By Olivia Kearse
Hi, my name is Olivia Kearse, and I’m the Director of Chapter Advancement for PRSSA and a senior at Hofstra University.
For the month of February, or Black History Month, I wanted to highlight an African American Public Relations professional, Barbara Harris. Barbara was born in Philadelphia on June 12, 1930. Upon her high school graduation in 1943, she attended Charles Morris Price School of Advertising and Journalism.
Harris later started working for Joseph V. Baker Associates which was at the time an all-men firm. This was also the first African-American Public Relations firm in the United States, which opened in 1934. Baker, a founder, was like a mentor to Harris. She found herself responsible for several major corporate accounts. During this time women of color didn’t have roles of that stature, therefore she found it important to uplift other women. During her time at Joseph V. Baker Associates, she founded the Division of Women’s Information.
In her later years, she worked for Sun Oil Company for nine years. She achieved several awards in her lifetime, such as consecutive American Black Achievement Awards in 1989 and 1990. Harris was an advocate for women’s rights and the LGBT community.
Barbara Harris retired in 2002. She is also best known as being the first woman elected to serve as Bishop in the Episcopal Church. She fell sick in 2010 and sadly had a stroke and passed away on March 13, 2020, in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Happy Black History Month!
Hofstra's PRSSA 