Re-examining the Baby Doll Study and Its Impact 60 Years Later

⁣It was an experiment that changed the course of U.S. history-- baby dolls helped to desegregate schools and alter the way race in this country is viewed. Now, more than 60 years later, would the results be any different?
“I don’t really know what about it stuck with me, but I remember wondering if things were different, what would happen,” says Dr. Toni Sturdivant, Texas A&M assistant professor.

She first heard about Dr. Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s doll experiments as an undergrad and has been thinking about it ever since. The study questioned over 200 Black children, ages three to seven, about Black and white baby dolls. What they found was startling.

“They’d say things like, ‘Give me the doll that you’d like to play with’ or ‘give me the doll that looks bad,'” says Sturdivant. “Two-thirds of the children selected the white dolls for positive attributes and the black dolls for negative attributes.”