Where Are All the Black Men in Public Relations?

9th Annual Celebrating Black PR History event
Thursday, February 15, 2024, 6pm ET
Recorded before a live audience and available via Zoom, followed by a networking reception.

Watch the Program (1 hour)

Ninety years ago, the first African American man opened a public relations agency in the extraordinarily competitive New York market. Despite dealing with the Depression—and despite his race—Joseph Varney Baker thrived for decades by representing national corporations reaching out to the burgeoning Black middle class in the North. While several Black men over the decades followed successfully in Baker's footsteps, primarily as entrepreneurs, Black men today are all but absent inside today's agencies and corporate communications departments, and Black entrepreneurs are few and far between.

This intergenerational panel addressed the real life issues affecting Black male communicators today, with a focus on developing strategies to attract more Black men into the industry.  

INTRO Carmella Glover, President, Diversity Action Alliance

HOST Dr. Chuck Wallington, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Cone Health

David W. Brown, Assistant Dean of Community and Communication, Temple University

Emmanuel Reid, Account Executive, Ogilvy Chicago

Brandon Thomas, Executive Vice President, Freuds Group

Devon Jackson, Senior Account Supervisor, EGAMI Group

CLOSING Touré Burgess, VP of Operations; Chair, Black Men in Communications, VP, Operations, Black Public Relations Society New York

 

Thanks to our Sponsors

Celebrating Black PR History 2024: Where Are All the Black Men in Public Relations? was sponsored in part by Founding Partner Edelman; underwritten by BCW and APCO Worldwide; and sponsored by The Wallace Foundation; Page; Google; Zeno; the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at University of Georgia; Black Public Relations Society of New York; and CommPRO.