Uncovering the hidden histories of the PR field – Scholar Q&A with Shelley Spector

About 10 years ago, during a tour of the Museum of Public Relations, a group of students from George Washington University were learning about the familiar names and faces of the public relations industry – Carl Byoir, Ivy Lee, Arthur W. Page, etc. A Black female student raised her hand and asked, “How come nobody here looks like me?” Museum Director Shelley Spector responded, “You’re right. That's a big mistake, and I'm going to fix that.” That one question sparked an ambitious initiative that the museum created in 2017 to showcase the under-recognized pioneers who contributed so much to the profession but have remained essentially "hidden" because of their gender or ethnicity. A part of that project, which will uncover the “Hidden Histories” of two leaders and a human rights organization, is part of the Page Center’s 2024 research call. Joining Spector on this project are Natalie Assorey, David Brown, Sonia Diaz, Rachel Kovacs, Jaime Schwartz Cohen and Chuck Wallington.

In this Q&A, Spector talks about why these histories are important, how it can help boost diversity and the challenges of getting these names into classrooms.

Given where all this started, how does it feel to look for these Hidden Histories, people that you haven’t seen and stories you haven’t heard before, and actually find something?

I can't describe it. It gives you the chills. We didn’t know that in the history of PR pioneers there was this level of very active, very brilliant Asian, Black and Latino practitioners. We just never knew about it. We’ve since learned about the obstacles that they had to deal with, and we’ve learned about their lives. I had personally known the first woman who was a CCO, Marylin Laurie. She was my mentor and role model, which was so important to me because when I was in the field, I was never in meetings with other women. I know how important that is. So, imagine being a Black woman or a Latina woman. You look in your textbook, and all you see are white men. The industry has been telling the story of our history all wrong. Yes, there were many brilliant white men; but we also must recognize and celebrate the contributions of non-white women and men, especially, their ability to overcome decades of discrimination.

Can you talk about the importance of building diversity in the industry?

The reason we think it's so important is that if we as an industry want to attract more diverse students, we have to make them feel more connected to our industry. One way to do that is to celebrate the people that came before them that look like them.

Can you talk about how the Page Center project does that?

We have three teams. One team is looking at D. Parke Gibson. PRSA has an award named after him, but nobody knows who he is. He is a fascinating guy. He wrote a book called “The $3 Billion Black Market,” and in the 1970s he was telling corporations how to sell to the newly emerging middle class of Black suburban households.

Another team is researching the pioneer Bee Marks, who joined Ketchum in 1965 to head up its food practice. It seems so simple now, but she was the first to say a food’s nutritional aspects could be used in marketing. Food was never sold because of nutrition. It was really a barrier breaking moment. It was a simple idea that changed food marketing forever.

The third team is studying an organization called LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. It was created in the 1920s and it was one of the first and largest civil rights organizations for Latin American immigrants. All the communications that you see about Latin Americans and the rights that they're still trying to get is coming out of LULAC.

Once you uncover everything about these three, what happens next? How do they fit with the others you’ve spotlighted over the years?

We're writing a book called “The Hidden History of PR.” The museum is going to be publishing that book, but we're not going to wait until it’s published. Once our website has been redone and posted, which is in a matter of weeks, we're going to add these chapters on the website. Then maybe in 2025 we're going to publish it as a book. It will be available online and in paper for schools. I've been on a campaign for schools to be teaching these historical figures. I surveyed instructors a number of years ago. I asked why they don’t teach history or historical subjects. Well, they say they don't have the resources, so the museum wants to provide professors with the resources.

Are there any other ways promoting diversity helps the public relations industry succeed?

The original impetus for doing this was to attract a more diverse population into the industry by helping them easily connect with people that they can identify with. I hope that by doing so, we can welcome them to the field. I hope they can grow in the field, and at the same time, we can also do more research into these cultural markets instead of having monolithic PR programs. We live in a multicultural society, and we have to join everybody together. We have to appreciate and celebrate differences.