70 Years After Brown v. Board, Dolls Research Still Sheds Light on Black Children’s Well-being

However, what received less attention—despite being of arguably equal importance for promoting positive child development and well-being—were findings about the Black children who did not reject the Black doll. Most of these children attended racially segregated schools in the South (Arkansas) rather than racially mixed schools in the North (Massachusetts). A thorough understanding of factors that shielded these children from the insidious effects of racism on their identity development could have informed desegregation plans and methods, ensuring the preservation of sources of support, resilience, and protection for Black students (e.g., culturally affirming learning environments and Black educators who served as role models and mentors.)[2]

Seven decades after Brown, U.S. public schools remain highly segregated by race and Black students and families continue to strive for equal educational opportunities. In the intervening years, researchers have conducted several variations of the dolls study. While most of these studies generated concerning findings similar to those reported in the Clarks’ studies,[3] they have also provided a more complex depiction of how institutional racism affects young children’s preferences and beliefs, as well as potential strategies to disrupt its negative effects.

Some studies have suggested that:

• White children have deeper and more emphatic in-group preferences than Black children (1966) but both Black and White children can exhibit in-group preferences (1970).
• Middle-income Black children show greater out-group preferences than their Black peers with lower incomes (1969).
• Age affects racial preferences among Black children, with older children showing either greater in-group preference or no racial preference (1995).
• Black boys exhibit higher rates of out-group preferences than Black girls under some conditions (1969) but not others (2017).
• Anti-Black preferences are at least temporarily malleable among young children (1988) through interventions such as exposure to heroic Black figures in moral stories, although such stories may reinforce in-group preferences for White children (2009).

Despite ongoing debates about the methods and interpretations of individual doll studies, these studies collectively highlight key areas for further research on risks and protections for Black children and youth, including diversity in the K-12 curriculum and teacher workforce. To fully realize the potential of this research to contribute to equality and justice for all children, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and the individuals and communities most impacted by injustice must work in tandem. While not simple or easy, such collaboration is essential to achieve the yet unfulfilled promise of the Brown v. Board decision.

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Footnotes

[1] Footnote 11 included the following references: Cited in footnote 11:

K.B. Clark, Effect of Prejudice and Discrimination on Personality Development (Mid-century White House Conference on Children and Youth, 1950);

Witmer and Kotinsky, Personality in the Making (1952), c. VI;

Deutscher and Chein, The Psychological Effects of Enforced Segregation A Survey of Social Science Opinion, 26 J.Psychol. 259 (1948);

Chein, What are the Psychological Effects of Segregation Under Conditions of Equal Facilities?, 3 Int.J.Opinion and Attitude Res. 229 (1949);

Brameld, Educational Costs, in Discrimination and National Welfare (MacIver, ed., 1949), 44-48; Frazier, The Negro in the United States (1949), 674-681. And see generally Myrdal, An American Dilemma (1944).

[2] See, for example: Anderson, J. D. (1988). The education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. Univ of North Carolina Press; Walker, V. S. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school community in the segregated South. Univ of North Carolina Press; Milner, H. R., & Howard, T. C. (2004). Black Teachers, Black Students, Black Communities, and Brown: Perspectives and Insights from Experts. The Journal of Negro Education, 73(3), 285–297; and Lyons, J. E., & Joanne Chesley. (2004). Fifty Years after Brown: The Benefits and Tradeoffs for African American Educators and Students. The Journal of Negro Education, 73(3), 298–313.

[3] See, for example: Gopaul-Mc.Nicol, S.-a. (1988). Racial identification and racial preference of Black preschool children in New York and Trinidad. Journal of Black Psychology, 14(2), 65–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984880142005; and Sturdivant, T.D. (2021). Racial Awareness and the Politics in Play: Preschoolers and Racially Diverse Dolls in a US Classroom. IJEC 53, 139–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-021-00289-5