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 Rev. Dr. Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Hildrus Poindexter, Horace Mann Bond, Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert L. Carter, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, Melvin B. Tolson, Conrad Tillard, and Cherelle Parker. Many of Hughes' papers reside in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library on campus. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Kwame Nkrumah were the first President/Prime Minister of Nigeria and Ghana respectively, fulfilling John Miller Dickey's vision of Lincoln University as a training institution for African leadership. At least ten of its alumni have served as United States ambassadors or mission chiefs. Many are federal, state, and municipal judges, and many others have served as city managers and mayors - such as Cherelle Parker, the 100th mayor of Philadelphia and first black woman to serve in the role as of January 2, 2024.
South Carolina State University, Livingstone College, Albany State University, Texas Southern University, Ibeme Memorial College (Nigeria), Ibibio State College (Nigeria), and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana) were all founded by Lincoln alumni.
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 woman president of Lincoln University (2017–) | |
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, who established the first mathematics PhD program at a HBCU | [2] |
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 | [3] |
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 | [4] |
Saara Kuugongelwa | 1994 | Namibian politician, Prime Minister of Namibia | |
Raphael O'Hara Lanier | 1923 | U. S. Minister to Liberia; first president Texas Southern University | |
Robert Lee | 1941 | South Carolina-born dentist who emigrated to Ghana in 1956 and operated a dental practice there for nearly five decades until his retirement in 2002 | [5] |
Matthew M. Lewey | 1870 | attorney, Florida state legislator, journalist, author | |
Cecil Mack | 1897 | composer, lyricist and music publisher | |
William P. Mabson | politician | [6] | |
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 | [7] |
Robert N.C. Nix, Sr. | 1921 | first African American elected to Congress from Pennsylvania | |
Kwame Nkrumah | 1939 | first President of the modern Ghana | |
Gordon J. Linton | 1970 | public servant, member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 200th District and Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration United States Department of Transportation | |
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 | |
John H. Paynter | 1884 | poet; nonfiction writer; U.S. Government employee | |
Brigadier General Harold E. Pierce | 1942 | dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon | |
Fayette Pinkney | 1984 | singer, one of the original members of the group The Three Degrees | |
Charles Owo | 2004 | Businessman, Entrepreneur | |
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 | [8] |
Charles R. Saunders | 1968 | author and journalist; pioneer in the "sword and soul" literary genre | |
Gil Scott-Heron | attended, early 1970s | activist, singer-songwriter | |
Dr. Abdulalim A. Shabazz | 1949 | Professor of Mathematics, Chairman of the Mathermatics and Computer Science Department at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) from 1998 to 2000 | |
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 | [9] |
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 | [10] |
Bruce M. Wright | 1942 | judge in New York and Connecticut, author of Black Robes, White Justice | |
Julius Taylor | 1938 | Physics professor, established physics department at Morgan State University |
Francis Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from Britain. He was then the first Prime Minister and then the President of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.
Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, PC, usually referred to Zik, was a Nigerian politician, statesman, and revolutionary leader who served as the 3rd governor-general of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and the 1st president of Nigeria during the First Nigerian Republic (1963–1966). He is regarded as the "father of Nigerian nationalism", for driving force behind the nation's independence.
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States. They were primarily founded by Protestant religious groups, until the Second Morill Act of 1890 required educationally segregated states to provide African American, public higher-education schools in order to receive the Act's benefits. During the period of racial segregation in the United States, the majority of American institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment. Later on some universities, either after expanding their inclusion of black people and African Americans into their institutions or gaining the status of minority-serving institution, became Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).
Lincoln University (LU) is a public state-related historically black university (HBCU) near Oxford, Pennsylvania. Founded as the private Ashmun Institute in 1854, it has been a public institution since 1972 and is the second HBCU in the state, after Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Lincoln is also recognized as the first college-degree granting HBCU in the country. Its main campus is located on 422 acres near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university has a second location in the University City area of Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides undergraduate and graduate coursework to approximately 2,000 students. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe.
"Land of the Rising Sun" was the proclaimed national anthem of the secessionist African state of Biafra, in south-eastern Nigeria. The lyrics were written by Nnamdi Azikiwe, and the tune was adopted from Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia", as Biafran president C. Odumegwu Ojukwu enjoyed the musical works of Sibelius.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), commonly known as UST, Tech or Kwame Tech, is a public university located in Kumasi, Ashanti region, Ghana. The university focuses on science and technology. It is the second public university established in the country, as well as the largest university in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, also called UNIZIK or NAU in short is a federal university in Nigeria. It consists of two campuses in Anambra State. Its main campus is in Awka, while its other campus is in Nnewi. There are also other campuses of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. These include Agulu in Aniocha local government area and Ifite-Ogwuari in Ayamelum local government area in Anambra State. This makes Nnamdi Azikiwe University to operate in the three Senatorial Districts in Anambra State, Nigeria having Awka campus, in Anambra Central Senatorial District, Nnewi in Anambra North Senatorial District and Ifite-Ogwuari in Anambra North Senatorial District, respectively.
Kofi Anyidoho is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists. He is currently Professor of Literature at the University of Ghana.
James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey was an intellectual, missionary, and teacher. He was born in the Gold Coast and later emigrated to the United States, but returned to Africa for several years. He was the first Vice Principal of Achimota College.
William Leo Hansberry was an American scholar, lecturer and pioneering Afrocentrist. He was the older brother of real estate broker Carl Augustus Hansberry, uncle of award-winning playwright Lorraine Hansberry and great-granduncle of actress Taye Hansberry.
Ghana National College is a senior high school in Cape Coast, Ghana.
Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah is a Ghanaian politician and former chairperson of the Convention People's Party, making her the first woman to ever head a major political party in Ghana (CPP). In the 2008 parliamentary election, she won the Jomoro constituency seat at her first attempt. She is the daughter of Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana.
Kwame Sanaa-Poku Jantuah, originally known as John Ernest Jantuah, was a Ghanaian politician, lawyer and diplomat.
Frank Kobina Parkes was a Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster and poet. He was the author of one book, Songs from the Wilderness, but is widely anthologised and is perhaps best known for his poem "African Heaven", which echoes the title of Carl Van Vechten's controversial 1926 novel Nigger Heaven, and was selected by Langston Hughes for inclusion in the groundbreaking anthology of African writing An African Treasury (1960). Parkes' poetic style, an intelligent, rhythmic free verse brimming with confidence and undercut with humour, is believed to owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop, one of the pioneers of the négritude movement. Reviewing Songs from the Wilderness, Mbella Sonne Dipoko said: "Mr Parkes is one of the fine poets writing today about Africa and the world." The book was hailed as "...a landmark not only in Ghanaian poetry but in African poetry as a whole".
Pakistanism or Pakistanization is a neologism that refers to the continual division of any society along religious lines, with reference to the Partition of British India in 1947.
Nkrumaism is an African socialist political ideology based on the thinking and writing of Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah, a pan-Africanist and socialist, served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1960 and subsequently as President of Ghana before being deposed by the National Liberation Council in 1966.
Mabel Dove Danquah was a Gold Coast-born journalist, political activist, and creative writer, one of the earliest women in West Africa to work in these fields. As Francis Elsbend Kofigah notes in relation to Ghana's literary pioneers, "before the emergence of such strong exponents of literary feminism as Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, there was Mabel Dove Danquah, the trail-blazing feminist." She used various pseudonyms in her writing for newspapers from the 1930s: "Marjorie Mensah" in The Times of West Africa; "Dama Dumas" in the African Morning Post; "Ebun Alakija" in the Nigerian Daily Times; and "Akosua Dzatsui" in the Accra Evening News. Entering politics in the 1950s before Ghana's independence, she became the first woman to be elected a member of any African legislative assembly. She created the awareness and the need for self-governance through her works.
Ablade GloverCV is a Ghanaian painter and educator. He has exhibited widely, building an international reputation over several decades, as well as being regarded as a seminal figure on the West African art scene. His work is held in many prestigious private and public collections, which include the Imperial Palace of Japan, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He has received several national and international awards, including the Order of the Volta in Ghana, and is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London. He was Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Art Education and Dean of the College of Art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology until 1994.
Akua Asabea Ayisi was a feminist, former High Court Judge and the first female Ghanaian journalist. During the rise of the Ghanaian independence movement, Akua Asabea Ayisi trained as a journalist with Mabel Dove-Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah, who would later become the country's first prime minister and president.