Antiracist Accountability: Two Inspiring Black Psychologists

Hey friends,

Despite being very down to the wire this month, I want to squeeze in an Antiracist Accountability post.  This one will piggyback on last month's post on how psychological research transacts with race.

So here we go!

This month, I want to highlight the trailblazing and revolutionary impact of two Black psychologists: Mamie Phipps Clark and Kenneth Clark.

The Clarks may best be remembered for the pivotal role their research played in the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision in the Supreme Court, where they demonstrated that, at a very young age, Black children internalized harmful and racist stereotypes under-valuing and demeaning Black people compared to white people.  This was demonstrated in part through their series of studies evaluating Black children's preferences for and attitudes toward white and Black dolls.

Photo credit: Gordon Parks.

While their legal impact was perhaps most felt through that Supreme Court decision, the Clarks were expert witnesses in several earlier trials over school desegregation.

The Drs. Clark earned their bachelor's degrees at Howard University before becoming the first Black people to earn doctorates in psychology from Columbia University.  Kenneth Clark later became the first Black tenured full professor at the City College of New York and the first Black person to be president of the American Psychological Association.

As if all of these contributions and accomplishments weren't enough, almost a decade before their seminal Supreme Court testimony, Mamie Phipps Clark and Kenneth Clark opened the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem in 1946.  As a sibling institution to the Lafargue Clinic, which primarily served Black adults in Harlem, the Northside Center served the community's children.

Long may they be remembered.

{Heart}