• PSYCHOLOGIST
  
• Her research helped PROVE that school segregation was harmful to child development
• Earned a scholarship to Howard University, where she initially studied math and physics but then switched to psychology
• FIRST Black woman to earn a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University
• Designed the now famous "Doll Test" to gauge how kids perceive race: Black children were presented with four dolls -- two Black, two white -- and asked which they preferred; most chose the white dolls
• Clark determined that Black children as young as three years old were aware of their skin color and considered it a negative because of their interactions with society
• Her groundbreaking study was used in several court cases to desegregate, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954
• Also worked with homeless youth at the Riverdale Home for Children in New York, prompting her and her husband to found the Northside Center for Child Development in 1946, a community center that still provides education and health services to underserved local children -- she served as its Executive Director until 1980
• Involved in launching the national Head Start program
• An ardent proponent of federal funding for cultural institutions, she served as president of the Museum Collaborative, and was a member of numerous boards and advisory councils, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, and the American Broadcasting Company

Photo by unknown; via Flickr, Washington Area Spark

Bibliography: Harvey, Joy and Marilyn Ogilvie. "Clark, Mamie Katherine (Phipps)." The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, Vol. 1. Routledge, 2000, 263.
Harrison, Vashti. Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Print.
Sherman, Jill. 25 Women Who Thought of it First. North Mankato: Compass Point Books, 2019. Print.
Our History. Northside Center. https://www.northsidecenter.org/our-history.html

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