Psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark Biography

Mamie Phipps Clark is a noted female psychologist, best known for her research on race, self-esteem, and child development. The work did with her husband, Kenneth Clark, was critical in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case. She was the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University. 

Mamie Phipps Clark's Early Life

Mamie Phipps Clark was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Her father, Harold, was a doctor, and her mother, Katie, helping her husband with his practice. Encouraged by her parents to pursue her education, Clark began college as a physics and math major.

She met her husband, Kenneth Clark, at Howard, and he soon convinced her to switch majors to psychology. She graduated magna cum laude in 1938 and then spent time working in a law office where witnessed first-hand the damaging effects of racial segregation.

Clark soon started graduate school and gave birth to two children while pursuing her studies. Her master's thesis centered on the formation of racial identity and self-esteem. Her work helped pave the way for further research on self-concept among minorities.

In 1943, she earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Not only was she the only Black woman in the entire program, but she also became the second African-American to earn a doctorate from Columbia, the first being her husband. 

Establishing Her Career

Even after earning her Ph.D., Clark found finding good job opportunities to be difficult.

"Although my husband had earlier secured a teaching position at the City College of New York, following my graduation it soon became apparent to me that a Black female with a Ph.D. in psychology was an unwanted anomaly in New York City in the early 1940s," she later explained.

After working briefly analyzing data for the American Public Health Association, she moved on to a position as a research psychologist for the United States Armed Forces Institute. While working as a testing psychologist at an organization for homeless Black girls, Clark noted how limited mental health services were for minority children.

The Clark Doll Test

In a classic experiment, the Clarks showed Black children two dolls that were identical in every way except that one doll was white and one was Black. The children were then asked a series of questions including which doll they preferred to play with, which doll was a "nice" doll, which one was a "bad doll," and which one looked most like the child.

The researchers discovered that not only would 59% the children identify the Black doll as the "bad" one, nearly 33% selected the white doll as the one they most resembled.

Contributions to Psychology

Mamie Phipps Clark played an important role in the civil rights movement, as her work with her husband demonstrated how the concept of "separate but equal" provided a far from equal education for Black youth. Her investigations into self-concept among minorities inspired further research on the subject and opened up new areas of research within the field of developmental psychology.

Unfortunately, many of Clarks important contributions have been overlooked, with psychology history courses and textbooks mentioning her only in passing. In his book History of Psychology, author David Hothersall notes that minorities, including Black and female psychologists, have long been neglected in psychology histories.

Her publications include:

• Clark, M. (1944). Changes in primary mental abilities with age. Archives of Psychology, 291. New York: Columbia University.
• Clark, M.P. & Karp, J. (1960). A report on a summer remedial program. Elementary School Journal, 61, 137-142.
• Clark, M.P. (1970). Changing concepts in mental health, a thirty-year review. Conference Proceedings, Thirtieth Anniversary Conference, May 7. New York: Northside Center for Child Development.
• Clark, K.B., & Clark, M.P. (1939). The development of consciousness of self and the emergence of racial identification in Negro preschool children. ​Journal of Social Psychology, 10(4), 591-599.
• Clark, K.B., & Clark, M.P. (1939). Segregation as a factor in the racial identification of Negro pre-school children: A preliminary report. Journal of Experimental Education, 8(2), 161-165.