Psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark: Fighting School Segregation in 1954

In psychology, those who study this discover ideas and theories that pertain to how a human lives and interacts with their environment as well as how their environment affects how they live and interact. Divided into many branches, there are various diverse studies and ideas that explain the aspects of humans and how they live in this world. One specific psychologist, Mamie Phipps Clark, an important figure of psychology in the period where segregation was prominent in society, actively fought for the wellbeing and mental health of young African-American children in schools. With her husband, Kenneth Clark, her testimony and research became key to ending school segregation.

Inspired by a previous psychological study on ‘self-identification’ by Ruth and Gene Horowitz, Clark developed a doll study that emphasized the concept of racial preferences in young African-American children. In this study, she gathered children from ages 3-7 and showed them a variety of dolls that were identical in design but in various different colors. She would ask specific questions such as "Show me the doll that you like the best or that you'd like to play with, show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll, show me the doll that looks bad, give me the doll that looks like a white child, give me the doll that looks like a colored child, give me the doll that looks like a Negro child, give me the doll that looks like you." These questions were meant to test the child’s racial perception and preference by having the children choose dolls that they felt would answer the question correctly. This study was later used to expose the internalized racism and negative effects of segregation for African-American children which was used to combat the segregation within schools for young children.

The Clarks then went on to accomplish more, such as being the first African-Americans to obtain their doctoral degrees in psychology from Columbia University as well as continuing to conduct experiments on racial biases in education. On desegregation cases, such as the Brown vs. Board case in 1954, their research provided key contributions to fighting school segregation.

Mamie Phipps Clark and Kenneth Clark, although not discussed in the average history classroom, played significant roles in the battle for the abolishment of segregation during the time period they resided in. Their contributions to the social movement, including the doll test, gave indisputable evidence of the detriments of school segregation for young African-American’s wellbeing and self-consciousness as well as great accomplishments to the field of developmental psychology.

Works Cited

“Featured Psychologists: Mamie Phipps Clark, PhD, and Kenneth Clark, PhD.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/clark.

McNeill, Leila. “How a Psychologist's Work on Race Identity Helped Overturn School Segregation in 1950s America.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 26 Oct. 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/psychologist-work-racial-identity-helped-overturn-school-segregation-180966934/.

Cherry, Kendra. “Mamie Phipps Clark and the Research of Self-Concept With Race.” Verywell Mind, 22 Apr. 2020, www.verywellmind.com/mamie-phipps-clark-biography-2796022.

“Mamie Phipps Clark.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamie_Phipps_Clark.