Mamie P. Clark's Narrative Segregation as Blasphemy: Veritas et Utilitas, Truth, and Service

• In Event: 45.093 - MTCC Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: 45.093-11 - The Persistence of Women and Girls in Educational Settings

Abstract

Mamie P. Clark, the only woman educator involved in Brown V. Board, realized it was time for early childhood educators, to clearly “sense the urgency…of blasphemy to Blacks” (Clark, 1983, p. 278). Her scholarship was instrumental in dismantling school segregation, particularly fostering young children’s identity development. Mamie Clark found that young Black children were resigned to a badge of inferior racial status. She concluded that integration during children’s early years for young Black and White children ultimately would ameliorate lasting effects of segregation (Clark & Clark, 1940; Karera, 2010). Her overshadowed scholarship and career converge exposing how segregation established deeply held racial awareness and color preference for young children.

Authors

• Lois McFadyen Christensen, The University of Alabama - Birmingham

• Jerry T Aldridge, The University of Alabama - Birmingham

• Jennifer Kilgo, The University of Alabama - Birmingham