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Introduction
It is quite common for management scholars to make reference to Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Chester Barnard and other pioneers of the field. However, Management thought leadership from people of African descent is noticeably absent from the management texts and other sources. We can hypothesize about the numerous reasons why the contributions of people of color are not well-known to the masses, but that is not the focus of this article. Instead, it is more beneficial to highlight the significant contributions made by these individuals. One such person that deserves to be featured is Charles Clinton Spaulding (also known as C. C. Spaulding), the son of a farmer and a remarkable thought leader, who is arguably one of the greatest executives in American history and one of the most influential businessmen in Black America. Some of the sobriquets held by Spaulding include “Mr Negro Business” and “Mr Co-operation” as evidenced in a 1943 article that was published in the Saturday Evening Post.
It is important for management scholars and practitioners to draw attention to the works of individuals who have made a significant impact to the field. Fortunately, the contributions of women such as Mary Parker Follett and Lillian Gilbreth have started, for some time now, to get the recognition that they rightly deserve. Regrettably, however, due to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in the USA, African-Americans were systematically disenfranchised from many aspects of American life and often remain obscured from public consciousness. Nevertheless, there were people of color who defied the odds, and their stories should be told. Spaulding is noteworthy because he worked his way up to become one of the USA’s most successful executives due to his skill in leading the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (the Mutual), the largest and oldest African American life insurance company in the USA.
This paper contributes to knowledge in the field of management history by heralding an individual who played an important role in African-American management thought. Historically, the Caucasian figures of management have been constantly recognized, but the black pioneers that have also helped to shape the field of management have received far less attention. This paper aims to address this issue and begin to fill the gap by...