Kenneth Bancroft Clark Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Kenneth Bancroft Clark
OCCUPATION: Educator, Civil Rights Activist, Psychologist
BIRTH DATE: July 24, 1914
DEATH DATE: May 01, 2005
EDUCATION: Howard University, Columbia University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Panama Canal Zone
PLACE OF DEATH: Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Best Known For

Psychologist and educator Kenneth Bancroft Clark was the first black president of the American Psychological Association.

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Kenneth Bancroft Clark

APA Style

Kenneth Bancroft Clark. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:07, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475.

Harvard Style

Kenneth Bancroft Clark. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475 [Accessed 23 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Kenneth Bancroft Clark." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 11:07 http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475.

MHRA Style

"Kenneth Bancroft Clark," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475 [accessed May 23, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Kenneth Bancroft Clark," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475 (accessed May 23, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Kenneth Bancroft Clark [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475.

Bluebook Style

Kenneth Bancroft Clark, http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475 (last visited May 23, 2013).

AMA Style

Kenneth Bancroft Clark. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475. Accessed May 23, 2013.

Synopsis

Kenneth Bancroft Clark was born on July 24, 1914 in the Panama Canal Zone. He was the first black president of the American Psychological Association. With his wife Mamie Phipps Clark, in 1946, he founded the Northside Center for Child Development and published a report that unmasked the psychological effects of school segregation and which was prominently cited in Brown v. Board of Education.

Profile

Psychologist and educator, Kenneth Bancroft Clark was born on July 24, 1914 in the Panama Canal Zone. 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.