List of Spelman College people

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The list of Spelman College people includes notable alumnae and faculty of Spelman College.

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.
Selena Sloan Butler Selena Sloan Butler.jpg
Selena Sloan Butler
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of Children's Defense Fund, MacArthur Fellow Marian Wright Edelman 01.jpg
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of Children's Defense Fund, MacArthur Fellow
Opera singer Mattiwilda Dobbs Mattiwilda Dobbs 1957.JPG
Opera singer Mattiwilda Dobbs
U.S. Air Force photo of Marcelite J. Harris Harris mj.jpg
U.S. Air Force photo of Marcelite J. Harris
Audrey F. Manley, former Surgeon General of the USA Audrey Manley, DHHS official bw photo.jpg
Audrey F. Manley, former Surgeon General of the USA
Bernice Johnson Reagon Bernice-johnson-reagon-sm.jpg
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Dovey Johnson Roundtree Dovey Roundtree in Charlotte, 1994.jpg
Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Rolonda Watts RolondaWattsDec10.jpg
Rolonda Watts
Tia Fuller Tia Fuller in concert.jpg
Tia Fuller
Avery Sunshine AverySunshine2014.jpg
Avery Sunshine
NameClass yearNotabilityReference(s)
Stacey Abrams 1995Politician, House Minority Leader for the Georgia General Assembly and State Representative for the 89th House District; first African-American woman in the U.S. to win a major party's nomination for governor
Adrienne Adams 1982First African-American speaker of the New York City Council
Erika Anderson 2012Engineer, noted advocate for women of color in STEM
Tina McElroy Ansa 1971Author, Baby of the Family, Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With, and You Know Better [1]
Blanche Armwood 1906Educator, activist; first African-American woman in the state of Florida to graduate from an accredited law school; Armwood High School in Tampa, FL is named in her honor
AverySunshine 1998Singer and pianist
Brenda S. Banks 1971Archivist, Deputy Director of the Georgia Department of Archives and History and founder of Banks Archives Consultants [2]
Mary Barksdale 1942Past president, Jack and Jill
Loretta Copeland Biggs 1976Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
Janet Bragg 1931Aviation pioneer; first African-American woman to obtain a commercial pilot license
Rosalind G. Brewer 1984Chief Executive Officer, Walgreens; Chief Operating Officer, Starbucks; Executive Vice President, Walmart Stores, Inc. and President Walmart Stores South, USA; Board of Directors, Lockheed Martin
Ada E. Brown 1996First African-American woman federal judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
Linda Goode Bryant 1981Documentary filmmaker, Flag Wars ; Peabody Award winner and 2004 Guggenheim Fellow
Selena Sloan Butler 1888Founder of first black parent-teacher organization, the National Congress for Colored Parents & Teachers; co-founder of the National Parent-Teacher Association
Sheila L. Chamberlain 1981Pilot, lawyer
Pearl Cleage 1971Novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and journalist [1]
Lisa Cook 1986First African-American woman to be confirmed as a Federal Reserve governor [3]
Taylor Darling 2004Elected official from the 18th district of the New York State Assembly
Cassi Davis 1988Actress, House of Payne
Ethel McGhee Davis 1919Student Adviser and Dean of Women at Spelman College
Ruth A. Davis 196624th Director General of the United States Foreign Service; director, Foreign Service Institute and two-time recipient of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service
Phire Dawson 2008"Barker's Beauty" on The Price Is Right
Mattiwilda Dobbs 1937Opera singer; served on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Opera and the National Endowment for the Arts [1]
Marian Wright Edelman 1960Founder of the Children's Defense Fund; MacArthur Fellow; Heinz Award; Presidential Medal of Freedom [1]
Christine King Farris 1948Public speaker and educator who taught at Spelman College, eldest and last living sibling of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Eleanor Ison Franklin 1948Medical physiologist and endocrinologist
Tia Fuller 1998Saxophonist, composer, and educator
Nora A. Gordon 1888Began the tradition of Spelman missionary work to Africa [4]
Beverly Guy-Sheftall 1966Author, feminist scholar, founder of Women's Research and Resource Center at Spelman College
Evelynn M. Hammonds 1976Dean of Harvard College, Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University
Marcelite J. Harris 1964First African-American woman to obtain the rank of General in the United States Air Force
Paula Hicks-Hudson 1973First African-American female mayor of Toledo, Ohio
Pamela Gunter-Smith 1973First African-American president of York College of Pennsylvania
Varnette Honeywood 1972Creator of the Little Bill character [1]
Clara Ann Howard 1887Baptist missionary in Africa, longtime Spelman staff
Alexine Clement Jackson 1956Chair, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and former National President of the YWCA
Adrienne-Joi Johnson 1988Actress, House Party , Baby Boy
Bernette Joshua Johnson 1964First African-American and second female Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court [5]
Clara Stanton Jones 1934First African-American president of the American Library Association
Tayari Jones 1991Award-winning author of An American Marriage and English professor at Emory University
Bettina Judd 2005Artist and poet [6]
Annie Brown Kennedy 1945Politician and lawyer; first Black woman to serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives [7]
Alberta Williams King (high school)Mother of Martin Luther King Jr.
Bernice King 1986President, SCLC, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.
Audrey F. Manley 1955President Emerita of Spelman College, former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, former Acting Surgeon General of the United States
Marian Mereba 2011Singer, songwriter, and producer
Harriet Mitchell Murphy 1949First African-American female judge in Texas [8]
Tanya Walton Pratt 1981Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
Deborah Prothrow-Stith 1975First female Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor at Harvard School of Public Health [1]
Keshia Knight Pulliam 2001 Actress The Cosby Show , House of Payne
Reisha Raney CEO of Encyde Corporation and first black women to serve as a Maryland state officer in the Daughters of the American Revolution
Tanika Ray 1994Actress and television personality [9]
Bernice Johnson Reagon 1970Founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock; MacArthur Fellow; Professor Emeritus American University Curator Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution National Museum American History; National Humanities Medal; Heinz Award [1]
LaTanya Richardson 1971Actress ( The Fighting Temptations , Losing Isaiah , Malcolm X ) and wife of actor Samuel L. Jackson [1]
Rubye Robinson 1963Civil rights activist, Executive Secretary of SNCC
Shaun Robinson 1984Co-anchor, Access Hollywood ; former host, TV One Access
Esther Rolle attendedActress, Good Times
Dovey Johnson Roundtree 1938Trial attorney, military veteran, AMEC minister, and civil rights pioneer; landmark case: Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
Eva Rutland 1937Author, When We Were Colored: A Mother's Story; winner of the 2000 Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award, and author of more than 20 romance novels
Kiron Skinner 1981College professor and former Director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State
Brenda V. Smith 1980Law professor, American University; appointed by Nancy Pelosi to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission
Daphne L. Smith 1980First African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT
Maxine Smith 1949Academic, civil rights activist, and school board official [10]
Hemlocke Springs 2021Singer, songwriter, and producer
Sharmell Sullivan 1990 Miss Black America 1991, "TNA Knockout", and wife of professional wrestler Booker T
Sue Bailey Thurman 1920Founder and first chairperson, National Council of Negro Women's National Library
Alice Walker attended Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, The Color Purple [1]
Talitha Washington 1996African-American mathematician and STEM activist
Rolonda Watts 1980Journalist, actor, writer, former talk show host
Ella Gaines Yates 1949First African-American director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

Notable faculty

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The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals working in any field who have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" and are citizens or residents of the United States.

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Tina McElroy Ansa was an American novelist, filmmaker, teacher, businesswoman and journalist. Her work appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsday,The Atlanta Constitution, Florida Times-Union, Essence Magazine, The Crisis, Ms. Magazine, America Magazine, and Atlanta Magazine.

Etta Zuber Falconer was an American educator and mathematician the bulk of whose career was spent at Spelman College, where she eventually served as department head and associate provost. She was one of the earlier African-American women to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.

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Beverly Guy-Sheftall is an American Black feminist scholar, writer and editor, who is the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies and English at Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the founding director of the Spelman College Women's Research and Resource Center, the first at a historically Black college or university.

Shirley Ann Mathis McBay was an American mathematician who was the founder and president of the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network, a nonprofit dedicated to improving minority education. She was the dean for student affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1980 to 1990. She was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. McBay was recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2017 Honoree.

Andrea Lawrence is an American computer scientist and educator. She is an associate professor of computer science at Spelman College.

Joyce Finch Johnson is Professor Emerita of music at Spelman College in Atlanta where she taught for more than 50 years. She has been the organist at Spelman since 1955. In April 1968, as slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. lay in state at Spelman's Sister's Chapel for 48 hours, it was Johnson who played the organ while 20,000 people filed past to pay their respects. In July 2023, she played the organ at the college's memorial service for MLK's sister Christine King Farris.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Spelman College". The New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Brenda Banks obituary". Legacy.com.
  3. ↑ "Alumna Lisa D. Cook Confirmed as Federal Reserve Governor".
  4. ↑ Weisenfeld, Judith; Newman, Richard (23 April 2014). This Far By Faith: Readings in African-American Women's Religious Biography. New York, New York: Routledge. p. 224. ISBN   978-1-136-66351-2.
  5. ↑ "Bernette Joshua Johnson". intelius.com. Retrieved July 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Bettina Judd — Department of Women's Studies at Univ. of Maryland". wmst.umd.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  7. ↑ Hinton, John (2023-01-17). "Annie Brown Kennedy, first Black woman to serve in the N.C. General Assembly and prominent attorney, dies at 98". Winston-Salem Journal . Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  8. ↑ "Harriet Murphy". diversity.utexas.edu. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  9. ↑ https://www.encyde.com/reisha-raney
  10. ↑ "Maxine A. Smith NAACP Collection". Digital Library of Georgia. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Groundbreaking Filmmaker Julie Dash Joins Spelman as Distinguished Professor". Spelman College. September 2017. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
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