An American social psychologist, Kenneth B. Clark (born 1914) was the best known and most highly regarded black social scientist in the United States. Clark achieved international recognition for his research on the social and psychological effects of racism and segregation.

Kenneth Clark was born on July 14, 1914, in the Panama Canal Zone. At the age of five Clark's mother moved him and his younger sister to Harlem, New York, where he was educated in the public schools. Clark received his bachelor's and master's degrees at Howard University where he met Mamie Phipps, who became his wife and life-long collaborator and colleague. While at Howard the Clarks began studying the effects of racism on the identity and self-esteem of Washington, D.C., school children.

In 1940 they moved to New York City to pursue doctoral studies at Columbia University and to continue their work on the psychological effects of racism. Clark's...