Its no secret that I have a passion for Advertising and Marketing.  However unlike most professions save maybe field work there were pioneers who paved the way for us (minorities) to have an opportunity to excel in our area’s of expertise.  For me and my Highbrid co-workers, That was Moss Kendrix. 

Kendrix was born in 1917 and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia as a close friend of entertainer Lena Horne.  Most naturally for black men of that time and region he attended Morehouse college.   Kendrix made corporate America aware of the buying power of African-Americans, as well as the need to tap this powerful market for employment opportunities.

Although Kendrix was a Army veteran and succesful journalist, creating the National Negro Newspaper Week, it wasn’t until 1944 when he became the director of PR for the Republic of Liberia’s Centennial Celebration that his legacy in marketing/ public relations would begin. 

That same year, he founded a Washington, D.C. firm called The Moss Kendrix Organization. The company motto, “What the Public Thinks Counts!” Large Corporations including The Coca-Cola Company, Carnation, the National Dental Association, the National Educational Association, the Republic of Liberia, and Ford Motor Company looked to Kendrix to target African-American consumers.  For close to 30 years the Moss Kendrix Organization was the pioneered the movement for targetting minority consumer marketplace.  Moss Kendrix died in December, 1989.