Wall Street Journal
writer Capparell (author of the leadership book Shackleton
's Way
) recounts the struggles of 12 of the first black executives hired by any leading U.S. business in this worthwhile but plodding account. They got their break when Pepsi-Cola CEO Walter S. Mack, who was facing an uphill battle against Coke, decided that tapping the "Negro market" would help Pepsi win. He hired Edward F. Boyd, a sometime actor, to create a team of salesmen to push Pepsi-Cola with black customers. The team quickly became community role models, feted in magazines like Jet
and Ebony
, while Coke enthusiastically backed Georgia's racist governor Herman Talmadge. As a result, Pepsi earned a reputation as the "liberal" soft drink, capturing the lion's share of the cola market among African-Americans. But after Mack fell to a corporate shakeup in 1951, the effort was disbanded. One member of Boyd's team, despite years of success at Pepsi and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, later had to take a job mopping floors to support his family. Readers may wish the writing were more adept, yet this account makes clear the incredible barriers to black achievement that existed just half a century ago. (Jan.)
