How 20th-Century Black Business Leaders Envisioned a More Just Capitalism

Think back over the pantheon of 20th-century corporate leaders and thinkers you learned about in business school and you’ll likely conjure up figures like Frederick Winslow Taylor, Peter Drucker, Jack Welch, or Clayton Christensen. It’s hardly a surprise that these canonical giants are largely male and white. What’s less well known is that the same century in the U.S. saw a golden age of Black business and Black business thinkers. Deeply rooted systemic prejudices meant that these individuals and their thinking were omitted from most textbooks, leadership workshops, and from public consciousness. It’s past time to incorporate their work into what we know of business history, not only because it is the ethical thing to do but because  in our research as management historians, we’ve found that a more racially inclusive history of management is filled with profound advice about the role of business in society that is relevant for leaders today.