Dukes, an African-American who grew up in Detroit's former "Black Bottom" neighborhood, will be a keynote speaker at the Public Relations Student Society of America National Conference in Detroit this weekend. He will speak during a reception between 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, in the Ambassador Ballroom at the Renaissance Center.

An Army veteran who served in Korea, Dukes began his journalistic career as a reporter for the black-owned Detroit Courier newspaper and as news director for WCHB Radio in Detroit. In 1961, he became assistant to the editor of the Michigan Chronicle and won three awards for writing from the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He was also active in the Detroit NAACP.

In 1964, he left Detroit to join President Lyndon B. Johnson's Administration as deputy director of public affairs for the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. In 1969, he established the Ofield Dukes & Associates public relations firm in Washington, specializing in minority and political affairs. Motown Records was the first client.

Dukes has won numerous awards, including PRSA's prestigious Silver Anvil for excellence in public relations as well as a Gold Anvil Award. He has served as an adjunct professor of public relations at Howard University and at American University. More recent clients have included Sony Music Entertainment, RJR Nabisco and the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1970, he donated many of his papers to the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University, where they are available to researchers.