Drucker and the Complexities of Race

Long before so much of the nation became fixated on what was being preached inside black churches on Sunday mornings, Peter Drucker would go on occasion and listen for himself.

It was the late 1930s, and Drucker had just landed in New York, having fled the Nazis. Whenever he happened to spend the weekend in Washington, Drucker recalled years later, he would sneak into Rankin Chapel to be “shaken and moved” by Howard Thurman, the chaplain at Howard University. His was the kind of voice, said Drucker, that “reached the inner core of one’s being.”

Thurman’s soul-stirring oratory, as well as relationships Drucker forged with other black intellectuals of the era, left quite an impression on him. After all, he always viewed the importance of management as transcending the corporate arena to reach into all segments of society.