Children, Race, and Power: Kenneth and Mamie Clark's Northside Center

Both an intellectual biography of the Clarks and a history of the influence of their Northside Center in Harlem,Children, Race, and Powercaptures the vitality and confusion of progressive politics in New York in the 1950s and 1960s. If racism is America's biggest problem, then this absorbing study of the continuing struggle to protect the children who are most vulnerable top it in the nation's best known black community is, in many ways, a history of the struggle for the American future. Children, Race, and Powerspeaks strongly to those concerned about twentieth-century race relations. The authors examine the Clarks' vision and contrast it to how the Center actually functioned, revealing that even such an innovative institution as Northside could not offset the profound inequality of social and material resources in Harlem. The story of this battle against social and economic racism in New York City offers much insight to anyone wanting to know more about the intersection of politicsand race.