StoryCorps Chicago: ‘I Was Not Marching In The Street, But I Was Marching In The Business’

Ron Sampson (right) worked in advertising in Chicago starting in the 1950s.
Ron Sampson (right) worked in advertising in Chicago starting in the 1950s. Courtesy of StoryCorps Chicago
Ron Sampson (right) worked in advertising in Chicago starting in the 1950s.
Ron Sampson (right) worked in advertising in Chicago starting in the 1950s. Courtesy of StoryCorps Chicago

StoryCorps Chicago: ‘I Was Not Marching In The Street, But I Was Marching In The Business’

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In the 1950s and ’60s, Ron Sampson worked at advertising agencies in Chicago that marketed everything from fast food to cars. Sampson is black, and the agencies where he worked early in his career were all white.

Those early days in his career were what Sampson talked about with his son, Dave, when they came by the StoryCorps booth at the Chicago Cultural Center back in 2014.

Courtesy of Dave Sampson

Bill Healy produces StoryCorps Chicago and teaches journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him @chicagoan.