQs were normal or above. She saw society's segregation as a cause for problems like gang violence, poverty, and low school performance among minorities. This experience became a key moment in her life's work.

Kenneth and Mamie Clark decided to improve social services for troubled youth in Harlem. There were almost no mental health services there. They asked social service agencies in New York City to expand their programs to help Harlem youth. When no agencies agreed, the Clarks decided to open their own center.

In 1946, the Clarks started the Northside Center for Child Development. It began in a small basement apartment. Two years later, in 1948, Northside moved to 110th Street. The center aimed to provide excellent pediatric and psychological help for poor African Americans, just like services for others. It was the first center to offer psychological services to minority families in the Harlem area.

Mamie was the director of the Northside Center for 33 years. She was seen as the heart of the center, guiding its philosophy and vision. Her work helped advance the social, economic, and psychological well-being of African-American children.

Mamie also contributed to the community. She served on the boards of several community organizations and was involved with the Head Start Program. She also volunteered in a psychiatric clinic and taught at Yeshiva University.

Mamie Phipps Clark: Published Work

One of Mamie Phipps Clark's important studies was called "The Development of Consciousness of Self and the Emergence of Racial Identification in Negro Preschool Children." This study looked at how young Black children developed their racial identity.

The study included 150 Black children, aged three to five, from segregated nursery schools in Washington, D.C. Each child was shown pictures of White and Black boys, animals, and a clown. They were asked to point to the drawing that matched what they were asked about, for example, "point to your cousin or brother."

The results showed that younger children (three to four years old) often chose the Black drawing when asked about themselves. As children got older, their self-awareness and racial identity increased. This study suggested that children develop a strong sense of their racial identity between ages three and four.

Mamie Phipps Clark: Legacy

Mamie Phipps Clark's work greatly contributed to understanding how racial discrimination affects children's development and self-esteem. Her research on the identity of Black people expanded the field of identity development.

Mamie is not as famous as her husband, Kenneth. Some say she preferred to stay out of the spotlight. However, it's also believed that her contributions were made to seem less important due to the clear unfairness against women and Black people in psychology at the time.

Together, the Clarks dedicated their lives to improving the mental health of Black people. For her contributions, Mamie Phipps Clark received a Candace Award for Humanitarianism in 1983.

Mamie retired in 1979 and passed away from lung cancer on August 11, 1983, at 66 years old.

Kenneth Clark: Early Life and Education

Kenneth Clark was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1914. When he was five, his parents separated. His mother moved him and his younger sister to Harlem in New York City. She worked as a seamstress in a factory with poor working conditions. She later helped organize a union for workers to improve their conditions.

Kenneth grew up in Harlem as its ethnic mix changed, and his school became mostly Black. He first realized the importance of "color" when he had a Black teacher, Hubert Thomas Delany. Most Black students at that time were taught a trade. But Kenneth's mother wanted more for him and moved him to George Washington High School. He graduated in 1931.

Clark attended Howard University, a historically Black university. He first studied political science. He was greatly influenced by his mentor, Francis Sumner, the first African American to get a doctorate in psychology. Kenneth earned his master's degree in psychology from Howard in 1935. Sumner then encouraged him to study at Columbia University.

At Columbia, Kenneth Clark did research for Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist studying race relations in America. In 1940, Clark became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University.

Kenneth Clark: Career and Contributions

In 1942, Kenneth Clark became the first African-American tenured full professor at the City College of New York. He also started a psychology department at Hampton Institute that same year. In 1966, he became the first African American appointed to the New York State Board of Regents and the first African American president of the American Psychological Association.

Much of Clark's work was connected to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Lawyers hired Clark to present his research on how segregation affected children. After the Brown v. Board of Education case, Clark was still concerned about the slow progress of school desegregation in New York City. He felt that social welfare groups were not doing enough to address race and poverty. Clark believed a new approach was needed to empower poor Black communities to solve their own problems.

In 1962, Clark helped start Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU). This organization aimed to create educational and job opportunities in Harlem. Clark led a big study of Harlem, looking at things like IQ scores, crime rates, school dropout rates, and housing quality. HARYOU brought in education experts to improve Harlem schools, create preschool classes, and offer job opportunities for young people. The government gave HARYOU over $100 million.

Clark used HARYOU to push for changes in the education system to help Black children. He initially supported giving local communities more control over schools. However, after a decade, he felt this approach had not worked well.

After race riots in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Clark to testify about urban issues.

Clark retired from City College in 1975. He continued to advocate for integration and high standards in education throughout his life. He worked to benefit children and advised school systems across the country. He believed all children should learn to use Standard English in school.

Kenneth Clark passed away in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, in May 2005, at the age of 90.

Kenneth Clark: Books

• Prejudice and Your Child (1955)
• Dark Ghetto (1965)
• The Negro and the American Promise (1963)
• A Relevant War Against Poverty (1968)
• A Possible Reality (1972)
• Pathos of Power (1975)

The Coloring Test

The coloring test was another experiment used in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Mamie and Kenneth used this test to study how African American children developed their racial identity. They wanted to see how a child's skin color and their feelings about their race affected their self-esteem.

They gave the coloring test to 160 African American children aged five to seven. The children received a coloring page with a leaf, an apple, an orange, a mouse, a boy, and a girl. First, they colored the mouse to show they understood how colors relate to objects. Then, they were asked to color the boy or girl on the paper to match their own skin color. After that, they were asked to color the child of the opposite sex the color they wished that child to be.

The Clarks looked at the children's responses. They found that children often colored themselves lighter than their actual skin color. This suggested that children might be wishing to escape their situation. While most children did use brown or black, they often chose a lighter shade than they used for the mouse. Older children were generally more accurate in coloring their own skin tone. When asked to color the opposite-sex child, many children used white or unusual colors.

Doll Experiments

The Clarks' doll experiments grew from Mamie Clark's master's research. Between 1939 and 1940, they published three important papers on how children see themselves in relation to race. Their studies compared African-American children in segregated schools in Washington, DC, with those in integrated schools in New York.

In the doll experiment, a child was shown two dolls. The dolls were exactly alike except for their skin and hair color. One doll was white with yellow hair, and the other was brown with black hair. The child was then asked questions like:

• Which doll would you play with?
• Which doll is nice?
• Which doll looks bad?
• Which doll has the nicer color?

The experiment showed that most children in the study, both Black and White, preferred the white doll. One conclusion from the study was that by age five, a Black child knows that being "colored" in American society means having a lower status. This study was called "Emotional Factors in Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children." It was not originally created for public policy or the Supreme Court, which made its findings seem very fair.

These findings revealed that African-American children in segregated schools had internalized racism, meaning they had negative feelings about their own race. This research also led to more psychological studies on self-esteem and self-concept.

The Clarks' work suggested that segregation itself harmed children and society. This idea was used in several court cases. The Clarks testified as experts in school desegregation cases, including Briggs v. Elliott, which was later combined into the famous Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

In 1954, Kenneth Clark and Isidor Chein wrote a report for the Brown v. Board of Education case. It showed how much harm racial segregation caused African-American children. Brown v. Board was a key case supported by the NAACP to end legal segregation. Before this, the rule was "separate but equal," set by the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896.

In a unanimous 9–0 decision for Brown, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation based on race in public schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The Court stated that "separate but equal" in education was unconstitutional because it made African American children feel inferior. The Doll Study was mentioned in the Court's decision to provide strong psychological support for the case. The decision quoted that "segregation of white and colored children in public schools has detrimental effect upon the colored children" and that this feeling of inferiority "affects the motivation of a child to learn." The evidence from the Clarks helped end segregation in public schools.

Family

The Clarks had two children, a son named Hilton and a daughter named Kate. During the Columbia University protests of 1968, Hilton was a student leader. His father, Kenneth, helped negotiate between the students and the university. The Clarks were happily married for 45 years until Mamie's death. Kate Clark Harris directed the Northside Center for Child Development for four years after her mother passed away.

In the 1970s, a TV report noted that Kenneth Clark, who supported integration, moved to Westchester County, New York in 1950. He did this because he was worried about the struggling public schools in the city. Clark explained, "My children have only one life and I could not risk that."

Legacy and Honors

• 1961 – Kenneth Clark received the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for his work promoting integration and better race relations.
• 1966 – Columbia University awarded both Clarks the Nicholas Murray Butler Silver Medal for their important work.
• 1970 – Kenneth B. Clark received an honorary doctorate from Columbia University.
• 1983 – Mamie Phipps Clark received a Candace Award for Humanitarianism.
• 1985 – Kenneth Clark received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech.
• 1986 – Kenneth Clark received the Presidential Medal of Liberty.
• 1994 – Kenneth Clark received the APA Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology. He was one of only six psychologists to receive this high honor.
• 2002 – Molefi Kete Asante included Kenneth Clark in his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
• 2003 – The American Psychological Foundation created the Kenneth B. and Mamie P. Clark Fund. This fund supports research on how self-identity and school achievement are connected, especially for children in grades K-8.
• 2017 – Columbia University's Psychology Department started the Mamie Phipps Clark and Kenneth B. Clark Distinguished Lecture Award. This award recognizes important contributions by senior scholars in the area of race and justice.

Images for kids

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  Kenneth and Mamie Clark with their children, 1958