In 1949, an African-American marketing executive for the Pepsi-Cola company named Edward F. Boyd attended a performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. By his own account, Boyd was moved to tears by the play, deeply affected by its resonance with his own experiences and observations of salesmanship in mid-20th century America.
"Here was a guy who was a success," Boyd later said of the play's protagonist, "but in the end, it all came back down on him."
Boyd, however, was no Willy Loman. Although he was fated to experience his own share of disappointment, Boyd's role in Pepsi's pioneering venture to tap the African-American market by employing African-American sales personnel is a story of triumph. Boyd and his colleagues, only a dozen strong at their peak in 1951, made a significant contribution to the success of the Civil Rights movement and to corporate America's recognition of a multi-ethnic society.
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