Kenneth B. Clark, an African-American social psychologist, was born in 1914. He attended Howard University and earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1940.
Clark became interested in the area of self-concept and racial identification. In a 1939 classic study, he and his wife found that African American preschoolers preferred White dolls to Black ones. He taught at City College of New York City from 1942 until 1975 when he retired. He served as president of the American Psychological Association, and in 1987 was presented APA's gold medal award for contributions by a psychologist in the public interest.