22 Notable alumni of
Alcorn State University
Updated:
Alcorn State University is 1765th in the world, 618th in North America, and 582nd in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 22 notable alumni from Alcorn State University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Michael Clarke Duncan
- Occupations
- actorcomediantelevision actorfilm actorbasketball player
- Biography
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Michael Clarke Duncan was an American actor. He is best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile (1999), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and other honors, and for playing Kingpin in Daredevil and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (both 2003). He also appeared in movies such as Armageddon (1998), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), The Scorpion King (2002), Sin City (2005), and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), as well as in the role of Leo Knox in the television series Bones (2011) and its spin-off The Finder (2012). He also had voice roles in films, including Brother Bear (2003), Kung Fu Panda (2008), and Green Lantern (2011); he had the voice role of Benjamin King in the video game Saints Row (2006).
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Steve McNair
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Stephen LaTreal McNair, nicknamed "Air McNair", was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He started his first two seasons with the Houston Oilers before the team relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. There, McNair would become the first franchise quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. He also played for two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens.
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Medgar Evers
- Occupations
- politicianhuman rights activist
- Biography
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Medgar Wiley Evers was an American civil rights activist and soldier who was the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. Evers, a United States Army veteran who served in World War II, was engaged in efforts to overturn racial segregation at the University of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities, and expand opportunities for African Americans, including the enforcement of voting rights when he was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith.
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Alex Haley
- Occupations
- screenwritermilitary personneljournalistbiographergenealogist
- Biography
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Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
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Malcolm Butler
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Malcolm Terel Butler is an American former professional football cornerback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. Butler played his first four seasons with the New England Patriots, who signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2014. In his final three seasons, he was a member of the Tennessee Titans.
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Alexander O'Neal
- Occupations
- songwritercomposersinger-songwritersinger
- Biography
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Alexander O'Neal is an American R&B singer, songwriter and arranger from Natchez, Mississippi.
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Leslie Frazier
- Occupations
- American football coachAmerican football player
- Biography
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Leslie Antonio Frazier is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the assistant head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He played professional football as a cornerback for the Chicago Bears in the National Football League (NFL), winning a Super Bowl in the 1985 season.
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Iris Kyle
- Occupations
- bodybuilder
- Biography
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Iris Floyd Kyle is an African-Indian American professional female bodybuilder. She is currently the most successful, female or male, professional bodybuilder ever. She has a total of twenty professional bodybuilding titles, with ten overall and two heavyweight Ms. Olympia titles (more Mr. and Ms. Olympia titles than anyone else) and seven overall and one heavyweight Ms. International titles (more Arnold Classic and Ms. International titles than anyone).
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Myrlie Evers-Williams
- Occupations
- screenwriterjournalistcivil rights advocate
- Biography
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Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams is an American civil rights activist and journalist who worked for over three decades to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her husband Medgar Evers, another civil rights activist. She also served as chairwoman of the NAACP, and has published several books on topics related to civil rights and her husband's legacy. On January 21, 2013, she delivered the invocation at the second inauguration of Barack Obama.
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Lindsey Hunter
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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Lindsey Benson Hunter Jr. is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1993 to 2010, spending most of his career with the Detroit Pistons. He was also the interim head coach of the Phoenix Suns in 2013. Most recently, he served as the head coach at Mississippi Valley State.
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Charles Evers
- Occupations
- politicianhuman rights activist
- Biography
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James Charles Evers was an American civil rights activist, businessman, radio personality, and politician. Evers was known for his role in the civil rights movement along with his younger brother Medgar Evers. After serving in World War II, Evers began his career as a disc jockey at WHOC in Philadelphia, Mississippi. In 1954, he was made the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) State Voter Registration chairman. After his brother's assassination in 1963, Evers took over his position as field director of the NAACP in Mississippi. In this role, he organized and led many demonstrations for the rights of African Americans.
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KhaDarel Hodge
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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KhaDarel Jamal Hodge is an American professional football wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Prairie View A&M.
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Trey Johnson
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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Clinton "Trey" Johnson III is an American-Qatari former professional basketball player and coach. He played college basketball with the Alcorn State Braves and the Jackson State Tigers in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). During his senior year, he won the SWAC Player of the Year award. He has spent much of his professional career with the Bakersfield Jam in the NBA Development League (NBA D-League), a minor league basketball organization owned and run by the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his time in the D-League, he received a call-up to the NBA and has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers. He has also spent several short stints overseas in Serbia, France, and Italy. He has represented Qatar in international competition.
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John Thierry
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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John Fitzgerald Thierry was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the first round (11th overall pick) of the 1994 NFL draft. A 6' 4", 263 lb linebacker from Alcorn State University, Thierry was moved to defensive end and played in nine NFL seasons from 1994 to 2002.
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Larry Smith
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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Larry Smith is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'8" forward/center from Alcorn State University, Smith spent 13 seasons (1980–1993) in the National Basketball Association (NBA), playing for the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs. Smith, nicknamed "Mr. Mean", received NBA All-Rookie Team Honors in 1981, and would become one of the best rebounders of the 1980s. He had career averages of 9.2 rebounds and 25.9 minutes per game. Smith was affectionally nicknamed and known as "Mr. Mean" throughout his career, especially during his time with the Warriors, due to the stark contrast between him being nice and soft-spoken off the court but always with a serious demeanor and angry scowl on the court while grabbing a rebound. Smith's popularity in Golden State and Houston led to local fan clubs who would attend games wearing hard hats holding up a sign saying "Larry's Local 13". At the end of his career, Smith earned praise from the Houston Rockets coaching staff and fanbase for adequately covering for an injured Hakeem Olajuwon.
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Alex Owumi
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Alexander Owumi is a Nigerian-American professional basketball player and author. He became the subject of widespread media attention following his time with Al-Nasr, a Libyan team owned by the family of Muammar Gaddafi. Owumi last played for the Worthing Thunder of the National Basketball League Division 1 (NBL 1) in England of which he now owns.
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Nate Hughes
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Nathan Hughes is a former American football wide receiver. He was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at Alcorn State.
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Willie Lee Simmons
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Willie Lee Simmons is an American politician and former member of the Mississippi State Senate from the 13th District, where he served from 1993 to 2020. Simmons ran and won the election to the Mississippi Transportation Commission for the Central District. Prior to serving in the senate, he worked in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
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Jennifer Riley Collins
- Biography
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Jennifer A. Riley Collins is an American attorney and politician.
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Horace R. Cayton
- Occupations
- journalistpolitician
- Biography
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Horace Roscoe Cayton Sr. was an American journalist and political activist. The son of a slave and a white plantation owner's daughter, Cayton went to Seattle, Washington, in the early 1890s, launching his own newspaper, The Seattle Republican, in 1894. The paper was the longest-lived of seven African-American newspapers appearing in Seattle between 1891 and 1901, terminating only in 1913.
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Alexander Graves
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Alexander Graves was a U.S. Representative from Missouri.
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Nathaniel Archibald
- Years
- 1952-2018 (aged 66)
- Occupations
- basketball coachbasketball player
- Biography
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Nathaniel Archibald was an American basketball player. He is best known for his collegiate career with the Alcorn State Braves, with whom he was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Player of the Year as a junior in 1973. He earned back-to-back first-team all-SWAC honors during his final two seasons. During his college career, Archibald scored 1,240 points and grabbed 968 rebounds. He went on to attend graduate school at Alcorn State University and spent time as an assistant coach for the basketball team.
