Staff breathed a collective sigh of relief when everything checked out. Park staff researched the doll's journey and conducted an examination of the doll comparing it to photographs of those used by the Clarks. The original diaper was gone and the face now had a green tint after years of being exposed to sunlight. While the white doll has been lost to time, the black doll remained. Clark to one of his students who later passed them on to one of her close friends to be used as toys for her children. In 2013, the park received a call asking if they would be interested in acquiring one of the dolls.Ī pair had been given by Dr. Board of Education National Historical Park would answer the Clark dolls. If asked, what would they most like to have in their museum collection, the staff at Brown v.
In the Court's opinion, Warren noted the legal separation of black children gave them "a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone."īecause of the impact on the Court's decision, the doll tests have become symbol for the Brown case. That sense of inferiority would last the rest of their lives. To the Clarks, these tests provided proof segregation gave African American children a sense of inferiority. The children would say the black dolls were "bad" and the white dolls looked most like them.
The results showed the majority of black children preferred the white dolls to the black dolls. The Clarks asked the children questions such as which dolls were "nice" and which were "bad" and "which doll is most like you?"
Black baby doll skin#
The dolls were the same except two had a dark skin and two had light skin. In the experiment, the Clarks handed black children four dolls. Both psychologists, Kenneth and Mamie had conducted studies in New York City in the 1930s. Kenneth and Mamie Clark to repeat experiments with school children from Clarendon County, South Carolina. These scientists had been studying the effect of segregation on black children. Marshall and his legal team relied upon the work of a group of social scientists. To make their case, Marshall and his team needed to prove separate couldn't be equal. Supreme Court segregation itself was unconstitutional. By 1950, Thurgood Marshall and other NAACP lawyers hoped to convince the U.S. In prior cases, the NAACP won by showing the unequal conditions of segregated schools. Supreme Court had set a precedent that allowed segregation under the doctrine of separate but equal for 55 years by that point. School segregation was practiced in 17 states and the nation's capital. This is the doll's story.įor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the legal landscape looked grim in 1951. Board of Education National Historical Park to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the U.S.
In 2014, one of those dolls went on display at Brown v. Yet a set of baby dolls – two black, two white – played a key role in what many consider the most important legal ruling of the 20th century. NPS Photo by Visual Information Specialist Preston WebbĬhildren's toys aren't usually talked about by the U.S. Kenneth and Mamie Clark that would later be used in Brown v. This doll was one of four dolls, two black and two white, used in the experiment conducted by Drs.
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