List of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni

This list of Lincoln University alumni includes graduates, non-graduate former students and current students of Lincoln University. Lincoln University is a historically black university (HBCU).^[1] Lincoln University has many notable alumni, including Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Hildrus Poindexter, Horace Mann Bond, Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert L. Carter, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, and Melvin B. Tolson. Many of Langston Hughes' papers reside in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library on campus.

Nnamdi Azikiwe and Kwame Nkrumah were the first President/Prime Minister of Nigeria and Ghana respectively, fulfilling John Miller Dickey's vision of Lincoln University as a training institution for African leadership. At least ten of its alumni have served as United States ambassadors or mission chiefs. Many are federal, state and municipal judges, and many others have served as mayors or city managers.

Lincoln University alumni have held key leadership positions at more than 35 colleges and universities and scores of prominent churches. South Carolina State University, Livingstone College, Albany State University, Texas Southern University, Ibeme Memorial College (Nigeria), Ibibio State College (Nigeria), and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana) were all founded by Lincoln alumni.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Thurgood Marshall

Kwame Nkrumah

Roscoe Lee Browne

Name	Class year	Notability	Reference(s)
Ebenezer Ako-Adjei		Ghanaian politician, member of the United Gold Coast Convention and The Big Six
Walter G. Alexander	1899	first African American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature
Charles E. Anderson	1941	first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Meteorology
Nnamdi Azikiwe	1930	first President of Nigeria
Harry W. Bass	1888	first African American elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1910
A.A. Birch, Jr.	1952	first African-American to serve as Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court
Donald Bogle	1966	film historian, author, educator
Horace Mann Bond	1923	educator, scholar; first African-American and alumnus to become President of Lincoln University
Oscar Brown, Jr.	1940	singer, actor, playwright, director
Roscoe Lee Browne	1946	actor, former 800-meters record holder
Maria Louisa Bustill		teacher and mother of Paul Robeson
Cab Calloway	1930	entertainer, bandleader
Robert L. Carter	1937	general counsel of the NAACP, United States District Judge
Frank "Tick" Coleman	1935	educator
Alexander Darnes	1876	born into slavery, owned by Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith; second African-American physician in Florida
Lillian E. Fishburne	1971	first African American woman promoted to the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Navy
Christian Fleetwood	1860	served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, earned the Medal of Honor
William Fontaine	1930	philosopher
Marcus A. Griffith	1993	politician, Mount Vernon, New York
Archibald H. Grimke	1870	lawyer, journalist, public speaker, member of the Niagara Movement
Francis J. Grimké	1870	Pastor of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., member of the Niagara Movement
Joseph Winthrop Holley	1900	founder of Albany State University
Langston Hughes	1929	poet
Roderick L. Ireland	1966	first African American associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court	[2]
Montford "Monte" Irvin		New York Giants player; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973
Pee Wee Kirkland	2000	former street basketball player from New York City; played at Rucker Park in the 1970 and 1971 seasons	[3]
Brian Jackson	1973	keyboardist, writer
Halvern H. Johnson M.D.	1931	author, organizer and physician to the stars
Scott Johnson, Ph.D.	1973	first minority president of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
Robert Walter "Whirlwind" Johnson	1924	physician, educator, tennis instructor to Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe
Saara Kuugongelwa	1994	Namibian politician
Robert Lee	1941	South Carolina-born dentist who emigrated to Ghana in 1956 and operated a dental practice there for nearly five decades until his retirement in 2002	[4]
Thurgood Marshall	1930	first African-American Supreme Court Justice
Thomas E. Miller	1872	South Carolina Congressman; first President of South Carolina State University (1896–1911)
Joseph Miró	1970	politician, member of the Delaware House of Representatives from the 22nd district
Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.	1932	NAACP lobbyist ("101st U.S. Senator"), civil rights leader
Aaron Albert Mossell	1885	attorney, first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law
Nathan Francis Mossell	1879	physician, first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Larry Neal	1961	Black Arts Movement leader in the 1960s	[5]
Robert N.C. Nix, Sr.	1921	first African American elected to Congress from Pennsylvania
Sibusio Nkomo	1981	chairperson, National Policy Institute of the Republic of South Africa
Kwame Nkrumah	1939	first President of the modern Ghana
Sheila Y. Oliver	1974	first African American woman Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly
Barrington D. Parker	1936	U.S. Court of Appeals Justice
Brigadier General Harold E. Pierce	1942	dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon
Fayette Pinkney	1984	singer, one of the original members of the group The Three Degrees
Hildrus Poindexter	1924	bacteriologist; head of Howard University Medical School in 1934
Charles L. Preston, Jr.	1950	first African American U.S. Postal Inspector
Dr. Joseph Charles Price	1879	founder of Livingstone College
William Drew Robeson I	1876	minister, father of Paul Robeson
James H. Robinson	1935	founder of Operation Crossroads Africa (a model for the Peace Corps); Chapters 8, 9 and 10 of Robinson's 1950 autobiography, Road Without Turning, describe life at Lincoln in the early 1930s	[6]
Gil Scott-Heron	attended, early 1970s,	activist, singer-songwriter
Dr. Abdulalim A. Shabazz	1949	Professor of Mathematics, Chairman of the Mathermatics and Computer Science Department at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) from 1998 to 2000
Francis Cecil Sumner	1915	father of Black psychology; first African American to receive a Ph.D in psychology
Wilbert "Bill" Tatum	1958	Publisher Emeritus of The New York Amsterdam News	[7]
Clive Terrelonge	1994	Olympic track and field athlete from Jamaica
Mose Penaani Tjitendero	1968	Namibian politician; former Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia ;Chairman, SWAPO Central Committee
Tjama Tjivikua	1983	Rector of the Polytechnic of Namibia
Melvin B. Tolson	1924	poet, educator, columnist, and politician
James L. Usry	1946	first African American Mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey
Joseph Cornelius Waddy	1935	Federal Judge
Herb J. Wesson Jr.	1999	Speaker of the California State Assembly
Albert H. Wheeler	1936	first African American Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan
Boyce Courtney Williams	1974	Vice President of National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education
Franklin Williams	1941	diplomat; former president of Phelps Stokes Fund; former Assistant Attorney General of California
Bruce M. Wright	1942	judge in New York and Connecticut, author of Black Robes, White Justice

References

1. "List of HBCUs -- White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities". 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
2. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Judicial Profiles
3. http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC00157/BestBasketballPlayers/Rucker%20Park.htm
4. Asante, Elizabeth K. (2010-07-07). "Dentist Championed African-American community in Ghana". Ghana Web. Retrieved 2012-11-03.
5. http://www.umich.edu/~eng499/people/neal.html
6. James Albins, "James Herman Robinson – Historical Note, Amistad Research Center website. Retrieved: 23 January 2012.
7. Sciolino, Elaine. "WILBERT TATUM, THE MAYOR'S DEBATER, HAS HIS OWN FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC", The New York Times, July 14, 1984. Accessed February 26, 2009.