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Black History Month: an interview with Roy Eaton
By Geoff Edwards. Published on February 16, 2011.
It's Black History Month again and for 28 shorts days, sandwiched between our favorite shows and sporting events, we'll be blitzed with stories of African American accomplishments. The intention is keep moving the needle to equality by celebrating the accomplishments of black men and women throughout our lifetime. These stories have always been close to my heart and have helped inspire me throughout my life...so this year I decided to seek out and share the accomplishments that black people have made in our business, the achievements that have made a significant impact.
Enter Mr. Roy Eaton, the first black creative in a general market agency � Young & Rubicam (according to my research, at least). He's 80 years old today and still lives in NYC, but in 1955 he was our industry's version of Jackie Robinson.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Mr. Eaton grew up in a modest home in Harlem, NY. During his youth, he lived through two periods of history that greatly influenced the rest of his life: the devastation of the Great Depression and, the boom of Jazz in his neighborhood, Sugar Hill. The first gave him his tenacity to live life to the fullest, and the second - well, this left an impression on him that lead to his playing piano in Carnegie Hall in the late 30s, and in the early 1950s, earning the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Award.
http://adage.com/article/creativity-...-eaton/148896/
By Geoff Edwards. Published on February 16, 2011.
It's Black History Month again and for 28 shorts days, sandwiched between our favorite shows and sporting events, we'll be blitzed with stories of African American accomplishments. The intention is keep moving the needle to equality by celebrating the accomplishments of black men and women throughout our lifetime. These stories have always been close to my heart and have helped inspire me throughout my life...so this year I decided to seek out and share the accomplishments that black people have made in our business, the achievements that have made a significant impact.
Enter Mr. Roy Eaton, the first black creative in a general market agency � Young & Rubicam (according to my research, at least). He's 80 years old today and still lives in NYC, but in 1955 he was our industry's version of Jackie Robinson.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Mr. Eaton grew up in a modest home in Harlem, NY. During his youth, he lived through two periods of history that greatly influenced the rest of his life: the devastation of the Great Depression and, the boom of Jazz in his neighborhood, Sugar Hill. The first gave him his tenacity to live life to the fullest, and the second - well, this left an impression on him that lead to his playing piano in Carnegie Hall in the late 30s, and in the early 1950s, earning the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Award.
http://adage.com/article/creativity-...-eaton/148896/
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