Foundation Awardees List Topped By Activist Too 'Radical' For Rockland

PLEASANTVILLE, NY — The Gordon Parks Foundation has announced its awardees for 2023, and the list includes 78-year-old Angela Davis, whose recent invitations to speak to students from the North Rockland school district and at nearby St. Thomas Aquinas College were rescinded after protests from some members of the White community.

Davis, who became famous in the 1960s and has since had a career as a writer, speaker and activist, did visit Rockland County after the NAACP and others invited her to speak at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Nyack, The Journal News reported.

The foundation will celebrate Gordon Parks’s legacy and those continuing his commitment to advancing social justice at its annual awards dinner and auction May 23 in New York City.

In addition to Davis, this year’s gala will honor artist Amy Sherald, businesswoman and philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai, author and producer Crystal R. McCrary and businessman and community leader Raymond McGuire.

The evening will also fete the recently announced 2023 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellows – artists Jammie Holmes and José Parlá and art historian and Howard University professor, Melanee C. Harvey, who received the Genevieve Young Fellowship in Writing.

Additionally, the Foundation will welcome Kate Clark Harris, daughter of Dr. Kenneth Clark;and Dr. Mamie Clark, groundbreaking psychologists who were the first African American man and the first African American woman, respectively, to earn a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University in the early 1940s.

Over the course of 14 years, the Clarks developed and conducted what became known as “the doll tests”—groundbreaking experiments that revealed the psychological effects of segregation on African American children. The tests were conducted using several dolls, all identical except for skin color. The Black children, ages 3–7, were asked to identify which doll they preferred. The majority preferred the white doll, leading Drs. Clark to conclude that “prejudice, discrimination and segregation” damaged their self-esteem and caused Black children to develop a sense of inferiority.

In 1947, Gordon Parks photographed the Clarks conducting their doll tests for Ebony magazine for an article titled “Problem Kids: New Harlem clinic rescues ghetto youth from emotional short circuit.” The doll test research was later used as key evidence in school desegregation lawsuits including, notably, Brown v. Board of Education.

After earning her master’s degree from Smith College School of Social Work, Clark Harris carried on her parents’ legacy throughout her career as a psychiatric social worker and advocate for the urban poor. She served as executive director of New York City’s Northside Center for Child Development, an organization her mother founded in 1946. She is currently retired in Sarasota, Florida and does volunteer work with Take Stock in Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and a local literacy organization that teaches adults to read.

"The Gordon Parks Foundation is proud to recognize this group of visionary leaders whose dedication to advancing social justice embodies the legacy of Gordon Parks," said Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., executive director of The Gordon Parks Foundation. "This annual event is a celebration of Parks’s legacy, of the artists and leaders continuing on the path he paved and a reminder of just how crucial this work continues to be."

The honorees will be introduced by Pulitzer-prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, screenwriter and producer Mara Brock Akil, artist Rashid Johnson, and the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden. Famed DJ and producer D-Nice will close the night with a special set for all those gathered.

The gala, which brings together changemakers across film, music, the visual arts, business and philanthropy, will include a live auction of Gordon Parks’s photographs. The evening is co-chaired by Alicia Keys and Kasseem Dean; Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault; Tonya and Spike Lee; Judy and Leonard Lauder; and Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis, Jr.

All proceeds from the evening will support year-round educational programming as well as the fellowships, prizes, and scholarships provided by The Gordon Parks Foundation to the next generation of artists, writers, and students whose work follows in Parks’s footsteps.

Tickets are available starting at $1,500. They can be purchased on the Gordon Parks Foundation website, or by contacting Buckley Hall Events at gpfgala@buckleyhallevents.com or 914-579-1000.