Kenneth Clark, noted educator-psychologist who helped end segregation, succumbs at 90

Jet, May 16, 2005

Kenneth B. Clark, an educator and psychologist who spent his life working for racial integration and improvement in the education of Black children, died at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. He was 90.

The cause of death was not immediately known.

Clark's pioneering study on the effects of racial discrimination was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its historic 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

He was the first Black professor to gain tenure at the City College system of New York and was a distinguished professor emeritus at City College. He also taught at Harvard, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

For 20 years he served on the New York State Board of Regents, which oversees public education in the state, and was sometimes described as the conscience of the board.

In 1950, Clark prepared a study which showed that school segregation marred the development of White as well as Black students. The Supreme Court cited those findings in its unanimous 1954 decision.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that separating Black children from White "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."

Thirty years after that landmark ruling, Clark described himself as "bewildered" at the persistence of de facto segregation and inferior education for many Blacks.

Kenneth Bancroft Clark was born July 24, 1914, in the Panama Canal Zone. He attended Howard University, where one of his instructors, Ralph J. Bunche, became a major influence. He got his master's at Howard, married fellow student Mamie Phipps, and they both earned doctorates in psychology at Columbia University.

He took part in research that contributed to Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal's classic study of race relations, An American Dilemma, and then became an instructor in the psychology department at City College in 1942.

In 1946, he and his wife formed what became the Northside Center for Child Development to treat children with personality disturbances. He served as a consultant to the personnel department of the U.S. State Department during the 1960s.

At one point Clark fought for decentralization of New York City schools, but he later pronounced that experiment a failure: "I thought it would improve the quality of schools, but I turned out to be wrong as hell."

He never abandoned his belief in the importance of education in overcoming racism.

His books included Prejudice and Your Child and Dark Ghetto. He was a past president of the American Psychological Association. Among his honors were the NAACP's prestigious Spingarn Medal in 1961 and the Four Freedoms award in 1985.

After retiring from the Board of Regents, he set up a consulting company in Westchester County.

His wife died in 1983. Survivors include a daughter, Kate, and a son, Hilton.