Dr. Kenneth Bancroft Clark was born on July 14, 1914 in the Panama Canal Zone to Arthur Bancroft Clark and Miriam Hansen Clark. Arthur Clark was an employee of the United Fruit Company. When Kenneth Clark was only four years old his parents divorced and his mother moved him and his younger sister to Harlem, New York. Although Miriam Clark worked as a seamstress to provide an income for her family, being a single parent and living in poverty was not easy, but she provided the care, encouragement, and support her children needed. (obituary) Kenneth Clark attended primarily black public schools in New York City. During this time period, the early to late 1920s, many African Americans did not attend four-year universities, but were much more likely to pursue different trades. Miriam Clark had much higher aspirations for her children at the time. Since Kenneth Clark, himself, was much more interested in books than in acquiring a trade, Miriam Clark transferred him to George Washington High School in Manhattan. Kenneth Clark graduated from George Washington High School in 1931 and four years later, in 1935, graduated from Howard University with a bachelor's and master's degree under the direction of Francis Cecil Sumner, the first African American to receive a doctorate in psychology. (obituary) Kenneth Clark then continued his education and became the first African American to receive a doctorate from Columbia University (Klein). While at Columbia University, Clark met Mamie Phipps, with whom they married in 1938. Over the next few years, much of the research on the work in which Kenneth Clark was involved was performed side by side with his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark. (obituary). While teaching… middle of the paper… social and psychological acceptance could occur if children were taught that acceptance should not be based solely on skin color. Many factors contributed to the ideas and contributions of Dr. Kenneth B. Clark. The primary factor was racial prejudice in America and the false equality he saw experienced by American citizens of color and how this affected their ability to succeed, have equal opportunities, and the development of racial identity. Kenneth B. Clark has contributed much research, ideas, and many innovations to the world of social psychology. Dr. Clark was a social scientist who influenced the equal opportunities and self-esteem of minority children due to school segregation. Clark (1950) black children had a well-developed understanding of the racial difference between “white” and “colored” in reference to skin color.