Kenneth and Mamie Clark

Kenneth and Mamie Clark were American psychologists whose studies of Black children’s racial identity and doll preferences informed arguments against school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education.

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Brown v. Board of Education: The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding state-mandated racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The Clarks’ research was cited in the case’s challenge to segregated schooling.
Racial identity development: The process through which people develop understandings and feelings about their racial group membership. The Clarks investigated how racial identity formed among Black children in a segregated society.
Kenneth B. Clark: An American psychologist and educator who studied racial identity and testified in school desegregation cases. He conducted research, presented expert testimony, and became a prominent public advocate.
Doll preference studies: Psychological studies measuring children’s preferences among dolls that differ in racial appearance. Later studies revisited the method and findings associated with the Clarks.
Briggs v. Elliott: A South Carolina school desegregation case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education. Kenneth Clark testified about segregation’s effects in this case.
Racial socialization: The ways children learn about race, racial group membership, and how to navigate racialized experiences. Their findings raised questions about how families and institutions shape children’s racial attitudes.
Mamie Phipps Clark: An American social psychologist whose research examined racial awareness and self-identification among Black children. Her graduate research helped establish the empirical basis for the couple’s studies.
Methodology of psychology: The principles and techniques used to design, measure, and interpret psychological research. Questions about sampling, wording, and interpretation shape assessments of the doll experiments.
Doll test: A psychological procedure that uses dolls differing in skin color to study children’s racial attitudes. The Clarks’ best-known research used doll preferences to investigate racial identification.
Self-concept: The collection of beliefs and evaluations a person holds about themselves. The Clarks studied how racialized preferences related to children’s evaluations of themselves.