Kenneth Bancroft Clark (1914–2005) was an American psychologist whose work played a critical role in the civil rights movement and the desegregation of American schools. He also served as a professor at City College of New York and was the first Black president of the American Psychological Association.
Born in the Panama Canal Zone, Clark moved to Harlem, New York, at the age of five. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University and later received his PhD in psychology from Columbia University in 1940, becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate in psychology from Columbia.
Clark, along with his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark (1917–83,) conducted groundbreaking research on the psychological effects of segregation on African American children. Their famous “doll experiments” demonstrated that segregation caused Black children to develop a sense of inferiority and damaged their self-esteem. This research was pivotal in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Among Clark’s significant publications are Prejudice and Your Child (1955,) which explores the impact of racism on children, and Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power (1965,) an analysis of the structural forces maintaining poverty and segregation in urban ghettos. He also co-authored The Negro and the American Promise (1963,) addressing racial issues in America.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Kenneth Bancroft Clark
Pride, like humility, is destroyed by one’s insistence that he possesses it.
—Kenneth Bancroft Clark
Leave a Reply