This summary is based on the original webinar material from the Hill Podcast by Dr. Denise Hill.
Dr. Denise Hill spoke about minority public relations pioneers that have been excluded from history on her podcast, Hill Podcast.
Dr. Hill referred to Scott Cutlip’s two foundational public relations textbooks, The Unseen Power and Public Relations, and A History from the 17th Century to 20th Century, to demonstrate how minority pioneers have been left out of public relations history.
Out of the 17 pioneers Cutlip mentioned throughout these textbooks, none of them were minorities. According to Dr. Hill, there were two women mentioned out of the 17 pioneers, and they were mentioned in relation to the men with whom they worked. Cutlip did mention in the prologue of the textbook that the absence of minority public relations leaders was not his choice, but a fact of history.
Dr. Hill mentioned several minority public relations pioneers that could have been included in these seminal textbooks:
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett – Wells-Barnett was an activist and suffragist best known for launching an extensive anti-lynching campaign.
- Henry Lee Moon – Moon was director of public relations for the NAACP when the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case occurred, and during the 1963 March on Washington.
- Joseph V. Baker – Baker founded a public relations firm in the early 1900s and had a number of named clients including Procter and Gamble and the Chrysler Corporation.
- Moss Kendrix – Kendrix led the initiative for the Coca-Cola Corporation to start targeting African American audiences in the 1940s. He worked for Coca-Cola for 20 years, during which he pioneered strategies in public relations, integrated marketing communications, and multicultural communications.
Listen to the podcast or read the transcript to learn about excluded public relations pioneers and their vital contributions to the field of public relations.
Citation:
Hill, D. (2019, April 11). Hill podcast: Hidden Figures in Public Relations History. Retrieved September 15, 2020, from https://journalism-history.org/2019/04/16/hill-podcast-hidden-figures-in-public-relations-history/
