In lieu of Black History Month being just around the corner, I would like to shed light on a few of the most prolific black Public Relations practitioners throughout history.

Patricia Tobin (1943-2008)

  • born in White Plains NY, later moved to Philadelphia which is where she finished high school and got her bachelor’s degree in journalism. In 1983 she founded “Tobin & Associates” which was one of the first firms to appreciate the black consumer. Throughout her career she worked with Toyota, Spike Lee, Wells Fargo, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., Louis Gossett Jr., Nestle USA, Reebok International, Ltd., 100 Black Men of Los Angeles, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP, and Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Joseph Varney Baker (1908-1993)

Baker was a man of many firsts, including:

  • The first black journalist to write for the Philadelphia Inquirer
  • His firm was the first black owned PR firm in the country
  • he was the first african american to receive large monetary amounts from large U.S. corporations
  • He was the first black president of the Philadelphia Public Relations Society (PRSA)
  • First African American to receive accreditation from PRSA

His clients included Pennsylvania Railroad, American Tobacco Company, Carrier Corporation, Hamilton Watch Company, the Gillette Corporation, Scott Paper Company, RCA, Procter & Gamble, Chrysler, DuPont, U.S. Steel, Western Union, NBC, and the Association of American Railroads, he was also a graduate of Central and Temple!

Barbara C. Harris (1930-2020)

  • Born in Philadelphia and getting a journalism degree, she soon began to work for Joseph V Baker Associates after graduation. During her tenure at Baker’s firm, Harris set up and developed a Division of Women’s Information and edited a monthly publication for homemakers. She continued up the ranks until eventually becoming the President of Baker in 1958, and soon after PRSA. Barbara marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma and became the first black female bishop in the Worldwide Anglican Communion

Moss Hyles Kendrix (1917-1989)

  • The Moss Kendrix Organization, was located in Washington, D.C. Over the years its clients included Coca-Cola, Carnation, the National Dental Association, the National Educational Association, and Ford Motor Company. Kendrix is the man who helped the struggling coca cola company advertise to african american communities more effectively. Coca Cola had Kendrix on retainer for many years, in this time he managed marketing and advertising campaigns including entertainers, musicians, and sports figures alike.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

  • Growing up a slave and gaining freedom in his youth, Douglass was a man harboring a  very unique perspective on life within the states as a black man. Writing and publishing three autobiographies that would garner national attention, he through time leveraged his influence to garner a newspaper “The North Star”. That same year he was the only black male to participate in the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls. He was also an abolitionist who fought against Jim Crow and advised President Lincoln on African American issues.

John Harold Johnson (1918-2005)

  • Excelling in Highschool paved the way for Harold to be given a job at Supreme Liberty soon after graduation. His job was to read current publications and find what may interest African Americans. Seeing an opportunity he leveraged his position within the company to receive funding and release “Negro Digest” in 1942. He then went on to found Ebony Magazine in 1945 which had continued to thrive until their 2019 bankruptcy. He also played a role in the spread of Dr. King’s image. In 1951 he founded Jet, which was the publication that released Emmitt Till’s battered face to the public. Along with his publishing and other successes, Johnson was involved in politics. He served as a special ambassador for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, to Ivory Coast and to Kenya, and traveled with Vice President Richard Nixon to Africa, Russia and Poland in 1957 and 1959.

Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)

  • Rustin is best known for organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, where more than 200,000 people gathered and where Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave his now world-famous “I have a dream” speech. While he likely would not have referred to himself as a PR practitioner, his effort put in to plan a 200,000 person event set the standard for any gathering that large within the U.S. moving forward.

Some Interesting facts about Rustin

  • Rustin had refused to give up his seat on a bus, and was beaten by police for it, in 1942, well before Rosa Parks did so in 1955.
  • During World War II Rustin was imprisoned for refusing to serve in the U.S. military.
  • In 1942 Rustin helped his compatriots found the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE).
  • Rustin supported Soviet Jewry, went to refugee camps in Thailand, and protested a French atomic bomb test in the Algerian Sahara. In his later years he also worked for gay rights, giving a speech titled, “The New Ni**ers Are Gays.”

While Undoubtedly many more prolific practitioners exist, these few are some of the most influential of all time, with many of their legacies still being felt by us today. As a consumer I had no clue that there was a point in time where Coca-Cola was not popular in black communities as growing up all the local stores in my area had coke products. But I can now see that through the effort Kendrix put  through all of those years at Coca-Cola they have shifted their brand perception. I knew about Ebony magazine when I was around 5 (2009) and throughout time heard it referenced in different mediums but never knew the man behind the paper. I am not a fan of “Black History Month” as a concept as I feel it diminishes how crucial a role black people have had on history as a whole, and so I hope this brief blog post can shed light on some and inspire you to research for yourself some of the most influential black Public Relations practitioners.