The Moss Kendrix Collection includes over 900 photographs and a wide range of documents including correspondence, scripts, advertisements, press releases, programs, magazines, reports, and newspaper clippings from around the country, including Virginia. The collection includes the business archive of public relations firm Moss H. Kendrix Organization and Kendrix’s personal collection of contemporary news reporting and publications.

The Moss Kendrix Collection was a 2020 honoree in the Virginia Association of Museums’ Top 10 Endangered Artifacts.

See more collections from the Alexandria Black History Museum

Moss H. Kendrix: Reframing the Black Image at the Alexandria Black History Museum delves   into the groundbreaking contributions of Moss H. Kendrix (1917-1989), a pioneering figure in public relations and advertising. Known as the “Father of Black Public Relations,” Kendrix’s innovative campaigns redefined African American representation in media during the Jim Crow era, making significant strides for more inclusive and authentic portrayals.

During a time when African American people were still treated as second class citizens under oppressive system of racial segregation that upheld the bigoted legal standard of “separate but equal,” he appealed to Black people’s aspiration for access to the “American Dream.”

The exhibition features objects from the Moss H. Kendrix Collection, offering a unique glimpse into his influential career. Visitors will explore his strategic work with major clients like The Coca-Cola Company, Ford Motor Company, and Carnation Milk, and see firsthand how his activism helped challenge and dismantle entrenched racial stereotypes, promoting more inclusive and respectful media representations.

In 1948, Kendrix founded The Moss Kendrix Organization in Washington, D.C., to market to Black consumers, create job opportunities for Black people in excluded industries, and transform the advertising landscape through his commitment to valuing diverse perspectives, embodied in his motto, “What the Public Thinks—Counts!”

Exhibition Experiences

Interactive educational activities further engage visitors, highlighting the evolution of advertising and the ongoing importance of inclusivity. Discover how Kendrix’s visionary efforts have transformed advertising practices and continue to resonate today.

A man with a vision, Moss Kendrix set up a public relations firm, the Moss H. Kendrix Organization, in 1948 to promote a new approach in marketing – appealing to African American consumers with positive and aspirational advertising campaigns, featuring African American models and stars. Placed in African American newspapers and publications, they appealed directly to readers in a new and empowering way.

Through his public relations work, Kendrix helped to change the way African Americans were depicted in the media. In his advertising campaigns, he appealed to mid-century African Americans by reflecting their reality, where stereotypes or absence had gone before. 

Unfortunately, some of the Moss Kendrix collection has been damaged by prior water and moisture exposure. This has caused staining, curling, and losses to the fragile photographs and documents. Additionally, the paperclips, staples, and glue originally used by Kendrix in creating his archive has left stains and acid burns, damaging and disfiguring the items. Conservation work will help to clean, stabilize, and preserve this important collection for future generations.

View a slideshow illustrating some of the damage to the collection.

View the slideshow 

How you can Help

You can help fund this conservation of this collection with a donation to the Alexandria Black History Museum. To direct your donation to the Moss Kendrix conservation project,  please make a note under Comments on the donation page.

Donate to the Kendrix Collection

The Alexandria Black History Museum is a proud recipient of a 2021-2023 grant from the IMLS Museum Grants for African American History and Culture. This highly competitive and generous grant will enable the museum to digitize, interpret, and make four important archival collections publicly accessible, including that of public relations icon Moss H. Kendrix. The project will culminate in an exhibition on Moss H. Kendrix to open in the spring of 2023.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit IMLS and follow us on facebook and twitter.

In addition to a company archive, the Moss Kendrix Collection contains Kendrix’s personal archive. He amassed a large collection of press clippings, magazines, newspapers and other publications documenting the African American experience in the mid-20th century. This includes clippings about politics, current affairs, civil rights, sports, and the work of organizations such as the NAACP. It also includes publications such as the Go Guide to Pleasant Motoring. Like the Green Book, the Go Guide was an essential tool for the African American traveler during the Jim Crow era.            

Travel Guides for Safe Motoring, Out of the Attic article, Alexandria Times, February 4, 2021.

Moss Kendrix also had his own radio show on Sunday nights on WWDC in Washington, D.C. The 15-minute broadcast included commentary on subjects like international politics, national affairs, or civil rights, and interviews with prominent personalities in the news, such as journalists, editors, members of Congress, governors, and “leaders in American thought.” The collection includes scripts for his radio shows.

Kendrix’s organization created advertising campaigns for companies such as Carnation Milk and Coca-Cola. The collection contains a wealth of documents and photographs from these campaigns, including handwritten and drawn mock-ups. His campaigns would also feature promotional events and sponsorship at sporting and other events.

A colossal bunburger! Carnation Milk partnered with Schneider-Sunbeam for a “bunburger” campaign to promote using evaporated milk in the hamburger meat and burger buns. Moss Kendrix was involved in the publicity, which included the creation of a huge 28” x 36” bun and hamburger, served to a group of YMCA campers. This recipe will feed 80 of your closest friends. Feel free to divide it by 80 for a single serving. 

Moss Kendrix wrote press releases reporting on conferences, conventions, sporting events and meetings and sent them with photographs or original photo montages of the events to African American newspapers and magazines. This press release is about the 1954 NAACP Convention in Dallas, Texas, where The Coca-Cola Company provided complimentary Coke to attendees. 

The work of Moss Kendrix and the Museum's collection have appeared in the following books: Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry by Dr. Jason Chambers and Represented: The Black Imagemakers Who Reimagined African American Citizenship by Dr. Breena Wynn Greer. Kendrix will also appear in a new book by Dr. Denise Hill.

The Moss Kendrix Collection was also featured in Historic Alexandria's Winter in Alexandria Activity Portal. The portal explored the winter theme through City museums and collections. In this video on winter advertising, see more documents and photographs from the extensive Kendrix Collection, including some with festive recipes.

Dr. Brenna Wynn Greer traces how Black public relations guru Moss Hyles Kendrix enlisted white corporate America in a campaign to redefine black citizenship after World War II. Dr. Greer also examines how Kendrix and his work—so visible and so important in the early Cold War era—was almost lost to us. Dr. Greer is Associate Professor of History at Wellesley College, and her first book Represented: The Black Imagemakers Who Reimagined African American Citizenship (University of Pennsylvania Press), is now available for purchase.

This lecture was hosted by Alexandria Black History Museum on February 17, 2021.

The Moss Kendrix Collection is a microcosm of mid-20thcentury African American life and an invaluable repository of the African American experience. Moss Kendrix revolutionized the advertising industry, reimagined and repositioned the African American image in the media, and paved the way for the diversity of actors and models who today are featured in print ads and billboards, television and radio commercials.

Moss Kendrix: pioneer, trailblazer, visionary. Out of the Attic, originally published in the Alexandria Times, February 20, 2020

The Moss Kendrix Collection at the Black History Museum. Out of the Attic, originally published in the Alexandria Times, January 14, 2021.

The MLK - Moss Kendrix Connection, Out of the Attic, originally published in the Alexandria Times, January 13, 2022.

The Moss Kendrix Collection: -- Guess Who? Through his work Moss Kendrix met many famous faces – how many can you recognize?