Foreword

Seven years after the founding of Harvard Business School in 1908, Wendell Thomas Cunningham became the first Black student to graduate from the institution. An alumnus of Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia, Cunningham was one of 27 men who received the Master in Business Administration degree in 1915. For the next 50 years, there were a total of only 42 Black graduates of HBS.

The representation of Blacks at HBS took a major turn in the spring of 1968 when five students, including the first Black woman to graduate from HBS, organized — like students on many other U.S. college campuses during the late 1960s — to form the predecessor of the African-American Student Union (AASU, originally called the Afro-American Student Union). These five founders sought to increase the enrollment of Blacks and advocated for a series of curricular and policy changes at the School. Working with Dean George P. Baker and the HBS administration, these five founders visited their alma maters and other institutions to encourage Black students to consider an MBA degree. Through their outreach efforts, the number of Black graduates increased from 5 in 1969 to 27 in 1970 to 58 in 1971. Since that time, there have been approximately 2,300 Black graduates of HBS.

Throughout the last 50 years, AASU has been a catalyst for positive change. AASU members have continuously sought to increase Black enrollment in the MBA Program, they have pursued more financial support for Black students, and they have advocated for an increase in the number of cases and courses that speak to the Black leadership experience. Equally important, AASU has worked diligently to build and cultivate a supportive and encouraging environment for Black students during their two years at HBS.

The core of the Agents of Change exhibition focuses on the impact and influence of the first two decades of AASU from its founding in the spring of 1968. The powerful mission of AASU members as agents of change is documented through their interactions with HBS faculty and staff and their activism on campus. The exhibition also showcases the accomplishments of Black alumni from 1915 through 1990.

Any exhibition of this size and scope depends on the support and dedication of a number of individuals. To that end, we are grateful for the advice and counsel of Walter Friedman and Bennie Wiley (MBA ’72), and we appreciate the early work of Angela Counts and Cara Mathews. We are indebted to Meg Gardner for both her generous archival contributions to Baker Library and her historical perspective. In addition, AASU’s archival material at Baker Library was greatly enhanced through the contributions of Ken Powell (MBA ’74) and the Harvard Business School African-American Alumni Association.

Bringing Agents of Change to life would not have been possible without the collaboration of the HBS Leadership Initiative team including NaDaizja Bolling, Laura Morgan Roberts, and Taran Swan, and the Baker Library Special Collections team including Melissa Banta, Melissa Murphy, Laura Linard, Sarah Westwood, and Rachel Wise. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with these individuals to chronicle and celebrate this important milestone in the history of Harvard Business School.

February 2018