Kenneth B. Clark

Kenneth B. Clark "was an educator, psychologist, and longtime civil rights activist. His career was a litany of firsts: Clark was the first African American to be awarded a PhD in psychology at Columbia University, the first to hold a permanent professorship at The City College of New York, and the first to serve as president of the American Psychological Association. Clark’s early work on the perceptions of race among young children is widely viewed as the linchpin of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed segregation in schools and other public institutions. With his wife, the psychologist Mamie Clark, Kenneth Clark founded the influential Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem. His books include Prejudice and Your Child (1955), Dark Ghetto (1965), A Possible Reality (1972), and Pathos of Power (1975). He also worked with Gunnar Myrdal on the now-classic analysis, An American Dilemma:The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.

"Clark also served, from the very beginning, on The New Press Board of Directors and was a loyal supporter of our mission."

• Winner of the 1985 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute: Four Freedoms Award
• Founder, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies