25 Notable alumni of
Dillard University
Updated:
Dillard University is 2056th in the world, 703rd in North America, and 661st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 25 notable alumni from Dillard 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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Garrett Morris
- Occupations
- actorfilm actorsingerstage actortelevision actor
- Biography
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Garrett Isaac Morris is an American actor, comedian and singer. He was part of the original cast and was the first black cast member of the sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, appearing from 1975 to 1980.
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Andrew Young
- Occupations
- human rights activistpoliticianwriterdiplomatfilm screenwriter
- Biography
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Andrew Jackson Young Jr. is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr. Young later became active in politics, serving as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter Administration, and 55th Mayor of Atlanta. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Georgia since Reconstruction, as well as one of the first two African Americans elected to Congress from the former Confederacy since Reconstruction, alongside Barbara Jordan of Texas. Since leaving office, Young has founded or served in many organizations working on issues of public policy and political lobbying.
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Beah Richards
- Occupations
- stage actorplaywrighttelevision actorpoetwriter
- Biography
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Beulah Elizabeth Richardson, known professionally as Beah Richards and Bea Richards, was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She was also a poet, playwright, author and activist.
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P. B. S. Pinchback
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was an American publisher, politician, and Union Army officer who served as Governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873. Pinchback was the first African-American governor and the second lieutenant governor (after Oscar Dunn) in the United States. A Republican, Pinchback served as acting governor of Louisiana for 35 days, during which ten acts of Legislature became law. He was one of the most prominent African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction Era.
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Ellis Marsalis Jr
- Occupations
- pedagoguepianistjazz musicianmusic educator
- Biography
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Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular jazz musicians.
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John Hope Franklin
- Occupations
- university teacherwriterhistorianprofessor
- Biography
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John Hope Franklin was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and continually updated. More than three million copies have been sold. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
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Ruth Simmons
- Occupations
- academic administratoruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ruth Simmons is an American professor and academic administrator. Simmons served as the eighth president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black university (HBCU), from 2017 until 2023. From 2001 to 2012, she served as the 18th president of Brown University, where she was the first African-American president of an Ivy League institution. During her time at Brown, Simmons was named the best college president by Time magazine. Prior to Brown University, she headed Smith College, one of the Seven Sisters and the largest women's college in the United States, beginning in 1995. During her tenure, Smith College launched the first accredited engineering program at an all-women's college.
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Benjamin Mays
- Occupations
- writerpastor
- Biography
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Benjamin Elijah Mays was an American Baptist minister and American rights leader who is credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the American civil rights movement. Mays taught and mentored many influential activists, including Martin Luther King Jr, Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, and Donn Clendenon, among others. His rhetoric and intellectual pursuits focused on Black self-determination. Mays' commitment to social justice through nonviolence and civil resistance were cultivated from his youth through the lessons imbibed from his parents and eldest sister. The peak of his public influence coincided with his nearly three-decade tenure as the sixth president of Morehouse College, a historically black institution of higher learning, in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Alice Dunbar Nelson
- Occupations
- short story writersuffragistwriterplaywrighteducator
- Biography
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Alice Dunbar Nelson was an American poet, journalist, and political activist. Among the first generation of African Americans born free in the Southern United States after the end of the American Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. After his death, she married physician Henry Arthur Callis and later was married to Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist. She achieved prominence as a poet, author of short stories and dramas, newspaper columnist, women's rights activist, and editor of two anthologies.
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Jericho Brown
- Occupations
- poet
- Biography
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Jericho Brown is an American poet and writer. Born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Brown has worked as an educator at institutions such as the University of Houston, the University of San Diego, and Emory University. His poems have been published in The Nation, New England Review, The New Republic, Oxford American, and The New Yorker, among others. He released his first book of prose and poetry, Please, in 2008. His second book, The New Testament, was released in 2014. His 2019 collection of poems, The Tradition, garnered widespread critical acclaim.
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Harold Battiste
- Occupations
- composermusic arrangerjazz musiciansongwritersaxophonist
- Biography
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Harold Raymond Battiste Jr. was an American music composer, arranger, performer, and teacher. A native of, and later community leader in, New Orleans, he is best known for his work as an arranger on records by Barbara George, Sam Cooke, Joe Jones, Lee Dorsey, Sonny and Cher, Dr. John, and others.
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Carl E. Stewart
- Occupations
- judgejournalistlawyer
- Biography
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Carl Edmond Stewart is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994, and previously sat as a judge of the Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal from 1985 to 1994.
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Nita Landry
- Born in
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United States - Enrolled in Dillard University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- obstetrician-gynecologistphysician
- Biography
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Nita Landry, better known as Dr. Nita, is an American obstetrician and gynecologist (OB/GYN), author, and television correspondent. She co-hosted the daily syndicated talk show The Doctors for several seasons and has made recurring appearances on various national television shows. Landry is a contributor to several women's interest magazines and is a frequent speaker at public engagements related to women's health and public education.
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Ted Ellis
- Occupations
- painterengineerbusinesspersonchemist
- Biography
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Ted Ellis is an American artist and former environmental chemist. Ellis is best known for his African-American themed art and styles which blend elements of folk art, naturalism and impressionism. His personal rendition of Barack Obama in acrylic, Obama, the 44th President, was presented in honor of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
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Samella Lewis
- Occupations
- artistcuratorprintmakerhistorianart historian
- Biography
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Samella Sanders Lewis was an American visual artist and art historian. She worked primarily as a printmaker and painter. She has been called the "Godmother of African American Art". She received Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association (CAA) in 2021.
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Sheila Tlou
- Occupations
- chancellorpoliticianteachernurse
- Biography
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Professor Sheila Dinotshe Tlou is a Botswana nurse, specialist in HIV/AIDS and women's health, and nursing educator. She was Minister of Health from 2004 to 2008. Professor Tlou is a distinguished advocate for human resources for health issues. She is a recognized visionary leader and champion.
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Renée Gill Pratt
- Years
- 1954-.. (age 71)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Renée Gill Pratt is an American politician from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was also Director of the Center for Student Retention and Success in Southern University at New Orleans. On July 25, 2011, she was found guilty of racketeering. For this crime, she served a four-year sentence.
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Napoleon Bracy Jr
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Napoleon Bracy Jr. is an American politician. He serves as a Democratic member of the Alabama House of Representatives, representing Mobile County, Alabama. In May 2017, he opposed the bill for the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which would make it harder to remove Confederate monuments in Alabama; he argued, "People that sponsor bills like this don't care about me."
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Gladys W. Royal
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherbiochemist
- Biography
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Gladys W. Royal is one of a small number of early African-American biochemists. Part of one of the few African-American husband-and-wife teams in science, Gladys worked with George C. Royal on research supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission. She later worked for many years as principal biochemist at the Cooperative State Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Royal was also active in the civil rights movement in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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John Wesley Edward Bowen
- Occupations
- classical scholaruniversity teacher
- Biography
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John Wesley Edward Bowen Sr. was born into American slavery and became a Methodist clergyman, denominational official, college and university educator. He was one of the first African Americans to earn a Ph.D. degree in the United States. He is credited as the first African American to receive the Ph.D. degree from Boston University, which was granted in 1887.
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Autumn Knight
- Occupations
- visual artist
- Biography
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Autumn Knight is an American interdisciplinary artist working with performance, installation, and text from Houston, Texas who lives and works in New York City.
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Solomon T. Clanton
- Biography
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Solomon T. Clanton was a leader in the Baptist Church. He was educated in New Orleans and Chicago and became the first black graduate of the theological department at the Baptist Union Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, Chicago, Illinois, associated with the University of Chicago. He spent his career as an educator and leader in the Baptist Church. He served as a professor at Leland University, Alabama A&M University, and Selma University, and before his death as assistant librarian at the University of Chicago. He was acting president for a short time at Alabama A&M and was dean of the theological department at Selma University. During his career, he was also an educator in high schools and Sunday schools.
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Eloise Bibb Thompson
- Occupations
- writerplaywrightpoetjournalist
- Biography
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Eloise Alberta Veronica Thompson was an American educator, playwright, poet, and journalist. She married fellow journalist and activist Noah D. Thompson.
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Danny C. Williams Sr
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
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Danny C. Williams Sr. is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma from 2012 to 2017.
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Ernest Lyon
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Ernest A. Lyon was an African-American minister, educator and diplomat.
