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 | 
|
| 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 (politician) | 1909 | U.S. Congressman (1943–1970) | 
|
| Charles Diggs | United States House of Representatives Michigan (1955–1980) | 
| |
| Mahala Ashley Dickerson | 1935 | first black female attorney in the state of Alabama and first black president of the National Association of Women Lawyers | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | [4] |
| Nikki Giovanni | 1967 | poet, author, professor, scholar | 
|
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| Ella Mae Johnson | 1921 | at age 105 years old, Ella Mae Johnson traveled to Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama | |
| 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 | |
| John Angelo Lester | 1895 | Professor Emeritus of Physiology, Meharry Medical College | |
| Nella Larsen | 1908 | novelist, Harlem Renaissance era | |
| 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 | Fisk Jubilee Singer | |
| 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 | [5] |
| Jedidah Isler | 2007 | Isler became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in Astrophysics from Yale University in 2014 | [6] |
| 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 and the first African American elected three times to the Tennessee General Assembly | |
| Robert McFerrin | first African American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera and father of Bobby McFerrin | ||
| Leslie Meek | 1987 | Administrative Law Judge, wife of Congressman Kendrick Meek | |
| Theo Mitchell | 1960 | Senator, South Carolina General Assembly | |
| 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 to occupy the office of 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 | 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 | [7] |
| 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 | American civil rights activist and women's suffrage advocate | 
| |
| Charles H. Wesley | 1911 | President of Wilberforce University from 1942 to 1947, and President of Central State College from 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 (producer) | 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 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Carter, Tomeiko Ashford, editor (2010). Virginia Broughton: The Life and Writings of a Missionary, The University of Tennessee Press, page xxxix. ISBN 978-1572336964
- ^ "Biographies". Digital.nypl.org. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
- ^ Carter, Tomeiko Ashford; Smith, Jessie Carney (2010). Virginia Broughton: The Life and Writings of a Missionary. The University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-709-1. Project MUSE book 1351.[page needed]
- ^ "Vivian L. Gadsden". University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
- ^ Massaquoi, Fatima (2013). Introduction to The Autobiography of an African Princess. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-10250-8.
- ^ "Jedidah Isler First African-American Woman To Receive A Yale PhD In Astrophysics". scienceworldreport.com. October 18, 2015. Retrieved 2016-12-26.
- ^ "Louis Wright Roberts, Dr". Who's Who Among African Americans. Gale. 2005.