Early AASU History

The first known Black graduate of Harvard Business School was Wendell Thomas Cunningham in 1915. Fewer than 50 Black students attended HBS in the subsequent five decades. The Afro-American Student Union (AASU) was founded in 1968 by four men (Clifford E. Darden, A. Leroy Willis, E. Theodore Lewis Jr, and George R. Price) and one woman (Lillian Lincoln Lambert) in response to the protests against the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and rioting across the country. 

In an open letter to faculty, its founders stated, “the seriousness of the racial situation and socioeconomic condition of Black people demand a major and positive from all institutions which form part of our society; and Harvard Business School, as one of the major educational institutions in this nation, must accept its share of the challenges and risks associated with the upgrading of educational opportunities of Blacks and other minority groups.” 

Adapted from the Baker Library | Bloomberg Center archives. View the full exhibition online.

The HBS Class of 1933 had one black student: H. Naylor Fitzhugh. A Washington, DC native, Fitzhugh’s excellent high school academic record won him a scholarship at age 16 to Harvard College. After graduating with honors in 1931, he crossed the Charles River to enroll in Harvard Business School where he concentrated his studies on accounting and marketing. Diploma in hand, he returned to Washington to continue his career as an independent salesman. He was soon involved in creating the New Negro Alliance of Washington, which led protests and ultimately pursued landmark legal action against major companies that did business in black neighborhoods but refused to hire black employees. He served as the organization’s business manager.

In 1934 Fitzhugh was invited to join the business curriculum faculty at Howard University. Few blacks were pursuing degrees in business, which Fitzhugh sought to change over a 30-year teaching career. He taught accounting and later developed the marketing program at Howard after completing doctoral study in the field at Columbia’s business school. He organized Howard’s Small Business Development Center, and as the business program continued to grow he chaired its advisory committee.

As times changed and the doors of opportunity began to open, many of Fitzhugh’s former students rose to senior executive positions in corporate America or became successful entrepreneurs. Among his numerous mentees was Lillian Lincoln who, with Fitzhugh’s urging, became the first African American woman to graduate from HBS as well as one of the founders of the African American Student Union in 1968.

Through the years, Fitzhugh received, and declined, plentiful offers of corporate jobs. But in 1965 the top executives of the Pepsi-Cola Company enticed him to accept the high profile position of vice president of Special Markets and leverage his expertise in targeted consumer marketing. He consulted on advertising and furthered Pepsi’s support for educational and public affairs programs including sponsorship of the groundbreaking PBS series, Tony Brown’s Journal. He helped guide Pepsi’s philanthropic activities and outreach into the community. In 1968 he created the award-winning Learn and Earn program which introduced young people to business through hands-on experience. He also carefully monitored the progress of minorities he helped to recruit for the company.

Upon his retirement in 1974, Black Enterprise hailed Naylor Fitzhugh as “the dean of black businessmen.” Many accolades and honors followed, including the Heritage Award from the Executive Leadership Council and the Distinguished Service Award from Harvard Business School. A regular attendee of the annual AASU conference, Fitzhugh helped found the HBS Black Alumni Association and served as its first chairman in 1978. He remained active as a consultant and community leader until his death in 1992.

In 1996 a committee led by Nancy Lane (PMD 29), Dennis F. Hightower (MBA ’74) and Professor James I. Cash, established an endowed professorship in Fitzhugh’s name. In 2000, Professor David A. Thomas, a recognized authority on mentoring, executive development, and the challenges of creating and managing a diverse workforce, was named the first incumbent of the H. Naylor Fitzhugh chair. In 2002, the African American Student Union renamed its annual conference in his honor, a fitting tribute to a man revered for his career in business and business education who thought of himself, first and foremost, as a mentor. And his portrait, commissioned by AASU in 1993 and presented as a gift to the school, hangs today in a busy corridor of Aldrich Hall to commemorate his groundbreaking role as a champion of diversity.

PRESENT DAY

Then as it is now, AASU committed to addressing challenges that students experience as a racial minority in the classroom and broader socio-economic issues faced by Black people nationwide.

In 2020, AASU rose to the challenge to address not only the pandemic but protests and the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the recent murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Then Co-Presidents Bukie Adebo and Alexis Jackson as well as former co-president Aaron Hancock outlined changes for racial equity at HBS eventually leading to the Dean’s Anti-Racism Taskforce and a greater focus on faculty diversity. AASU also worked with HBS on strategies to build a more robust pipeline of Black students to HBS.

In 2021, HBS dedicated Cash House to honor the legacy of Dr. James Cash,James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. Dr. Cash became the first Black member of HBS faculty to receive tenure in 1985. He taught in both the MBA program and Executive Education programs and was a prolific case writer. His contributions to HBS went far beyond the classroom though; Dr. Cash remains a mentor to countless HBS students and through his great mentorship (and friendship), he continues to foster community within both AASU and the HBS African-American Alumni Association (AAA).

BIC History

In 2019, the Black Investment Club (BIC) was created to address the massive underrepresentation of Black investors in venture capital, private equity, and investment management by creating a focused organization aimed at empowering and advancing the interests of our community. As an organization, we plan to do this across five dimensions: job pipelines, personal investing acumen, influential speakers, impact, and annual conference.