25 Notable alumni of
South Carolina State University
Updated:
South Carolina State University is 1577th in the world, 558th in North America, and 525th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 25 notable alumni from South Carolina 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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Jim Clyburn
- Enrolled in South Carolina State University
- In 1961 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- chief executive officerteacheremployment counsellorpoliticianinternational forum participant
- Biography
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James Enos Clyburn is an American politician and retired educator serving as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina. He previously as House Majority Whip between 2007 and 2011 and between 2019 and 2023. Clyburn also served as House assistant Democratic leader from 2011 to 2019 and again from 2023 until he stepped down in 2024.
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Kára McCullough
- Occupations
- physicistbeauty pageant contestantmodelchemist
- Biography
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Kára McCullough Temple is an American beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss USA 2017. As Miss USA, McCullough represented the United States at Miss Universe 2017, where she placed in the top ten.
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Ernest Everett Just
- Occupations
- biologistmarine biologistzoologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ernest Everett Just was a pioneering biologist, academic and science writer. Just's primary legacy is his recognition of the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of organisms. In his work within marine biology, cytology and parthenogenesis, he advocated the study of whole cells under normal conditions, rather than simply breaking them apart in a laboratory setting.
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Armstrong Williams
- Occupations
- radio personalityjournalist
- Biography
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Armstrong Williams is an American political commentator, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host. Williams writes a nationally syndicated conservative newspaper column, has hosted a daily radio show, and hosts a nationally syndicated television program called The Armstrong Williams Show. He is the owner of Howard Stirk Holdings, a media company affiliated with Sinclair Broadcasting that has purchased numerous television stations. Williams is a longtime associate of former HUD Secretary and 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson. With David D. Smith, he is part-owner of The Baltimore Sun.
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Marion Motley
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Marion Motley was an American professional football fullback and linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the National Football League (NFL). He was a leading pass-blocker and rusher in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and ended his career with an average of 5.7 yards per carry, a record for running backs that still stands. A versatile player who possessed both quickness and size, Motley was a force on both offense and defense. Fellow Hall of Fame fullback Joe Perry once called Motley "the greatest all-around football player there ever was".
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Benjamin Mays
- Occupations
- pastorwriter
- 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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Willie Aikens
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Willie Mays Aikens is an American professional baseball first baseman who played in Major League Baseball for the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Toronto Blue Jays between 1977 and 1985. He had established himself as one of the top sluggers in the game before drugs derailed his career. In 1994, Aikens was sentenced to 20 years in prison on four counts of crack cocaine distribution and one count of use of a firearm during drug trafficking. He was released on June 4, 2008, after changes in federal drug laws, and is sometimes cited as an example of the results of mandatory maximum sentencing in drug-related crimes.
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Joe Thomas
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Joe Lewis Thomas Jr. is an American football linebacker who is a free agent. He played college football at South Carolina State, and was signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 2014.
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Houston Person
- Occupations
- jazz musicianrecording artistsaxophonist
- Biography
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Houston Person is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and record producer. Although he has performed in the hard bop and swing genres, he is most experienced in and best known for his work in soul jazz. He received the "Eubie Blake Jazz Award" in 1982.
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Stephen Twitty
- Occupations
- soldier
- Biography
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Stephen M. Twitty is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army. Twitty assumed command of First United States Army on July 15, 2016, relinquishing command to become deputy commander of United States European Command on 9 August 2018. Previously, he was commanding general of Fort Bliss and the 1st Armored Division. Twitty was awarded the Silver Star during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Noted for his relationship with journalist David Bloom, who was embedded with his battalion during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Twitty has served in five combat deployments, including tours in the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait. He has commanded at the company, battalion, and brigade level during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twitty is a graduate of South Carolina State University and a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He was inducted into the South Carolina State University ROTC Hall of Fame in 2009, and selected as one of the university's Distinguished Alumni in 2004.
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Rafael Bush
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Rafael Bush is a former American football safety who played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at South Carolina State and was signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent in 2010. He has also played for the Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, and Buffalo Bills.
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Oliver Pough
- Occupations
- player of American football
- Biography
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Oliver "Buddy" Pough is a former American football coach and player. He served as the head football coach at South Carolina State University, a position he held from 2002 until his retirement in 2023. He led the South Carolina State Bulldogs football team to eight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles, in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2019, and 2021.
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Alma Levant Hayden
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Alma Levant Hayden was an American chemist, and one of the first African-American women to gain a scientist position at a science agency in Washington, D.C. She joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the 1950s. Hayden graduated from Howard University with a master's degree in chemistry, and became an expert in spectrophotometry, the measurement of how substances absorb light. She published work on infrared and other techniques for analyzing chemicals in a range of journals. Hayden was appointed Chief of the Spectrophotometer Research Branch in the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1963, and may have been the first African-American scientist at the FDA. Hayden came to national attention in 1963 when she led the team that exposed the common substance in Krebiozen, a long-controversial alternative and expensive drug promoted as anti-cancer.
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Matthew J. Perry
- Occupations
- judgelawyer
- Biography
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Matthew James Perry Jr. was an attorney and in 1979 appointed as the first African-American United States district judge in South Carolina, serving on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. In 1976 he had been the first African-American attorney from the Deep South to be appointed to the federal judiciary, which he served on the United States Court of Military Appeals. Perry established his career with civil rights litigation, defending Gloria Blackwell in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in her 1962 suit against her arrest for sitting in the whites-only area of the regional hospital while waiting for emergency treatment for her daughter. Other landmark cases included achieving the integration of Clemson University and reapportionment of the state legislature.
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Roderick Blakney
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Roderick Bertrand Blakney is an American-born naturalized Bulgarian former professional basketball player.
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Gene Richards
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Eugene Richards Jr. is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder. He played eight seasons in the Majors, from 1977 until 1984, for the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. As a rookie with San Diego in 1977, he set a modern-day MLB rookie single-season record for stolen bases.
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Clifford L. Stanley
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Clifford Lee Stanley was the United States Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, having resigned that office in 2011.
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Tom Boswell
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Tommy G. Boswell is a retired American professional basketball player.
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Jay Joyner
- Born in
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United States - Occupations
- basketball coachbasketball player
- Biography
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Jay Joyner is an American college basketball coach and former head coach for the North Carolina A&T Aggies men's basketball team.
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K'zell Wesson
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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K'Zell Ray Wesson is an American former professional basketball player. He is 6' 7.5" (2.02 m) in height and he weighs 242 lbs. (110 kg). He plays the position of power forward-center.
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Ron Westray
- Occupations
- jazz musiciancomposer
- Biography
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Ronald Kenneth Westray, Jr. is an American jazz trombonist, composer, and educator. He holds a B.A. from South Carolina State University and a Master of Arts degree from Eastern Illinois University. He has played with Marcus Roberts, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (since its inception in 1993), and has been a regular member of the Mingus Big Band. In 2005 he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin. In 2009 he was appointed to the Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance at York University.
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Doris Funnye Innis
- Occupations
- human rights activistwriter
- Biography
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Doris Valdena Funnye Innis was an American writer, editor and educator, significantly in the area of civil rights. She was the editor of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) publications Rights and Reviews and CORE Magazine in the early 1970s and again in the 1980s.
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Andrew Hugine, Jr
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Andrew Hugine Jr. is an American educator and academic administrator serving as the 11th president of Alabama A&M University. On June 26, 2009, his hiring for the role was authorised. Hugine's contract was renewed by the AAMU Board of Trustees to 2023 on June 22, 2018. Hugine was formerly president of South Carolina State University, his alma mater.
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Henry Doctor, Jr
- Enrolled in South Carolina State University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in agriculture
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
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Lieutenant General Henry Doctor Jr. was the Commanding General, 2nd Infantry Division, Eighth United States Army, based in South Korea. His last assignment was as The Inspector General of the U.S. Army.
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Maxcine Young
- Years
- 1907-2000 (aged 93)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Maxcine Young was an American politician.
