Mamie Phipps Clark
Mamie Phipps Clark
(1917-1983)
Mamie Phipps Clark was born on April 18, 1917 in Hot Spring, Arkansas. Her father, Harold H. Phipps, was a physician and her mother, Katy Florence Phipps, was a homemaker who was actively involved in her husband's medical practice.
Clark graduated from Langston High School at seventeen, and despite the extremely meagre opportunities available to black students, she was offered several scholarships to pursue higher education. Among those scholarships were offered at two of the most prestigious black universities in the country - Fisk University in Tennessee and Howard University in Washington D.C. She chose to attend Howard University where she began her university career in 1934 as a math major minoring in physics.
In 1938, Mamie Clark graduated magna cum laude from Howard University, and immediately enrolled in the psychology graduate program. Her master's thesis, "The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School Children," was the beginning of a line of research that became historic when it was used to make racial segregation unconstitutional in American public schools. Her thesis concluded that children became aware of their "blackness" very early in their childhood, and it was precisely this conclusion that became the foundation and the guiding premise for the Clark's famous doll studies.
One of the early jobs that Mamie held that influenced both her own self-esteem and her later work was a summer position as a secretary at the office of William Houston (Clark in O'Connell & Russo, 2001). William Houston's law firm was involved in the planning of litigation that challenged segregationist laws. Mamie found the experience of learning about desegregation cases and meeting prominent Civil Rights attorneys exciting and educational.
Dr. Clark's work with children's race-recognition and self-esteem began while she was completing her master's program and continued with her husband, Dr. Kenneth Clark, during and after her doctoral studies. Their work was funded by a Rosenwald grant from 1939-1942 (Warren, 1999). Their research showed that black children became aware of their racial identity at about three years old. Concurrently, these children began to see themselves negatively, reflecting the views that society held about them (Clark in O'Connell & Russo, 2001). The Clark's work was published, was well-regarded, and was replicated by other psychologists.
Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark presented her results at a Virginia school desegregation trial with her husband (Clark in O'Connell & Russo, 2001). Dr. Kenneth Clark presented the results at school desegregation trials in South Carolina and Delaware. In 1953, Kenneth Clark worked with other social scientists to create a brief showing the results of Mamie and Kenneth's work and other relevant social science findings on the effects of segregation. This brief was given to lawyers for the NAACP and presented to the United States Supreme Court. In its 1954 decision, the Supreme Court acknowledged the work presented in the brief by noting the following about the effects of segregation on black children: "To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone...." (Clark in O'Connell & Russo, 2001, p. 271)
The Clarks opened their own agency in 1946 called the Northside Center for Child Development. This was the first full-time child guidance center offering psychological and casework services to families in the Harlem area. There they also continued conducting experiments on racial biases in education (Butler, 2009).
The Clarks were influential to the Civil Rights movement and their expertise allowed them to testify as expert witnesses in several school desegregation cases, including Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 (Martin, 1994). Outside of their research and applied contributions they both served in the community and on committees to make a difference. Mamie Clark passed in 1983 at age 66, leaving behind two children and Kenneth Clark, who later passed in 2005 at age 91 (Butler, 2009). Both made significant contributions to the field of psychology and to the social movement of their time.
Source: http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/clark.aspx