List of Fisk University alumni

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 (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
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 and the 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
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	[9]
Jedidah Isler	2007	Isler became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in Astrophysics from Yale University in 2014	[10]
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
Lewis Baxter Moore		classicist, scholar, university teacher, and minister	[11]
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	[12]
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

• Category:Fisk University alumni

References

1. Carter, Tomeiko Ashford, editor (2010). Virginia Broughton: The Life and Writings of a Missionary, The University of Tennessee Press, page xxxix. ISBN   978-1572336964
2. "Biographies". Digital.nypl.org. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
3. 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 ]}
4. Slotnik, Daniel E. (May 24, 2019). "June Dobbs Butts, Sex Therapist Who Preached Frankness, Dies at 90 (Published 2019)". The New York Times . Retrieved January 3, 2026.
5. "Lemuel Foster, A Macy Executive and Specialist on Race Relations". The New York Times . June 25, 1981. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 30, 2024.
6. The Fisk University News. Fisk University. 1918. p. 31 – via Google Books.
7. "Vivian L. Gadsden". University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
8. "Eliza Atkins Gleason (1909–2009)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
9. Massaquoi, Fatima (2013). Introduction to The Autobiography of an African Princess. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-1-137-10250-8.
10. "Jedidah Isler First African-American Woman To Receive A Yale PhD In Astrophysics". scienceworldreport.com. October 18, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
11. Gordon, Laura. "Moore, Lewis Baxter". Database of Classical Scholars. Rutgers University . Retrieved February 5, 2025.
12. "Louis Wright Roberts, Dr" . Who's Who Among African Americans. Gale. 2005.

External links

• Official athletics website