Inferiority and Humiliation
In the hearings before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, some of America's leading social scientists submitted an amicus curiae statement regarding "The Effects of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregation."* This testimony, the evidence it cited, and other scientific testimony cited by the Court in its decision, were the basis for the argument that separate-but-equal education devastated the psyche of segregated minority children. The statement was signed by thirty-two scientists, most of whom were well-known professors.
The statement reports two key findings from social science and psychological studies presented at a 1950 conference.**
The first finding was that segregated minority children "often react with feelings of inferiority and a sense of personal humiliation" to their segregation. Here is how the statement put the matter:
"The report indicates that as minority children learn the inferior status to which they are assigned--as they observe the fact that they are almost always segregated and kept apart from others who are treated with more respect by the society as a whole--they often react with feelings of inferiority and a sense of personal humiliation. Many of them become confused about their own personal worth." (Pp. 495-496.)
The second finding was that the psychological effects of segregation on children last beyond their school years and often produce destructive behavior. Here is the relevant language.
"... the evidence suggests that all of these children are unnecessarily encumbered in some ways by segregation and its concomitants." (Pp. 496.)
The statement acknowledged the difficulty of isolating, observing, and measuring the psychological effects of segregated education, as distinguished from the effects of general prejudice against minority children and as distinguished from social disorganization in the minority community. The scientists believed they had nonetheless found in empirical research that segregation was especially powerful in its adverse effects on children. The power of segregated education derived in part from the "symbols of authority, the full force of the authority of the state" involved in enforcing segregation. (Pp. 497.)
It was important to note that the inferiority and humiliation produced by segregation often produced, in the children, "a generally defeatist attitude and a lowering of personal ambitions. This, for example, is reflected in a lowering of pupil morale and a depression of the eduational aspiration level among minority group childen in segregated schools. In producing such effects, segregated schools impair the ability of the child to profit from the educational opportunities provided him." (Pp. 496.)
The implication of the scientists' findings was that the highest priority need was to raise the minority children's self-worth (through integrating schools) first, so the children could then learn more effectively. Enhancing self-worth through family reconstitution or reducing minority social disorganization would not be effective without de-segregation, because the positive effects of family and social betterment would out-weighed by the deleterious effects of segregation enforced by the state.
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* Kenneth B. Clark, Isidor Chein, and Stuart W. Cook, "The Effects of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregation; A Social Science Statement," reprinted in American Psychologist 59 (September 2004), 495-501.
** Kenneth B. Clark, "Effect of Prejudice and Discrimination on Personality Development," Fact Finding Report Mid-century White House Conference on Children and Youth, Children's Bureau, Federal Security Agency 1950 (mimeographed at the time, but subsequently published in book form).
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