53 Notable alumni of
Lincoln University
Updated:
Lincoln University is 1209th in the world, 433rd in North America, and 406th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 53 notable alumni from Lincoln 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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Thurgood Marshall
- Enrolled in Lincoln University
- In 1930 graduated with bachelor's degree in philosophy and American literature
- Occupations
- judgepoliticianjuristlawyer
- Biography
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Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall was a prominent figure in the movement to end racial segregation in American public schools. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the separate but equal doctrine and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967. A staunch liberal, he frequently dissented as the Court became increasingly conservative.
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Langston Hughes
- Occupations
- opinion journalistjournalistnovelistpoetchildren's writer
- Biography
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James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Kwame Nkrumah
- Enrolled in Lincoln University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in theology
- Occupations
- politicianwriterdiplomatlecturer
- Biography
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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 (OAU) and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.
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Cab Calloway
- Occupations
- bandleadersongwriterstage actordanceractor
- Biography
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Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.
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Gil Scott-Heron
- Occupations
- writersinger-songwritercomposerpianistpoet
- Biography
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Gilbert Scott-Heron was an American jazz poet, singer, musician, and author known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson fused jazz, blues, and soul with lyrics relative to social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles. He referred to himself as a "bluesologist", his own term for "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues". His poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", delivered over a jazz-soul beat, is considered a major influence on hip hop music.
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Roscoe Lee Browne
- Occupations
- film actortelevision actorvoice actorstage actor
- Biography
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Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his work in television and film. He is perhaps best known for his many guest appearances on TV series from the 1970s and 1980s as well as movies like The Cowboys (1972) with John Wayne.
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Nnamdi Azikiwe
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, commonly referred to as Zik of Africa, was a Nigerian politician, statesman, and revolutionary leader who served as the 3rd and first black governor-general of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and the first president of Nigeria during the First Nigerian Republic (1963–1966). He is widely regarded as the father of Nigerian nationalism as well as one of the major driving forces behind the country's independence in 1960.
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Sheila Oliver
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Sheila Yvette Oliver was an American politician who served as the second lieutenant governor of New Jersey from 2018 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Oliver was the first Black woman to serve as lieutenant governor of New Jersey and was the first woman of color elected to statewide office in New Jersey.
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Saara Kuugongelwa
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is a Namibian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Namibia since 2015. She is a member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) and has been a member of the National Assembly of Namibia since 1995. She served as Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2015. She is the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Namibia.
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Monte Irvin
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin was an American left fielder and right fielder in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who played with the Newark Eagles (1938–1942, 1946–1948), New York Giants (1949–1955) and Chicago Cubs (1956). He grew up in New Jersey and was a standout football player at Lincoln University. Irvin left Lincoln to spend several seasons in Negro league baseball. His career was interrupted by military service from 1943 to 1945.
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Fayette Pinkney
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Fayette Regina Pinkney was an American singer and one of the original members of musical group The Three Degrees.
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Cherelle Parker
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Cherelle Lesley Parker is an American politician who has served as the 100th mayor of Philadelphia since 2024. She is the first woman to hold the office.
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Ericka Huggins
- Occupations
- sociologist
- Biography
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Ericka Huggins is an American activist, writer, and educator. She is a former leading member of the Black Panther Party (BPP). She was married to fellow BPP member John Huggins in 1968.
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Oscar Brown, Jr
- Occupations
- recording artistsingerradio personalityjazz musiciancomposer
- Biography
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Oscar Brown Jr. was an American singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, actor, and civil rights activist (Brown was African-American). Brown discovered The Jackson 5. Aside from his career, Brown ran unsuccessfully for office in both the Illinois state legislature and the U.S. Congress. Brown wrote many songs (125 have been published), 12 albums, and more than a dozen musical plays.
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Brian Jackson
- Occupations
- singer-songwriterjazz musician
- Biography
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Brian Robert Jackson is an American keyboardist, flautist, singer, composer, and producer known for his collaborations with Gil Scott-Heron in the 1970s. The sound of Jackson's Rhodes electric piano and flute accompaniments featured prominently in many of their compositions, most notably on "The Bottle" and "Your Daddy Loves You" from their first official collaboration Winter in America.
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Archibald Grimké
- Occupations
- journalistdiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Archibald Henry Grimké was an African-American lawyer, intellectual, journalist, diplomat and community leader in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He graduated from freedmen's schools, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School, and served as American Consul to the Dominican Republic from 1894 to 1898. He was an activist for the rights of Black Americans, working in Boston and Washington, D.C. He was a national vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as president of its Washington, D.C. chapter.
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Herb Wesson
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Herman J. "Herb" Wesson Jr. is an American politician who served as a councilmember representing the 10th District for three terms between July 1, 2005 and December 14, 2020, and again on an appointed basis from March 22, 2022 until August 25, 2022. He was also the President of the Los Angeles City Council and Speaker of the California State Assembly.
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Francis James Grimké
- Years
- 1850-1937 (aged 87)
- Occupations
- pastor
- Biography
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Francis James Grimké was an American Presbyterian minister in Washington, DC. He was regarded for more than half a century as one of the leading African-American clergy of his era and was prominent in working for equal rights. He was active in the Niagara Movement and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.
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Philip Banks III
- Occupations
- police officer
- Biography
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Philip Banks III is the former Deputy Mayor of New York City for Public Safety and a retired law enforcement officer who served as NYPD chief of department in 2013 and 2014. As Chief of Department, Banks oversaw all patrol and specialty units. He resigned in the midst of the investigations into the Eric Adams administration.
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Horace Mann Bond
- Occupations
- professor
- Biography
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Horace Mann Bond was an American historian, college administrator, social science researcher and the father of civil-rights leader Julian Bond. He earned graduate and doctoral degrees from University of Chicago at a time when only a small percentage of any young adults attended any college. He was an influential leader at several historically black colleges and was appointed the first president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia in 1939, where he managed its growth in programs and revenue. In 1945, he became the first African-American president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
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Maria Louisa Bustill
- Occupations
- teacher
- Biography
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Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson was a Quaker schoolteacher; the wife of the Reverend William Drew Robeson of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey and the mother of Paul Robeson and his siblings.
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Thomas E. Miller
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Thomas Ezekiel Miller was an American educator, lawyer and politician. After being elected as a state legislator in South Carolina, he was one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South in the Jim Crow era of the last decade of the nineteenth century, as disfranchisement reduced black voting. After that, no African Americans were elected from the South until 1972.
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Robert L. Carter
- Enrolled in Lincoln University
- Studied in 1937
- Occupations
- judgejournalistlawyer
- Biography
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Robert Lee Carter was an American lawyer, civil rights activist and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr
- Occupations
- lobbyist
- Biography
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Clarence Maurice Mitchell Jr. was an American civil rights activist and was the chief lobbyist for the NAACP for nearly 30 years. He also served as a regional director for the organization.
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Alexander Darnes
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Alexander Hanson Darnes was the first African-American physician in Jacksonville, Florida, and the second in the state. Born into slavery in St. Augustine, Florida, as a young man he served as a valet to Edmund Kirby Smith, the son of his owner, Judge Joseph Lee Smith. Darnes accompanied Smith to Texas while he served in the United States Army. During the Civil War, Smith commanded as a Confederate general.
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Cecil Dennis
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Charles Cecil Dennis Jr was a Liberian political figure who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President William Tolbert from 1973 until the 1980 Liberian coup d'état led by Samuel Doe. Along with 11 other current and former members of the Liberian government, he was tried by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad ten days after the coup.
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Julian Mayfield
- Occupations
- novelistactortheatrical director
- Biography
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Julian Hudson Mayfield was an American actor, director, writer, lecturer and civil rights activist.
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Ebenezer Ako-Adjei
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomatlawyer
- Biography
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Ako Adjei, was a Ghanaian statesman, politician, lawyer and journalist. He was a member of the United Gold Coast Convention and one of six leaders who were detained during Ghana's struggle for political independence from Britain, a group famously called The Big Six. Adjei became a member of parliament as a Convention People's Party candidate in 1954 and held ministerial offices until 1962 when as Minister for Foreign Affairs he was wrongfully detained for the Kulungugu bomb attack.
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Charles L. Blockson
- Enrolled in Lincoln University
- Graduated with honorary doctorate
- Occupations
- historianbook collectorcurator
- Biography
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Charles Leroy Blockson was an American historian, author, bibliophile, and collector of books, historical documents, art, and other materials related to the history and culture of African Americans, continental Africans, and the African diaspora throughout the rest of the world. He curated two university collections related to the study of African-American history and culture: the Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora at Pennsylvania State University and the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University.
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Abdulalim Abdullah Shabazz
- Enrolled in Lincoln University
- Studied in 1945-1949
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Abdulalim Abdullah Shabazz was an African American Professor of Mathematics. He received the National Association of Mathematicians Distinguished Service Award for his years of mentoring and teaching excellence. President of the United States Bill Clinton awarded Shabazz a National Mentor award in September 2000.
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Nathan Francis Mossell
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Nathan Francis Mossell was an American physician who was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1882. He did post-graduate training at hospitals in Philadelphia and London. In 1888, he was the first black physician elected as member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society in Pennsylvania. He was active in the NAACP and also helped found the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia in 1895, which he led as chief-of-staff and medical director until he retired in 1933. Gertrude Bustill Mossell was his wife.
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Robert N.C. Nix, Sr
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix Sr. was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1958 until 1979. He was the first African American to represent Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives. The Robert N. C. Nix Federal Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is named in his honor.
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Roderick L. Ireland
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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Roderick L. Ireland is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and the first African American to serve that position. He was nominated for Chief Justice by Governor Deval Patrick on November 4, 2010, and sworn in on December 20. He retired from service on the court on July 25, 2014.
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Hildrus Poindexter
- Occupations
- writerepidemiologist
- Biography
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Hildrus Augustus "Gus" Poindexter was an American bacteriologist who studied the epidemiology of tropical diseases.
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Emerson Emory
- Occupations
- psychiatristphysician
- Biography
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Emerson Emory was an American internist and psychiatrist from Dallas, Texas. Aspiring to be a doctor from an early age, he attended Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College before serving in the Quartermaster Corps of the United States Army during World War II. After studying at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, Emory conducted his residency at St. Paul's Hospital, which was the first major hospital in Dallas to grant staff privileges to African American doctors.
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Robert Friend
- Occupations
- aircraft pilotufologist
- Biography
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Robert Jones Friend was an American military officer and pilot who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and led the USAF's Project Blue Book from 1958 to 1963. He also served during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He had a 28-year military career.
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Maria Quiñones-Sanchez
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Maria Quiñones-Sánchez is an American politician and political activist who served as a member of the Philadelphia City Council representing the 7th district. The district includes the neighborhoods of Castor Gardens, Fairhill, Feltonville, Frankford, Harrowgate, Hunting Park, Juniata, Kensington, Oxford Circle and Wissinoming. A registered Democrat, she served in this position from 2008 to 2022.
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Edward Wilmot Blyden III
- Occupations
- diplomatwriter
- Biography
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Edward Wilmot Blyden III was a diplomat, political scientist and educator born in Freetown Sierra Leone Protectorate. He distinguished himself as an educator and contributor to post-colonial discourse on African self-government, and Third World non-alignment. He was the grandson of Edward Wilmot Blyden.
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Soraya M. Coley
- Born in
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United States - Biography
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Soraya M. Coley is the sixth president of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). With four decades of experience in higher education, Coley is the first woman and first African American scholar to be named president of Cal Poly Pomona.
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Julia Evangeline Brooks
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Julia Evangeline Brooks was an incorporator of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority founded by African-American women.
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Aaron Albert Mossell
- Occupations
- activistmining engineerlawyer
- Biography
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Aaron Albert Mossell II was an American lawyer who was the first African-American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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Horace Dawson
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Horace Greeley Dawson, Jr. is an American retired diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Botswana.
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Karsonya Wise Whitehead
- Enrolled in Lincoln University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts
- Occupations
- university teacherfilmmakeractivist
- Biography
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Karsonya "Kaye" Wise Whitehead is an American educator, author, radio host, speaker, and documentary filmmaker who is known as the #blackmommyactivist. She is the founding director of The Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice, a Professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland, and the host of Today With Kaye on WEAA. Whitehead is also an Opinion Editorial columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American.
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A. A. Birch, Jr
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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Adolpho A. Birch Jr. was an American lawyer and judge who was the first African American to serve as Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
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Joseph C. Price
- Occupations
- educatororator
- Biography
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Joseph Charles Price was a founder and the first president of Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He was one of the greatest orators of his day and a leader of African Americans in the southern United States. His death at the age of 39 cut short a career that might otherwise have vied with that of Booker T. Washington.
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J. Everett Prewitt
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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James Everett Prewitt is an American novelist and former Army officer who served in the Vietnam War.
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Harold E. Pierce
- Occupations
- dermatologist
- Biography
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Harold E. Pierce Jr. Brigadier General was an American dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon who practiced principally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for over 48 years. He pioneered surgical techniques for the treatment of keloids, laminar dermal reticulotomy, hair transplants, cosmetic facial surgery, chemical facial peeling, and dermabrasion in people of color. He was called "The Father of Black Cosmetic Surgery."
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Darrel Lewis
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Darrel Keith Lewis is an American and Icelandic professional basketball player who last played for Þór Akureyri in the Icelandic Úrvalsdeild karla. He was named the Úrvalsdeild Foreign Player of the year in 2004 and selected to the Domestic All-First Team in 2015.
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W. Beverly Carter, Jr
- Years
- 1921-1982 (aged 61)
- Occupations
- diplomatjournalist
- Biography
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William Beverly Carter Jr., served three American presidents as U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania and Liberia and became the first African American named Ambassador-at-Large.
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Ulysses Simpson Wiggins
- Biography
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Ulysses Simpson Wiggins was an American doctor, civil rights activist, president of the Camden County branch of the NAACP, and president of the New Jersey Conference of Branches of the NAACP. Wiggins was a proponent of desegregating Camden's schools during his time as president of the Camden NAACP, and he was a well-respected leader in his community.
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Joseph Newman Clinton
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Joseph Newman Clinton was a politician and public official in Florida. An African American, he served in the Florida House of Representatives from Alachua County from 1881 to 1883, was a member of the city council in Gainesville from 1883 to 1885, and was a federal official in Pensacola and Tampa.
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Edward S. Porter
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Edward S. Porter was a physician in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a physician for the Louisville city sanitary force, the Orphan's home, at the nearby insane asylum, and at Simmons College of Kentucky.
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Frank Erdman Boston
- Occupations
- physicianmilitary officer
- Biography
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Frank Erdman Boston was an American physician. He served in World War I (as a part of the Medical Reserve Corps) in the 317th Infantry. He served in France with the rank captain and ended his military service as a major. After the war, he worked in Philadelphia and then moved to Lansdale, Pennsylvania, founding an ambulance corps and the North Penn Hospital (1954).
