Why was Kenneth Clark's doll study an important part of the Brown v. Board of Education case?

Answer 1

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954)

Answer

Kenneth and Mamie Clark's doll study demonstrated that African-American children had internalized negative beliefs about themselves and their race due to the social stigma of segregation. The US Supreme Court used the results of the study to help support their decision to declare segregation in public schools unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause.

Explanation

Kenneth and Mamie Clerk were African-American psychologists who founded Harlem's Northside Center for Child Development. They conducted social and psychological research on African-American children during the Civil Rights Movement.

In the late 1940s, the Clarks used a pair of black and white baby dolls to study African-American children's perceptions of their race. The study comprised two groups of Washington, DC school children: one group attended integrated schools; the other attended segregated schools.

In the experiment, African-American children aged six to nine were given the two dolls to play with. The Clarks noted 63% of the children preferred the white doll. When asked questions about which doll was good, and which doll was bad, most identified the white doll as "good" and the black doll as "bad." The last question Clark asked was which doll looked most like the children. Some of the children hesitated before choosing the black doll; others chose the white doll.

Next, the researchers asked the children to color a picture of themselves. Most chose colors significantly lighter than their actual skin tone. The Clarks concluded from these experiments that the children had internalized white society's negative stereotypes of African-Americans, damaging their self-image as worthwhile people.

The Clarks replicated their experiment using preschool children in South Carolina, achieving almost identical results. Robert Carter, NAACP counsel for the South Carolina case Briggs v. Elliot, one of the suits consolidated into Brown, presented the Clarks' research and expert testimony at trial in his case. Although the he lost before a three-judge panel in US District Court (the expected outcome), the powerful data was then able to be incorporated into Thurgood Marshall's argument before the US Supreme Court.

The doll study had a significant impact on the justices. In the opinion of the Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote:

"...Such considerations apply with added force to children in grade and high schools. To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications 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."

and, quoting in part from the lower court case in Brown:

"Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system."

"Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority [referring to the Clarks' research]. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected."

The Court held that segregation was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause, and found it unnecessary to address the Due Process Clause because the Equal Protection Clause was sufficient to declare segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

For more information, see Related Questions, below.