List of Fisk University alumni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Following is a list of notable alumni from Fisk University.
| Name | Class year | Notability | Reference(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lil Hardin Armstrong | 1915 | jazz pianist/composer, second wife of Louis Armstrong | |
| Marion Barry | 1960 | former mayor of Washington, D.C. | |
| Mary Frances Berry | former chair, United States Commission on Civil Rights; former chancellor, University of Colorado at Boulder | ||
| John Betsch | 1967 | jazz percussionist | |
| Otis Boykin | 1942 | inventor, control device for the heart pacemaker | |
| St. Elmo Brady | first African-American to earn a doctorate in Chemistry | ||
| Virginia E. Walker Broughton | 1875, 1878 | author and Baptist missionary | [1][2][3] |
| Cora Brown | first African-American woman elected to a state senate | ||
| James Dallas Burrus | 1875 | educator | |
| John Houston Burrus | 1875 | educator |  |
| June Dobbs Butts | educator, writer, and sex therapist | [4] | |
| Henry Alvin Cameron | 1896 | educator, decorated World War I veteran | |
| Elizabeth Hortense (Golden) Canady | past national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority | ||
| Alfred O. Coffin | first African-American to earn a doctorate in zoology | ||
| Malia Cohen | 2001 | San Francisco District 10 supervisor 2010–present | |
| Johnnetta B. Cole | anthropologist, former president of Spelman College and Bennett College | ||
| Neal Craig | 1971 | NFL cornerback for Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, and Cleveland Browns | |
| Minnie Lee Crosthwaite | community organizer, women's activist, and social worker | ||
| Minnie Lou Crosthwaite | teacher, college administrator, activist | ||
| Arthur Cunningham | 1951 | musical composer, studied at Juilliard and Columbia University | |
| William L. Dawson | 1909 | U.S. congressman (1943–1970) |  |
| Mahala Ashley Dickerson | 1935 | first black female attorney in the state of Alabama and first black president of the National Association of Women Lawyers | |
| Charles Diggs | member of United States House of Representatives, Michigan (1955–1980) |  | |
| Rel Dowdell | 1993 | filmmaker | |
| W. E. B. Du Bois | 1888 | sociologist, scholar, first African-American to earn a PhD from Harvard |  |
| James J. Durham | 1880, 1885 | founder of Morris College | |
| Althea Brown Edmiston | 1901 | Presbyterian missionary in Belgian Congo | |
| Venida Evans | 1969 | actress, best known for IKEA commercials | |
| Etta Zuber Falconer | 1953 | first African-American woman to receive a PhD in mathematics; former chair, mathematics department at Spelman College | |
| Lemuel L. Foster | 1910s | community leader in Harlem, New York City, civil servant, and business executive; member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers | [5][6] |
| John Hope Franklin | 1935 | historian, professor, scholar, author of landmark text From Slavery to Freedom |  |
| Victor O. Frazer | United States House of Representatives (1995–1997) | ||
| Alonzo Fulgham | former acting chief and operating officer of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) | ||
| Vivian Gadsden | 1978 | psychologist at University of Pennsylvania | [7] |
| Nikki Giovanni | 1967 | poet, author, professor, scholar |  |
| Eliza Atkins Gleason | 1930 | founding dean of the Atlanta University School of Library Service; first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in Library Science | [8] |
| Louis George Gregory | posthumously, a Hand of the Cause in Bahá'í Faith | ||
| Eliza Ann Grier | 1891 | first African-American female physician in Georgia |  |
| Alcee Hastings | U.S. congressman and former U.S. district court judge | ||
| Roland Hayes | concert singer | ||
| Perry Wilbon Howard | assistant U.S. attorney general under President Herbert Hoover | ||
| Elmer Imes | 1903 | physicist and second African-American to earn a PhD in Physics | |
| Jedidah Isler | 2007 | became first African-American woman to receive a PhD in Astrophysics from Yale University in 2014 | [9] |
| Esther Cooper Jackson | 1940 | founding editor of Freedomways journal | |
| Lena Terrell Jackson | 1885 | educator in Nashville for over 50 years |  |
| Leonard Jackson | 1952 | actor, Five on the Black Hand Side; The Color Purple | |
| Robert James | former NFL all-pro cornerback | ||
| Judith Jamison | dancer and choreographer; former artistic director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater | ||
| Ben Jobe | 1956 | legendary basketball coach, Southern University | |
| Ella Mae Johnson | 1921 | at age 105, traveled to Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama | |
| Joyce Johnson | 1953 | organist and professor emerita of music at Spelman College in Atlanta | |
| Lewis Wade Jones | 1931 | sociologist; Julius Rosenwald Foundation fellow at Columbia University | |
| Mame Stewart Josenberger | 1888 | businesswoman and club woman in Arkansas |  |
| Anne Gamble Kennedy | 1941 | pianist, professor, and piano accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee Singers | |
| Matthew Kennedy | 1947 | pianist, professor, and former director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers | |
| Mathew Knowles | 1974 | father and former manager of Beyoncé, founder and owner of Music World Entertainment, and adjunct professor at Texas Southern University | |
| Nella Larsen | 1908 | novelist, Harlem Renaissance era | |
| Helen Shores Lee | 1962 | Judge for 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama | [10] |
| John Angelo Lester | 1895 | professor emeritus of Physiology, Meharry Medical College |  |
| Julius Lester | 1960 | author of children's books and former professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst | |
| David Levering Lewis | 1956 | two-time Pulitzer Prize winner |  |
| John Lewis | 1967 | congressman, civil rights activist, former president of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) |  |
| Hettie Simmons Love | 1943 | first African-American to earn an MBA at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania | |
| Jimmie Lunceford | 1925 | bandleader in the swing era | |
| Aubrey Lyles | 1903 | vaudeville performer | |
| Hugh Ellwood Macbeth Sr. | 1905 | civil rights attorney who fought against the incarceration of Japanese Americans | |
| Ariana Austin Makonnen | philanthropist and member of the Ethiopian imperial family | ||
| Patti J. Malone | 1880 | member of Fisk Jubilee Singers | |
| Mandisa | 2001 | Grammy Award-winning and Dove Award-nominated Christian contemporary singer/songwriter, ninth-place finalist in the fifth season (2006) of American Idol | |
| Louis E. Martin | 1933 | "godfather of Black politics" | |
| Fatima Massaquoi | 1936 | Liberian educator | [11] |
| Wade H. McCree | 1941 | second African-American United States solicitor general; justice, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit |  |
| Samuel A. McElwee | 1883 | state senator during the Reconstruction Era; first African-American elected three times to the Tennessee General Assembly | |
| Robert McFerrin | first African-American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera; father of Bobby McFerrin | ||
| Leslie Meek | 1987 | administrative law judge; wife of Congressman Kendrick Meek | |
| Theo Mitchell | 1960 | Senator, South Carolina General Assembly | |
| Lewis Baxter Moore | classicist, scholar, university teacher, and minister | [12] | |
| Undine Smith Moore | first Fisk graduate to receive a scholarship to Juilliard, Pulitzer Prize Nominee | ||
| Constance Baker Motley | 1941–1942 | first African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate | |
| Diane Nash | founding member of SNCC | ||
| Rachel B. Noel | politician; first African-American to serve on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education | ||
| Hon. Hazel O'Leary | former U.S. secretary of Energy |  | |
| J. O. Patterson Jr. | 1958 | first African-American mayor of Memphis; Tennessee state representative, state senator, Memphis councilman, jurisdictional bishop in the Church of God in Christ | |
| Helen Phillips | 1928 | first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus | |
| Annette Lewis Phinazee | 1939 | first black woman to earn a doctorate in library sciences from Columbia University | |
| Alma Powell | audiologist and wife of Gen. Colin Powell | ||
| Louis W. Roberts | 1913 | microwave physicist, chief of the Microwave Laboratory at NASA's Electronics Research Center and director of the United States Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center | [13] |
| Cecelia Cabaniss Saunders | 1903 | director of Harlem YWCA, 1914–1947 | |
| Lorenzo Dow Turner | 1910 | linguist and chair, African Studies at Roosevelt University | |
| A. Maceo Walker | 1930 | businessman, Universal Life Insurance, Tri-State Bank | |
| Ron Walters | 1963 | scholar of African-American politics, chair, Afro-American Studies Brandeis University | |
| Margaret Murray Washington | 1890 | lady principal of Tuskegee Institute and third wife of Booker T. Washington | |
| Teresa N. Washington | 1993 | academic, author, activist | |
| Ida B. Wells | civil rights activist and women's suffrage advocate |  | |
| Charles H. Wesley | 1911 | president of Wilberforce University 1942–1947; president of Central State College 1947–1965; third African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard | |
| Kym Whitley | actress, comedian | ||
| Frederica Wilson | 1963 | U.S. representative for Florida's 17th congressional district |  |
| Tom Wilson | 1953 | music producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa | |
| Frank Yerby | 1938 | first African-American to publish a best-selling novel |