The authors relate the history of African American management and major pioneers who contributed to the black business landscape in the US and achieved cooperative advantage for their organizations through a people-centric approach to engendering spirituality, consensus-building, and dialogue for the benefit of employees, customers, and the community. They argue for the importance of teaching African American management history, then discuss the influence of Booker T. Washington on two black business pioneers, John Merrick and Alonzo Herndon; the management philosophies and work of Charles Clinton Spaulding, who managed the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company; his article on "The Administration of Big Business" and its eight fundamental necessities of management; his article on "Business in Negro Durham" and its four cardinal points of entrepreneurship; the work of Annie Turnbo-Malone and Madame C.J. Walker in the black beauty industry; the contributions and transformational leadership of Maggie L. Walker, the first woman to serve as a bank president; and advice for entrepreneurs and executives to use to gain cooperative advantage.