Black MBAs: Improving African American Representation In Business Schools

African Americans are starkly underrepresented in business schools, and the largest underrepresented population group among US business school candidates. In addition to dismantling barriers to higher business education, dominant stereotypes of African Americans must be challenged to ensure fairer representation.

Professor Steven Rogers, senior lecturer in business administration and expert in entrepreneurial finance at Harvard Business School (HBS), says he was struck by the dearth of black figures in case studies. According to Steven, less than 1% of the case studies published by HBS feature black business leaders. This lack of recognition inspired him to design the Black Business Leaders and Entrepreneurship initiative at HBS—a course that utilizes cases focusing exclusively on black protagonists.