# List of Fisk University alumni

Following is a list of notable alumni from Fisk University.
| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Lil Hardin Armstrong | 1915 | jazz pianist/composer, second wife of Louis Armstrong |
| Marion Barry | 1960 | former mayor of Washington, D.C. |
| Mary Frances Berry | | former Chair, United States Commission on Civil Rights; former Chancellor University of Colorado at Boulder |
| John Betsch | 1967 | jazz percussionist |
| Otis Boykin | 1942 | inventor, control device for the heart pacemaker |
| St. Elmo Brady | | first African American to earn a doctorate in Chemistry |
| Virginia E. Walker Broughton | 1875, 1878 | author and Baptist missionary |
| Cora Brown | | first African-American woman elected to a state senate |
| James Dallas Burrus | 1875 | educator |
| John Houston Burrus | 1875 | educator |
| Henry Alvin Cameron | 1896 | educator, decorated World War I veteran |
| Elizabeth Hortense (Golden) Canady | | past national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority |
| Alfred O. Coffin | | first African American to earn a doctorate in zoology |
| Malia Cohen | 2001 | San Francisco District 10 Supervisor 2010 – Present |
| Johnnetta B. Cole | | anthropologist, former President of Spelman College and Bennett College |
| Neal Craig | 1971 | NFL Cornerback for Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, and Cleveland Browns |
| Minnie Lee Crosthwaite | | community organizer, women's activist, and social worker |
| Minnie Lou Crosthwaite | | teacher, college administrator, activist |
| Arthur Cunningham | 1951 | musical composer, studied at Juilliard and Columbia University |
| William L. Dawson (politician) | 1909 | U.S. Congressman (1943–1970) |
| Charles Diggs | | United States House of Representatives Michigan (1955–1980) |
| Mahala Ashley Dickerson | 1935 | first black female attorney in the state of Alabama and first black president of the National Association of Women Lawyers |
| Rel Dowdell | 1993 | filmmaker |
| W. E. B. Du Bois | 1888 | sociologist, scholar, first African-American to earn a PhD from Harvard |
| James J. Durham | 1880, 1885 | Founder of Morris College |
| Althea Brown Edmiston | 1901 | Presbyterian missionary in Belgian Congo |
| Venida Evans | 1969 | actress, best known for IKEA commercials |
| Etta Zuber Falconer | 1953 | first African-American woman to receive a PhD in mathematics; former Chair, mathematics department at Spelman College |
| John Hope Franklin | 1935 | historian, professor, scholar, author of landmark text From Slavery to Freedom |
| Victor O. Frazer | | United States House of Representatives (1995–1997) |
| Alonzo Fulgham | | former acting chief and operating officer of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) |
| Vivian Gadsden | 1978 | psychologist at University of Pennsylvania |
| Nikki Giovanni | 1967 | poet, author, professor, scholar |
| Louis George Gregory | | posthumously, a Hand of the Cause in Bahá'í Faith |
| Eliza Ann Grier | 1891 | first African-American female physician in Georgia |
| Alcee Hastings | | U.S. Congressman and former U.S. district court judge |
| Roland Hayes | | concert singer |
| Perry Wilbon Howard | | Assistant U.S. Attorney General under President Herbert Hoover |
| Elmer Imes | 1903 | physicist and second African-American to earn a PhD in Physics |
| Esther Cooper Jackson | 1940 | Founding editor of Freedomways Journal |
| Lena Terrell Jackson | 1885 | educator in Nashville for over 50 years |
| Leonard Jackson | 1952 | Actor, Five on the Black Hand Side; The Color Purple |
| Robert James | | former NFL all-pro cornerback |
| Judith Jamison | | dancer and choreographer; former artistic Director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
| Ben Jobe | 1956 | legendary basketball coach, Southern University |
| Joyce Johnson | 1953 | Organist and Professor Emerita of music at Spelman College in Atlanta |
| Lewis Wade Jones | 1931 | sociologist; Julius Rosenwald Foundation Fellow at Columbia University |
| Ella Mae Johnson | 1921 | at age 105 years old, Ella Mae Johnson traveled to Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of Barack Obama |
| Mame Stewart Josenberger | 1888 | businesswoman and club woman in Arkansas |
| Anne Gamble Kennedy | 1941 | Pianist, professor, and piano accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee Singers |
| Matthew Kennedy | 1947 | Pianist, professor, and former director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers |
| Mathew Knowles | 1974 | father and former manager of Beyoncé, founder and owner of Music World Entertainment, and adjunct professor at Texas Southern University |
| John Angelo Lester | 1895 | Professor Emeritus of Physiology, Meharry Medical College |
| Nella Larsen | 1908 | novelist, Harlem Renaissance era |
| Julius Lester | 1960 | author of children's books and former professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| David Levering Lewis | 1956 | two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner |
| John Lewis | 1967 | Congressman, civil rights activist, former President of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) |
| Hettie Simmons Love | 1943 | first African-American to earn an MBA at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania |
| Jimmie Lunceford | 1925 | bandleader in the swing era |
| Aubrey Lyles | 1903 | vaudeville performer |
| Hugh Ellwood Macbeth Sr. | 1905 | civil rights attorney who fought against the incarceration of Japanese Americans |
| Ariana Austin Makonnen | | philanthropist and member of the Ethiopian Imperial Family |
| Patti J. Malone | 1880 | Fisk Jubilee Singer |
| Mandisa | 2001 | Grammy Award-winning and Dove Award-nominated Christian contemporary singer/songwriter, ninth-place finalist in the fifth season (2006) of American Idol |
| Louis E. Martin | 1933 | Godfather of Black Politics |
| Fatima Massaquoi | 1936 | Liberian educator |
| Jedidah Isler | 2007 | Isler became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in Astrophysics from Yale University in 2014 |
| Wade H. McCree | 1941 | second African-American United States Solicitor General; Justice, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit |
| Samuel A. McElwee | 1883 | State Senator during the Reconstruction Era and the first African American elected three times to the Tennessee General Assembly |
| Robert McFerrin | | first African American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera and father of Bobby McFerrin |
| Leslie Meek | 1987 | Administrative Law Judge, wife of Congressman Kendrick Meek |
| Theo Mitchell | 1960 | Senator, South Carolina General Assembly |
| Lewis Baxter Moore | | classicist, scholar, university teacher, and minister |
| Undine Smith Moore | | first Fisk graduate to receive a scholarship to Juilliard, Pulitzer Prize Nominee |
| Constance Baker Motley | 1941–1942 | first African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate |
| Diane Nash | | founding member of SNCC |
| Rachel B. Noel | | politician; first African-American to serve on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education |
| Hon. Hazel O'Leary | | former U.S. Secretary of Energy |
| J. O. Patterson Jr. | 1958 | first African American to occupy the office of Mayor of Memphis. Tennessee State Representative, State Senator, Memphis Councilman, Jurisdictional Bishop in the Church of God in Christ |
| Helen Phillips | 1928 | first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus |
| Annette Lewis Phinazee | 1939 | first black woman to earn a doctorate in library sciences from Columbia University |
| Alma Powell | | wife of Gen. Colin Powell |
| Louis W. Roberts | 1913 | microwave physicist, chief of the Microwave Laboratory at NASA's Electronics Research Center and director of the United States Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center |
| Cecelia Cabaniss Saunders | 1903 | director of Harlem YWCA, 1914-1947 |
| Lorenzo Dow Turner | 1910 | linguist and Chair, African Studies at Roosevelt University |
| A. Maceo Walker | 1930 | businessman, Universal Life Insurance, Tri-State Bank |
| Ron Walters | 1963 | scholar of African-American politics, Chair, Afro-American Studies Brandeis University |
| Margaret Murray Washington | 1890 | Lady Principal of Tuskegee Institute and third wife of Booker T. Washington |
| Teresa N. Washington | 1993 | academic, author, activist |
| Ida B. Wells | | American civil rights activist and women's suffrage advocate |
| Charles H. Wesley | 1911 | President of Wilberforce University from 1942 to 1947, and President of Central State College from 1947–1965; third African-American to receive a PhD from Harvard |
| Kym Whitley | | actress, comedian |
| Frederica Wilson | 1963 | U.S. Representative for Florida's 17th congressional district |
| Tom Wilson (producer) | 1953 | music producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa |
| Frank Yerby | 1938 | first African-American to publish a best-selling novel |