Kenneth Bancroft Clark
Kenneth Bancroft Clark
(1914 - 2005)
Kenneth B. Clark was born in the Panama Canal Zone on July 24 1914. His parents, Author Bancroft and Miriam Clark were pretty well off in Panama. His father was the superintendent for the United Fruit Company, and making pretty good money (Contemporary, 1993). Despite their economic stability, Kenneth’s mother felt that her children could receive better educational opportunities in the United States. So, when Kenneth was about five years old his mother moved him and his sister to Harlem, New York. Their father decided not to make to trip because he did not want his race to be a deciding factor in his ability to get a job (Contemporary, 1993).
Emigrating to New York City with his mother (1919), he studied at Howard University (1935) and Columbia University where he earned a PhD in psychology (1940). He was the first black president of the American Psychological Association.
Clark was also the first African-American to become a fully tenured professor at the City College of New York. He aided Gunnar Myrdal with his monumental study of America's racial problems. With his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, in 1946, the couple founded the Northside Center for Child Development to work with ghetto children, and published a report (1950) that unmasked the psychological effects of racial segregation in schools. The report was prominently cited in the 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, that outlawed segregation nationwide.
Kenneth Bancroft Clark helped found Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited, served as a consultant to private and government bodies, was named the first black member of the New York State Board of Regents (1966), and founded Kenneth B. Clark & Associates (1986), a consulting firm for racially related issues. Besides Dark Ghetto (1965) he published many books and articles on the condition of African-Americans such as Prejudice and Your Child, A Possible Reality, and Pathos of Power. Clark passed away on May 1, 2005.
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475#profile
https://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/kennethclark.html