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Quote

“...I think that effective solutions have to be based upon facts - have to be based upon reason - have to be based upon logic, logistics, and things of that sort, but I don’t think - and in looking at this society from the perspective of a Negro and a psychologist, the things that really appalls me about this society is that one does not get to the point of even seeking the rational solutions for long-standing social ills…”

Biography

Kenneth Bancroft Clark was an African-American psychologist and researcher. He and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, studied psychology at Howard University in the 1930’s and were active in the civil rights movement. During his time at Howard University, the course of Clark’s life was forever changed when he took a class taught by psychology professor, Francis Sumner. “What this professor showed me,” Clark told the New Yorker, “was the promise of getting some systematic understanding of the complexities of human behavior and human interaction… the seemingly intractable nature of racism, for example.”Together, the Clarks went on to design and conduct a series of experiments commonly known as “the doll test” to study the psychological effects of racial segregation on African-American school children. Their research was cited in arguments during Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled segregation unconstitutional and sparked a shift historic toward integration. Clark’s research contributed to the development of integrationist policies implemented at both federal and state levels of government and he published extensive work about the plight of African-Americans in impoverished urban communities.