How Did Kenneth Clark Contribute To Psychology
Kenneth Clark Final paper
Amanda Martinez
Western Kentucky University
Abstract
This paper explores the life span of Kenneth Clark. The information was obtained through online (Internet) resources all regarding Kenneth Clark’s life and achievements. There will be two sections containing information about his life, age, schools, and interesting facts about Kenneth Clark and when he passed away. The second section will discuss his professional contributions, such as details about experiments he conducted and books and articles he wrote. Positions and awards he received throughout his lifetime will be highlighted in the following text, as well as other contributions Clark made to the field of psychology.
KENNETH CLARK LIFE AND TIMES
Kenneth Clark, a man who distinguished the face of psychology on the basis of racial discoveries. He was a man of self-motivation and great dreams. Clark was born on …show more content…
July 24, 1914 in Panama Canal Zone. His mother’s name was Miriam Clark and his father’s name was Arthur Bancroft Clark, a native of the West Indies. His father worked as a superintendent of Cargo for the United Fruit Company, where he made a decent living (Jonathan, 1994).
He lived in Panama Canal Zone for only a few short years, at which time his mother decided that her children needed an American education. An education that could lead her children to have a better life, then what would have been provided in Panama during that time. In 1919, Miriam Clark moved her two children, Clark and his Sister, to the Harlem District of New York City. At this time, Harlem was a difficult place to be as a person of African descent. Especially in the heart of Harlem, this was the main reason for Kenneth’s father not wanting to relocate to America. Due to the fact that his job in Panama, paid more than any job in America would pay him because of the color of his skin (Jonathan, 1994).
This left Miriam to be the sole provider for her two young children. Luckily, she was a strong Jamaican woman, stood her ground in Harlem and took a job as a seamstress to support her small family.
A few yeas later, Clark was old enough to start school. He attended integrated elementary and junior high schools, where he was held to the same standards as his prominently white students. It was also at this time in his life that one would see his childhood heroes start to surface. Some of his heroes included a teacher, doubling as a poet, from his junior high school and Arthur Schomburg, a book collector. Arthur worked as the curator at the 135th street branch of the New York Public Library (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
Many years later, Clark spoke about his algebra class with Mr. Rupretchs. He said that the teacher did not care what color his students skin was, but that he and fellow students performed well and were able to solve those problems on the board and that if the students could not solve the problem, then they needed to figure out why (Jonathan, 1994).
It was after the ninth grade, that young Clark found himself in a place when his life could have gone in a completely different direction. If it had not been for his mom setting the school counselor straight, Clarks educational path may have lead him to follow in the same business as his father. At this time in America, many African students attended vocational high schools, which lead to factory jobs. His mother had to make sure the school counselor knew her son would not go in that direction (Jonathan, 1994).
Soon after that, he started his education attending George Washington high school. Clark had done exceptionally well in all subjects and exceeded in economics. He even went so far as to think about a career in economics, until a teacher refused to give him an excellence in economics. To Kenneth’s best knowledge, this incident with his teacher was the first time he directly faced racism. That single actions may have been the reason he decided to look into the study of segregation. He went on receive his high school diploma, in 1931(Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
Clark continued his education at Howard University, in 1931. This was an all-Black university. He started out with a desire to pursue an education in medicine, but decided to switch gears by his second year. This change came about due to an exciting psychology course, taught by Francis Sumner. Clark stated later that this teacher had taught him about understanding the complexities of human behavior and interactions. This newly gained knowledge changed his life and helped to shape his dreams. It was this point, in his life that he decided to follow in the same direction as his psychology teacher (Jonathan, 1994).
While attending Howard University, he led many demonstrations against segregations in Washington, D.C. It was also at this time that he met the love of his life, Mamie Phipps. Clark felt a sense of trust with Phipps, and it was with her that he began to hold his most intellectual conversations (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
He received his master’s degree in 1936, where for a year he accepted a position teaching at the University of Howard. Accepting this position helped him to follow in his professor’s footsteps. Also, giving him the opportunity to learn form his fellow co-workers. A couple years later, he married his sweetheart, in 1938. His wife also went on with him to complete her doctoral in psychology.
Clark became the first black doctoral candidate in the field of psychology at Columbia University. This is also the school where completed his degree in 1940. After earning is doctoral degree he went through a bit of job-hopping. Teaching for a short period at Hampton Institute in Virginia, then switching over to the U.S. Governments Office of War and Information. When he was in the U.S. government position, he was responsible for studying morale conditions of America's black population as the country entered World War II. He stayed at this job for about two years (Jonathan, 1994).
At this point he accepted a job to join the faculty of City Colleges of New York, in 1942. Seven years later he became an assisted professor, and eventually became a professor in 1960. In 1966, he was the first Black instructor to achieve a ten-year. (Severo, 2005)
Clark repeatedly discussed how a racist system destroys, hurts, and dehumanizes human relations. Clark’s main sentiment on the topic of racism is that skin color should not matter. That what a person looks like on the outside does not define what will be found in the inside. This was the guideline for the majority of his life work, segregation (Severo, 2005).
On May 1, 2005, in his Hastings-on-Hudson New York is where breathed his last breath, leaving behind his son, Hilton B. Clark and daughter, Kate C. Harris. Along with three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He lived to a ripe age of 90. Passing away after a long battle with cancer. (Woo, 2005)
PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Clark was known for many things, but his greatest study was known as the doll study. The reason for this study was to do an analysis of racial identification and self-awareness in African American children. Clark believed that the problem of racial identification was related to the problem of genesis of racial attitudes in children. He wanted to be able to define more precisely the developmental pattern of this relationship. He decided the best way to do this study was with dolls (Clark & Clark, 1950).
The African American children where set in front of four dolls, two of the dolls where white with blonde hair and the other two dolls where dark skin with black hair. They were asked several questions: Give me the doll that you like to play with best, give me the doll that is a nice doll, give me the doll that looks like a white child, and give me the doll that looks like a colored child. These questions where designed to reveal skin colored preferences and several questions where used to indicate knowledge of racial differences. (Clark & Clark, 1950)
Clark and his wife studied two hundred and fifty three African American Children in this experiment, each child tested individually. The results indicated that racial differences where clearly understood; children knew which color belonged to each doll: white, black. What was the most interesting in this study to Clark was that children who attended public schools where more aware of racial differences, such as “Negro” or “colored”. Clark had discovered that, children who attended same colored schools where less aware of this racial language differences. The most concerning and most memorable information done from this study was the fact that African American children when asked which doll they preferred, majority chose the white doll. In this study, fifty nine percent of the children said the colored doll “looks bad”. This was a huge break through that showed African Americans did have negative attitudes toward their own racial identification. The study however, showed that as the child ages the level at which children choose the white doll over the colored doll does increase (Clark & Clark, 1950).
This particular study did a great help in understanding important periods in children’s life when the formation and patterns of racial attitudes began to form. This led many psychologists after Clark to do similar studies. Also, this led Clark to work harder to fix this segregations problem. Which comes about in his next achievement.
This led Clark fighting for segregation. This was most famous for the Brown V. Board of education case. This case was stating that segregation of children in public schools systems was only being based on race and that by doing so was depriving the minority of children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th amendment. Some of that facts that where going on at the time was that African American Children were denied admission to schools attended by white children under the law of segregations according to races. That segregated schools where to be equal in salaries, curricula, and building conditions (The Oyez Project, 2014).
Although, Clark was not the one who filed this case he did speak on behalf of the defendant. He stated that the psychological tests he administered, utilizing dolls to identify harms inflicted on the plaintiff children, where due to segregation. The test he administered where done in Clarendon County, which was the area in question in regards to segregation school being against the constitution. After administering the test he came to the conclusion that the children in this Clarendon County had been harmed in the development of the children’s personalities, due to inferior status in their society. Kenneth Clark believed that these signs could be enduring or lasting depending on the situation endured and that it would only be changing into its way of manifesting. His testimony was based on scientific studies and principles held enormous impact that helped to spark debates among the litigants and scholars (Beggs, 1995)
On May 17, 1954, the supreme Courte made its ruling on the Brown v. Board of education. Chief Justice Earl Warren was the one to announce the decision that had been made. Marshall, the lawyer who had argued the case before the court, personally called Clark with the news. Clark said in an interview later on that when Marshall had mentioned to him that his psychological testimony was key in Justice Warren’s decision. He had also stated in a later interview, that he had thought the problem of segregation would have been solved in the 1960. Clark had later spoken about how that it showed how naïve he had been in his young age (Severo, 2005).
This was a major change not only in how children of colored saw themselves through the eyes of dolls, but also in how the school system would change for future generations’. Kenneth Clark was the foundation layer for radical changes in the school system that would now lead to how schools are ran with all cultures and races learning together (Beggs, 1995).
Kenneth Clark became a leading advocate in the school integration and intellectual leader of the civil rights movement. This movement he began started when the Brown case had made a positive change in the education system. He wrote several books on the nation’s race. One book being the Dark Ghetto, this book had taken a look at the situation of black citizens to that of colonized people. The Dark Ghetto was a prize-winning study of the dynamics of racial oppression (Your Dictionary, 2014). Beside this book he also wrote many other books such as Prejudice and your child (1953), and The Negro American (1966). (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013)
Clark was also involved in many other community development programs.
In 1946, Clark and his wife founded the North Side Child Development Center (NSDC) in Harlem. These places would help to serve the needs for emotionally affected chilled. The CSDC was major center that they used for initial experiments on racial biases of educations and the intersection of education in social psychology. The facilities to this day are still standing and running. Another program that was helped founded by Clark was the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Haryou), founded in 1962. The Haryou was started in an effort to reorganize Harlem schools, provide preschools programs, after-school programs and to help lower the unemployment rate among African Americans who had dropped out. Two years Haryou had a committee headed by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy gave his endorsements to this program. By Kennedy this taking place it gave Presidents Lyndon Johnson’s $110 million to finance his War on Poverty programs (Gale Encyclopedia,
2013).
This endorsement also led to the program becoming a joint organization. This was formed from Haryou and Associated Community Teams. The Associated community team was a project of Adam Powell, who is the Harlem Congressmen and minister. Powell and Clark served together as co-chairman (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
He made headway for segregation, not only in his studies, but also by his actions. In 1966, he was the only black member on the New York State Board of Regents. Clark was the first black president of the American Psychological Association, in 1971. In 1962 Clark and his wife established the Metropolitan Applied Research Center Incorporated (MARC). He served as president of the MARC incorporation until 1964. He was also awarded Spingarn Medial for his dedicated services and inspired research, in the field of psychology. He received this award in 1962. Clark had also managed in his busy life of achievements to start a consulting company. Opening in 1986, was the Kenneth B. Clark & Associates firm; this was a firm for racial issues. (The Biography, 2014)
Through all of these accomplishments, one can see that the research and knowledge that had been discovered by the study of the doll test had been the first building block to his journey to understanding segregation. The Children of Harlem had been the start of the plunge into equal rights. This research had help to build the dream that he had worked towards his entire academic career. He had a vision of integrated schools and he stood and testified of the benefit, in a trail that changed the education system to integrate all walks of life. He was throughout the years considered a very influential psychologist of the twentieth century.
Reference:
Beggs, G., (1995). Novel Expert Evidence in federal civil rights litigation. Retrieved from http://varenne.tc.columbia.edu
Clark, K. (2014). The Biography. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475.
Clark, K., & Clark, M. (1950). The Journal of Negro Education. Retrieved from Http:// www.jstor.org/stable/2966491
Clark, K,. (2014). Your Dictionary. Retrieved from http://biography.yourdictionary.com/Kenneth-b-Clark
Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology,.(2014) Retrieved from http://aaregistry.org
Martin, J., (1994). Clark, Kenneth B. 1914. Contemporary Black Biography Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-287070021.html
Severo. R., (2014) Kenneth Clark, Who fought segregation, Dies. Retrieved from http://nytimes.com
The Oyez Project.,.(2014) Brown v. Board of Education. Retrieved from http://oyez.org/cases/1950-1959
Amanda Martinez
Western Kentucky University
Abstract
This paper explores the life span of Kenneth Clark. The information was obtained through online (Internet) resources all regarding Kenneth Clark’s life and achievements. There will be two sections containing information about his life, age, schools, and interesting facts about Kenneth Clark and when he passed away. The second section will discuss his professional contributions, such as details about experiments he conducted and books and articles he wrote. Positions and awards he received throughout his lifetime will be highlighted in the following text, as well as other contributions Clark made to the field of psychology.
KENNETH CLARK LIFE AND TIMES
Kenneth Clark, a man who distinguished the face of psychology on the basis of racial discoveries. He was a man of self-motivation and great dreams. Clark was born on …show more content…
July 24, 1914 in Panama Canal Zone. His mother’s name was Miriam Clark and his father’s name was Arthur Bancroft Clark, a native of the West Indies. His father worked as a superintendent of Cargo for the United Fruit Company, where he made a decent living (Jonathan, 1994).
He lived in Panama Canal Zone for only a few short years, at which time his mother decided that her children needed an American education. An education that could lead her children to have a better life, then what would have been provided in Panama during that time. In 1919, Miriam Clark moved her two children, Clark and his Sister, to the Harlem District of New York City. At this time, Harlem was a difficult place to be as a person of African descent. Especially in the heart of Harlem, this was the main reason for Kenneth’s father not wanting to relocate to America. Due to the fact that his job in Panama, paid more than any job in America would pay him because of the color of his skin (Jonathan, 1994).
This left Miriam to be the sole provider for her two young children. Luckily, she was a strong Jamaican woman, stood her ground in Harlem and took a job as a seamstress to support her small family.
A few yeas later, Clark was old enough to start school. He attended integrated elementary and junior high schools, where he was held to the same standards as his prominently white students. It was also at this time in his life that one would see his childhood heroes start to surface. Some of his heroes included a teacher, doubling as a poet, from his junior high school and Arthur Schomburg, a book collector. Arthur worked as the curator at the 135th street branch of the New York Public Library (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
Many years later, Clark spoke about his algebra class with Mr. Rupretchs. He said that the teacher did not care what color his students skin was, but that he and fellow students performed well and were able to solve those problems on the board and that if the students could not solve the problem, then they needed to figure out why (Jonathan, 1994).
It was after the ninth grade, that young Clark found himself in a place when his life could have gone in a completely different direction. If it had not been for his mom setting the school counselor straight, Clarks educational path may have lead him to follow in the same business as his father. At this time in America, many African students attended vocational high schools, which lead to factory jobs. His mother had to make sure the school counselor knew her son would not go in that direction (Jonathan, 1994).
Soon after that, he started his education attending George Washington high school. Clark had done exceptionally well in all subjects and exceeded in economics. He even went so far as to think about a career in economics, until a teacher refused to give him an excellence in economics. To Kenneth’s best knowledge, this incident with his teacher was the first time he directly faced racism. That single actions may have been the reason he decided to look into the study of segregation. He went on receive his high school diploma, in 1931(Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
Clark continued his education at Howard University, in 1931. This was an all-Black university. He started out with a desire to pursue an education in medicine, but decided to switch gears by his second year. This change came about due to an exciting psychology course, taught by Francis Sumner. Clark stated later that this teacher had taught him about understanding the complexities of human behavior and interactions. This newly gained knowledge changed his life and helped to shape his dreams. It was this point, in his life that he decided to follow in the same direction as his psychology teacher (Jonathan, 1994).
While attending Howard University, he led many demonstrations against segregations in Washington, D.C. It was also at this time that he met the love of his life, Mamie Phipps. Clark felt a sense of trust with Phipps, and it was with her that he began to hold his most intellectual conversations (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
He received his master’s degree in 1936, where for a year he accepted a position teaching at the University of Howard. Accepting this position helped him to follow in his professor’s footsteps. Also, giving him the opportunity to learn form his fellow co-workers. A couple years later, he married his sweetheart, in 1938. His wife also went on with him to complete her doctoral in psychology.
Clark became the first black doctoral candidate in the field of psychology at Columbia University. This is also the school where completed his degree in 1940. After earning is doctoral degree he went through a bit of job-hopping. Teaching for a short period at Hampton Institute in Virginia, then switching over to the U.S. Governments Office of War and Information. When he was in the U.S. government position, he was responsible for studying morale conditions of America's black population as the country entered World War II. He stayed at this job for about two years (Jonathan, 1994).
At this point he accepted a job to join the faculty of City Colleges of New York, in 1942. Seven years later he became an assisted professor, and eventually became a professor in 1960. In 1966, he was the first Black instructor to achieve a ten-year. (Severo, 2005)
Clark repeatedly discussed how a racist system destroys, hurts, and dehumanizes human relations. Clark’s main sentiment on the topic of racism is that skin color should not matter. That what a person looks like on the outside does not define what will be found in the inside. This was the guideline for the majority of his life work, segregation (Severo, 2005).
On May 1, 2005, in his Hastings-on-Hudson New York is where breathed his last breath, leaving behind his son, Hilton B. Clark and daughter, Kate C. Harris. Along with three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He lived to a ripe age of 90. Passing away after a long battle with cancer. (Woo, 2005)
PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Clark was known for many things, but his greatest study was known as the doll study. The reason for this study was to do an analysis of racial identification and self-awareness in African American children. Clark believed that the problem of racial identification was related to the problem of genesis of racial attitudes in children. He wanted to be able to define more precisely the developmental pattern of this relationship. He decided the best way to do this study was with dolls (Clark & Clark, 1950).
The African American children where set in front of four dolls, two of the dolls where white with blonde hair and the other two dolls where dark skin with black hair. They were asked several questions: Give me the doll that you like to play with best, give me the doll that is a nice doll, give me the doll that looks like a white child, and give me the doll that looks like a colored child. These questions where designed to reveal skin colored preferences and several questions where used to indicate knowledge of racial differences. (Clark & Clark, 1950)
Clark and his wife studied two hundred and fifty three African American Children in this experiment, each child tested individually. The results indicated that racial differences where clearly understood; children knew which color belonged to each doll: white, black. What was the most interesting in this study to Clark was that children who attended public schools where more aware of racial differences, such as “Negro” or “colored”. Clark had discovered that, children who attended same colored schools where less aware of this racial language differences. The most concerning and most memorable information done from this study was the fact that African American children when asked which doll they preferred, majority chose the white doll. In this study, fifty nine percent of the children said the colored doll “looks bad”. This was a huge break through that showed African Americans did have negative attitudes toward their own racial identification. The study however, showed that as the child ages the level at which children choose the white doll over the colored doll does increase (Clark & Clark, 1950).
This particular study did a great help in understanding important periods in children’s life when the formation and patterns of racial attitudes began to form. This led many psychologists after Clark to do similar studies. Also, this led Clark to work harder to fix this segregations problem. Which comes about in his next achievement.
This led Clark fighting for segregation. This was most famous for the Brown V. Board of education case. This case was stating that segregation of children in public schools systems was only being based on race and that by doing so was depriving the minority of children of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th amendment. Some of that facts that where going on at the time was that African American Children were denied admission to schools attended by white children under the law of segregations according to races. That segregated schools where to be equal in salaries, curricula, and building conditions (The Oyez Project, 2014).
Although, Clark was not the one who filed this case he did speak on behalf of the defendant. He stated that the psychological tests he administered, utilizing dolls to identify harms inflicted on the plaintiff children, where due to segregation. The test he administered where done in Clarendon County, which was the area in question in regards to segregation school being against the constitution. After administering the test he came to the conclusion that the children in this Clarendon County had been harmed in the development of the children’s personalities, due to inferior status in their society. Kenneth Clark believed that these signs could be enduring or lasting depending on the situation endured and that it would only be changing into its way of manifesting. His testimony was based on scientific studies and principles held enormous impact that helped to spark debates among the litigants and scholars (Beggs, 1995)
On May 17, 1954, the supreme Courte made its ruling on the Brown v. Board of education. Chief Justice Earl Warren was the one to announce the decision that had been made. Marshall, the lawyer who had argued the case before the court, personally called Clark with the news. Clark said in an interview later on that when Marshall had mentioned to him that his psychological testimony was key in Justice Warren’s decision. He had also stated in a later interview, that he had thought the problem of segregation would have been solved in the 1960. Clark had later spoken about how that it showed how naïve he had been in his young age (Severo, 2005).
This was a major change not only in how children of colored saw themselves through the eyes of dolls, but also in how the school system would change for future generations’. Kenneth Clark was the foundation layer for radical changes in the school system that would now lead to how schools are ran with all cultures and races learning together (Beggs, 1995).
Kenneth Clark became a leading advocate in the school integration and intellectual leader of the civil rights movement. This movement he began started when the Brown case had made a positive change in the education system. He wrote several books on the nation’s race. One book being the Dark Ghetto, this book had taken a look at the situation of black citizens to that of colonized people. The Dark Ghetto was a prize-winning study of the dynamics of racial oppression (Your Dictionary, 2014). Beside this book he also wrote many other books such as Prejudice and your child (1953), and The Negro American (1966). (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013)
Clark was also involved in many other community development programs.
In 1946, Clark and his wife founded the North Side Child Development Center (NSDC) in Harlem. These places would help to serve the needs for emotionally affected chilled. The CSDC was major center that they used for initial experiments on racial biases of educations and the intersection of education in social psychology. The facilities to this day are still standing and running. Another program that was helped founded by Clark was the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Haryou), founded in 1962. The Haryou was started in an effort to reorganize Harlem schools, provide preschools programs, after-school programs and to help lower the unemployment rate among African Americans who had dropped out. Two years Haryou had a committee headed by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy gave his endorsements to this program. By Kennedy this taking place it gave Presidents Lyndon Johnson’s $110 million to finance his War on Poverty programs (Gale Encyclopedia,
2013).
This endorsement also led to the program becoming a joint organization. This was formed from Haryou and Associated Community Teams. The Associated community team was a project of Adam Powell, who is the Harlem Congressmen and minister. Powell and Clark served together as co-chairman (Gale Encyclopedia, 2013).
He made headway for segregation, not only in his studies, but also by his actions. In 1966, he was the only black member on the New York State Board of Regents. Clark was the first black president of the American Psychological Association, in 1971. In 1962 Clark and his wife established the Metropolitan Applied Research Center Incorporated (MARC). He served as president of the MARC incorporation until 1964. He was also awarded Spingarn Medial for his dedicated services and inspired research, in the field of psychology. He received this award in 1962. Clark had also managed in his busy life of achievements to start a consulting company. Opening in 1986, was the Kenneth B. Clark & Associates firm; this was a firm for racial issues. (The Biography, 2014)
Through all of these accomplishments, one can see that the research and knowledge that had been discovered by the study of the doll test had been the first building block to his journey to understanding segregation. The Children of Harlem had been the start of the plunge into equal rights. This research had help to build the dream that he had worked towards his entire academic career. He had a vision of integrated schools and he stood and testified of the benefit, in a trail that changed the education system to integrate all walks of life. He was throughout the years considered a very influential psychologist of the twentieth century.
Reference:
Beggs, G., (1995). Novel Expert Evidence in federal civil rights litigation. Retrieved from http://varenne.tc.columbia.edu
Clark, K. (2014). The Biography. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475.
Clark, K., & Clark, M. (1950). The Journal of Negro Education. Retrieved from Http:// www.jstor.org/stable/2966491
Clark, K,. (2014). Your Dictionary. Retrieved from http://biography.yourdictionary.com/Kenneth-b-Clark
Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology,.(2014) Retrieved from http://aaregistry.org
Martin, J., (1994). Clark, Kenneth B. 1914. Contemporary Black Biography Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-287070021.html
Severo. R., (2014) Kenneth Clark, Who fought segregation, Dies. Retrieved from http://nytimes.com
The Oyez Project.,.(2014) Brown v. Board of Education. Retrieved from http://oyez.org/cases/1950-1959