List of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni

This list of Lincoln University alumni includes graduates, non-graduate former students and current students of Lincoln University, a historically black university (HBCU). ^[1]

Lincoln University has many notable alumni, including Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Hildrus Poindexter, Horace Mann Bond, Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert L. Carter, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, and Melvin B. Tolson.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Ebenezer Ako-Adjei		Ghanaian politician, member of the United Gold Coast Convention and The Big Six
Frederick D. Alexander	1931	businessman, civil rights activist
Walter G. Alexander	1899	first African-American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature
Brenda A. Allen	1981	psychologist and second female president of Lincoln University (2017–)
William T. Amiger	B.A. 1899 M.A. 1902 S.T.B. 1902	Educator, Baptist minister, president of State University at Louisville (now Simmons College of Kentucky), and American Baptist Theological Seminary (now American Baptist College)	[2]
Charles E. Anderson	1941	first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in Meteorology
Nnamdi Azikiwe	1930	first President of Nigeria
Phillip Banks III	1984	first African-American Chief of Department of the New York Police Department
Harry W. Bass	1888	first African-American elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1910
A.A. Birch, Jr.	1952	first African-American to serve as Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court
Edward Wilmot Blyden III	1948	Sierra Leonean diplomat, political scientist and editor
Donald Bogle	1966	film historian, author, educator
Horace Mann Bond	1923	educator, scholar; first African-American and alumnus to become president of Lincoln University
Oscar Brown, Jr.	1940	singer, actor, playwright, director
Roscoe Lee Browne	1946	actor, former 800-meters record holder
Isaac D. Burrell	1890	physician and pharmacist
Maria Louisa Bustill		teacher and mother of Paul Robeson
Cab Calloway	1930	entertainer, bandleader
Robert L. Carter	1937	general counsel of the NAACP, United States district judge
Joseph Newman Clinton	1873	Florida politician; U.S. Internal Revenue Service Collector in Tampa for 14 years
Frank "Tick" Coleman	1935	educator
Alexander Darnes	1876	born into slavery, owned by Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith; second African-American physician in Florida
Horace Dawson	1949	U. S. Ambassador to Botswana
James A. Donaldson	1961	longtime Howard University mathematics professor and dean; established the first mathematics PhD program at a HBCU	[3]
Lillian E. Fishburne	1971	first African-American woman promoted to the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Navy
Christian Fleetwood	1860	served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, earned the Medal of Honor
William Fontaine	1930	philosopher
Archibald H. Grimke	1870	lawyer, journalist, public speaker, member of the Niagara Movement
Francis J. Grimké	1870	pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., member of the Niagara Movement
Joseph Winthrop Holley	1897	founder of Albany State College
William E. Holmes		former president of Central City College, faculty of the Atlanta Baptist Institute, now Morehouse College, for 25 years
Langston Hughes	1929	poet
Roderick L. Ireland	1966	first African-American associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court	[4]
Montford "Monte" Irvin	attended, early1950s	New York Giants player; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973
Brian Jackson	1973	keyboardist, writer
Robert Walter "Whirlwind" Johnson	1924	physician, educator, tennis instructor of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe
Muhammad Kenyatta	attended, 1960s	Baptist minister, civil rights leader; ran for mayor of Philadelphia, 1975
Pee Wee Kirkland	2000	former street basketball player from New York City; played at Rucker Park in the 1970 and 1971 seasons	[5]
Saara Kuugongelwa	1994	Namibian politician, Prime Minister of Namibia
Raphael O'Hara Lanier	1923	US Minister to Liberia; first president Texas Southern University
Robert Lee	1941	South Carolina-born dentist, emigrated to Ghana in 1956 and operated a dental practice there for nearly five decades until his retirement in 2002	[6]
Matthew M. Lewey	1870	attorney, Florida state legislator, journalist, author
Gordon J. Linton	1970	public servant, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 200th District; administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, US Department of Transportation
William P. Mabson		politician	[7]
Cecil Mack	1897	composer, lyricist and music publisher
Thurgood Marshall	1930	first African-American Supreme Court Justice
Thomas E. Miller	1872	Member, U. S. House of Representatives from South Carolina; first president of South Carolina State University
Joseph Miró	1970	politician, member of the Delaware House of Representatives from the 22nd district
Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.	1932	NAACP lobbyist ("101st U.S. Senator"), civil rights leader
Aaron Albert Mossell	1885	attorney, first African-American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law
Nathan Francis Mossell	1879	physician, first African-American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Donald Mullett	1951	academic administrator, interim president of Lincoln University as well as Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University (Missouri)
Larry Neal	1961	Black Arts Movement leader in the 1960s	[8]
Robert N. C. Nix Sr.	1921	first African-American elected to Congress from Pennsylvania
Kwame Nkrumah	1939	first president of the modern Ghana
Sheila Y. Oliver	1974	first African-American woman Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey
Barrington D. Parker	1936	U.S. Court of Appeals Justice
Cherelle Parker	1994	100th mayor of Philadelphia, first African-American woman elected to the role
John H. Paynter	1884	poet; nonfiction writer; US government employee
Harold E. Pierce	1942	dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon
Fayette Pinkney	1984	singer, one of the original members of the group The Three Degrees
Hildrus Poindexter	1924	bacteriologist; head of Howard University Medical School in 1934
Edward S. Porter	1873	physician
Dr. Joseph C. Price	1879	founder of Livingstone College
William Drew Robeson I	1876	minister, father of Paul Robeson
James H. Robinson	1935	founder of Operation Crossroads Africa (a model for the Peace Corps); chapters 8, 9 and 10 of Robinson's 1950 autobiography, Road Without Turning, describe life at Lincoln in the early 1930s	[9]
Charles R. Saunders	1968	author and journalist; pioneer in the "sword and soul" literary genre
Gil Scott-Heron	attended, early 1970s	activist, singer-songwriter
Abdulalim A. Shabazz	1949	Professor of Mathematics, Chairman of the Mathermatics and Computer Science Department at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) from 1998 to 2000
James Francis Shober	1875	first professionally trained African American physician in North Carolina	[10]
Francis Cecil Sumner	1915	father of Black psychology; first African-American to receive a Ph.D in psychology
Wilbert "Bill" Tatum	1958	Publisher Emeritus of The New York Amsterdam News	[11]
Julius Taylor	1938	physics professor, established physics department at Morgan State University
Clive Terrelonge	1994	Olympic track and field athlete from Jamaica
Mose Penaani Tjitendero	1968	Namibian politician; former Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia; chairman, SWAPO Central Committee
Tjama Tjivikua	1983	vice-chancellor of the Namibia University of Science and Technology
Melvin B. Tolson	1924	poet, educator, columnist, and politician
James L. Usry	1946	first African-American mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey
Mahlon Van Horne	1868	first African-American to serve in the Rhode Island General Assembly
Joseph Cornelius Waddy	1935	federal judge
Herb J. Wesson Jr.	1999	Speaker of the California State Assembly
Albert H. Wheeler	1936	first African-American mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan
Boyce Courtney Williams	1974	vice president of National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education
Franklin Williams	1941	diplomat; former president of Phelps Stokes Fund; former Assistant Attorney General of California
Waverly B. Woodson Jr.	1948	United States Army soldier	[12]
Bruce M. Wright	1942	judge in New York and Connecticut, author of Black Robes, White Justice

References

1. "List of HBCUs -- White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities". August 16, 2007. Archived from the original on December 23, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
2. Mather, Frank Lincoln (1915). "Amiger, William Thomas". Who's Who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent. Vol. 1. pp. 6–7.
3. "Lincoln University Celebrates The Life Of Dr. James A. Donaldson '61, Educator And Mathematician". News. Lincoln University. October 23, 2019. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
4. "Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Judicial Profiles". Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
5. "Tqnyc.org". Archived from the original on May 10, 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
6. Asante, Elizabeth K. (July 7, 2010). "Dentist Championed African-American community in Ghana". Ghana Web. Archived from the original on August 4, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
7. Simmons-Henry, Linda (1990). Simmons-Henry, Linda; Henry, Philip N.; Speas, Carol (eds.). The Heritage of Blacks in North Carolina. Vol. 1. North Carolina African American Heritage Foundation. p. 17. ISBN   9780912081120.
8. "U-M Web Hosting". Archived from the original on November 4, 2006. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
9. James Albins, "James Herman Robinson – Historical Note Archived 2013-09-28 at the Wayback Machine , Amistad Research Center website. Retrieved: 23 January 2012.
10. Powell, William S. (1994). "Shober, James Francis". NCpedia . Retrieved April 22, 2025.
11. Sciolino, Elaine. "WILBERT TATUM, THE MAYOR'S DEBATER, HAS HIS OWN FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC" Archived 2021-10-14 at the Wayback Machine , The New York Times , July 14, 1984. Accessed February 26, 2009.
12. "Waverly Woodson". The Frederick News-Post (via Legacy.com). August 30, 2005. Archived from the original on October 14, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.