| This dissertation is an historical analysis of the public relations strategies used by the National Association of Colored People and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith during their founding years. Scholarly work in public relations pays attention to the civil rights-era public relations strategies of these groups, specifically in the area of segregation and school prayer respectively. There is a need to look farther back in institutional memory to uncover the contributions these groups, and specifically their leaders, played in shaping contemporary public relations practice.;While earlier studies tend to concentrate on the purely historical chronology of these organizations, this dissertation uses archival resources to contextualize these organizations and provide a case study approach to examine how these organizations used the hallmarks of public relations—research, media relations, face-to-face meetings and publications—to create social change that has stood the test of time.;Both the NAACP and the ADL shaped the political and social landscape by calling into question all that was taken for granted at the turn of the century; truths that escaped and defied reality like lynchings and Jim Crow laws. These organizations worked tirelessly to employ defensive and offensive tactics to bring down bigots and admonish anyone who would stand in the way of tolerance. It was their deft and expert use of public relations that contributed to both national and international prominence of these organizations, all of which account for the organizations' longevity that exists into the 21 st century. |
