Clark, Mamie Phipps

Clark, Mamie Phipps

(1917–83) psychologist; born in Hot Springs, Ark. While attending Howard University she married psychologist Kenneth B. Clark (1938) and in 1946 they founded the Northside Center for Child Development in New York City. They made the first, now classic, studies of personality development in black children (1939–50) (the studies cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education). She served as associate director of the center for 33 years (to 1979).