Let's March Forward Together: The Rise of Black Advertising Professionals and Consumers

Allen L. McKellar

Allen McKellar with James Brown at the piano

Allen McKellar (right) with James Brown at the piano, ca. 1968.

Born in 1920 in Abbeville, South Carolina, Allen L. McKellar was a sales and marketing executive based primarily in the St. Louis area and one of the first professionals to break the color barrier in major American corporations. After graduating from South Carolina Colored Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1940, McKellar was hired by Pepsi- Cola as part of a program to promote Pepsi consumption in the Black community. McKellar served in the U.S. Army during World War II and returned to Pepsi around 1947. After Pepsi restructured its operations in 1951, McKellar took a job with Falstaff Brewing, where he worked until he retired in 1975. He died in 2018.

Fallstaff advertisement featuring Allen McKellar, 1971.
The Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation, March 1971.
Creative Research Associates, September-October 1969.
WVON, Chicago, Ill., 1963.
Miss Black America, 1971.

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Let’s March Forward Together explores how Black men and women in the advertising industry helped to create a more positive and inclusive consumer culture. The exhibit focuses in particular on the work of five Black advertising executives whose papers are held by the Rubenstein Library’s Hartman Center: Allen McKellar, Roy Eaton, Archie Boston Jr., Tom Burrell, and Steve Climons.

On view February 9, 2023-July 31, 2023

The Mary Duke Biddle Room, Duke University Libraries
Durham, NC

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