# List of Morehouse College alumni

This is a list of notable alumni including currently matriculating students and alumni who are graduates or non-matriculating students of Morehouse College.
Morehouse College is a private, four-year, all-male, historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia. During enrollment at the college students are known as "Men of Morehouse." Upon graduation, alumni are ceremoniously initiated as lifetime "Morehouse Men." There are over 20,000 alumni of Morehouse College and dozens of alumni chapters established across the U.S. and a few foreign countries.
See also Morehouse College alumni.

## Academia

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Russell L Adams | 1952 | Chair, Department Afro-American Studies, Howard University (1971–2005); Professor Emeritus, Howard University |
| Benjamin Brawley | 1901 | first Dean of Morehouse College |
| Calvin O. Butts | 1972 | President, SUNY College at Old Westbury; Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church |
| James A. Colston | 1932 | 2nd President, Bethune-Cookman University; President Knoxville College; President Savannah State University; 2nd President, Bronx Community College |
| John Warren Davis | 1911 | President of West Virginia State College (1919–1953) |
| Albert W. Dent | 1926 | President of Dillard University, Chief Executive of Flint-Goodridge Hospital, advocate for education and healthcare of impoverished people |
| Eddie Glaude | 1989 | Chair, Center for African American Studies and Professor at Princeton University; guest contributor: The Tavis Smiley Show |
| William E. Holmes | | former President of Central City College, faculty of the Atlanta Baptist Institute for 25 years |
| John Hopps Jr. | 1958 | former Director of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and Distinguished Physics Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; recipient of the Materials Advancement Award |
| William M. Jackson | 1956 | founder of National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers and Emile A. Dickenson Professor at the University of California, Davis; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| Mordecai Wyatt Johnson | 1911 | first African-American president of Howard University |
| Michael A. Lindsey | 1994 | Dean of New York University Silver School of Social Work (2022-Present) |
| Calvin Mackie | 1990 | former Professor of Engineering, Tulane University; winner of the 2003 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering; Black Engineer of the Year for College Level Educators |
| Walter E. Massey | 1958 | President, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; former Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago; former Dean of the College of Physics at Brown University; former Provost of the University of California System; President Emeritus at Morehouse College |
| James Nabrit Jr. | 1923 | second African-American president of Howard University and former Deputy United Nations Ambassador |
| Kevin D. Rome | 1989 | former president of Lincoln University (2013–2017); former president of Fisk University (June 2017–August 2020) |
| A. Benjamin Spencer | 1996 | first black dean of William & Mary Law School (2020–Present) |
| Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. | 1989 | first African American Faculty Dean, Harvard College. Professor, Harvard Law School and Director of the Criminal Justice Inst. at Harvard Law; legal analyst CNN, Fox News; legal representative for Harvey Weinstein |
| James F. Williams | 1966 | Dean of Libraries University of Colorado at Boulder, 2002 Melvil Dewey Medal recipient |
| Charles V. Willie | 1948 | Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Harvard University Graduate School of Education |
| John Silvanus Wilson | 1979 | Ph.D, 11th president of Morehouse College, former executive director, White House Initiative on HBCUs |

## Business

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Herman Cain | 1967 | former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and 2012 Republican presidential candidate |
| James W. Compton | 1961 | Board of Directors, Ariel Investments, Inc.; retired President and CEO, Chicago Urban League |
| Walter E. Massey | 1958 | former Chairman, Bank of America; former Director of the National Science Foundation |
| Karim Webb | | restaurateur |

## Entertainment, media, and literature

| Name | Class year | Notability | Reference(s) |
| Lerone Bennett Jr. | 1949 | senior editor for the Johnson Publishing Group (JET, Ebony); author of Before the Mayflower | |
| Fonzworth Bentley | 1997 | media personality | |
| Sanford Biggers | 1992 | artist, professor at Columbia University School of the Arts | |
| Byron Cage | 1987 | Grammy-nominated gospel singer; NAACP Image Award nominee; winner of six Stellar Awards | |
| Michael DeMond Davis | 1961 | | |
| Thomas Dent | 1952 | writer and poet; author of Magnolia Street | |
| Rockmond Dunbar | 1991 | actor, Soul Food, Girlfriends | |
| John Warren Davis | 1911 | President of West Virginia State College (1919–1953) | < |
| Tope Folarin | 2004 | Nigerian-American writer | |
| Guru (born Keith Elam) | 1983 | rapper, founder of Gang Starr | |
| Brian Tyree Henry | 2004 | actor, Atlanta | |
| Wendell Holland | 2006 | winner of the thirty-sixth season of Survivor | |
| Samuel L. Jackson | 1972 | actor | |
| Edmund Jenkins | 1914 | Harlem Renaissance composer, studied under Kemper Harreld | |
| Robert E. Johnson | 1948 | former Executive Editor and Associate Publisher, Jet Magazine | |
| Canton Jones | 1985 | Grammy-nominated gospel singer | |
| Erik King | 1985 | actor, Dexter | |
| Spike Lee | 1979 | film director and producer | |
| Miles Marshall Lewis | 1993 | pop culture critic, essayist, and author | |
| Seith Mann | 1995 | television director: The Wire, Grey's Anatomy; winner of the NAACP Image Award | |
| Martin Luther McCoy | 1992 | musician and actor | |
| PJ Morton | 2003 | Grammy Award-winning Maroon 5 keyboardist and artist | |
| Bill G. Nunn III | 1976 | actor, School Daze, Mo' Better Blues, New Jack City | |
| Babatunde Olatunji | 1954 | Grammy Award-winning Nigerian drummer, social activist and recording artist; Drums of Passion | |
| Kevin A. Ross | 1985 | host/executive producer of daytime syndicated legal show America's Court with Judge Ross | |
| Shakir Stewart | 1996 | Senior Vice President of Island Def Jam Music Group, Executive Vice President of Def Jam | |
| Vincent Tubbs | c.1938 | co-founder of National Negro Newspaper Week and first African American to head a motion picture industry union | |
| John David Washington | 2006 | actor, BlacKkKlansman, Tenet | |
| Saul Williams | 1994 | performing artist and actor | |

## Government, law, and public policy

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Sanford Bishop | 1968 | U.S. Congressman (Georgia) |
| Claude Black Jr. | 1937 | first Black mayor Pro Tem San Antonio, Texas; civil rights leader; Pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas |
| A. Scott Bolden | 1984 | attorney and television political commentator |
| Julian Bond | 1971 | civil rights leader, former Georgia state representative and Chairman of the NAACP |
| Nicholas W. Brown | 1999 | President Joe Biden-appointed United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington |
| Terrance Carroll | 1992 | Speaker, Colorado House of Representatives |
| Julius E. Coles | 1964 | former U.S. Ambassador to Senegal; former President of Africare |
| George Crockett III | 1961 | Judge, Recorder's Court (Detroit); served on the same bench as his father, Judge George Crockett Jr. |
| George W. Crockett Jr. | 1931 | former U.S. Congressman, United States Congress; founding member of the National Lawyer's Guild; civil rights activist; co-founded the first racially integrated law firm in the U.S.; first Black attorney in the U.S. Department of Labor |
| John Wesley Dobbs | 1897 | the unofficial "Mayor" of Sweet Auburn Avenue (1937–1949); Civic Leader and co-founder of the Atlanta Negro Voters League |
| Kenneth Dunkin | 1989 | Illinois House of Representatives |
| Lee Harris | 2000 | 7th mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee |
| Ralph B. Everett | 1973 | President and CEO, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies |
| Joseph Jerome Farris | 1951 | Judge, United States Court of Appeals 9th Circuit |
| George Haley | 1949 | former Chair U.S. Postal Rate Commission and Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana; brother of Alex Haley |
| James R. Hall | 1957 | retired United States Army Lieutenant General, final commander of the Fourth United States Army |
| Marqueece Harris-Dawson | 1995 | President of the Los Angeles City Council |
| Kirk Hatcher | 1988 | Alabama Senator for the 26th district |
| Earl F. Hilliard | 1964 | former U.S. Congressman (Alabama) |
| El-Mahdi Holly | 1998 | Georgia House of Representatives |
| Edward S. Hope | 1923 | engineer, educator, first African American Lt. Commander in the United States Navy |
| John Hopps Jr. | 1958 | former Deputy Undersecretary United States Department of Defense |
| Odell Horton | 1951 | Judge, U.S. District Court W. Tenn. |
| Maynard Jackson | 1956 | first Black mayor of Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson served three terms as Mayor; founder and CEO of Jackson Securities Inc.; National Development Chair, Democratic National Committee |
| Jeh Johnson | 1979 | Secretary of Homeland Security; first black Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, named to the National Law Journal's 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers; appointed General Counsel for the Defense Department by President Barack Obama; former General Counsel U.S. Air Force |
| Marlon Kimpson | 1991 | South Carolina Senate member and attorney |
| Reginald C. Lindsay | 1967 | Judge, United States Court of Appeals 7th Circuit |
| C. Vernon Mason | 1967 | former lawyer, Tawana Brawley case, Howard Beach incident |
| Ed McIntyre | 1956 | first African-American mayor of Augusta, Georgia |
| John Monds | 1987 | received highest number of votes received by any Libertarian candidate ever |
| James Nabrit Jr. | 1923 | former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; second African American President of Howard University |
| Julien Xavier Neals | 1986 | first U.S. federal judge confirmed during Joe Biden's presidency |
| Major Owens | 1956 | U.S. Congressman (New York) |
| Ernest Page | 1964 | first Black mayor of Orlando, Florida |
| Graham T. Perry | 1923 | first African American Assistant Attorney-General for State of Illinois |
| Frank Peterman | 1985 | Florida House of Representatives |
| Steven Reed | 1998 | first African-American mayor of Montgomery, Alabama |
| Cedric Richmond | 1995 | U.S. Congressman (Louisiana) |
| Sebastian Ridley-Thomas | 2009 | California State Assembly |
| David Satcher | 1963 | 16th U.S. Surgeon General, former president of Morehouse School of Medicine |
| Bakari Sellers | 2005 | youngest member elected to the South Carolina General Assembly and TV political comementator |
| James H. Shelton III | 1989 | former Deputy Secretary of Education for the United States |
| Jamal Simmons | 1993 | political advisor and communications director |
| Louis W. Sullivan | 1954 | former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and current President Emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine |
| Andre Thapedi | 1990 | Illinois House of Representatives |
| Perry Thurston Jr. | 1982 | Florida House of Representatives |
| Horace T. Ward | 1927 | first African American to challenge the racially discriminatory practices at the UGA School of Law; first African-American to be appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia; former member of the Georgia Senate; inducted into the National Bar Association Hall of Fame; recipient of the Trumpet Award for Civil Rights Advocacy |
| Raphael Warnock | 1991 | first Democratic U.S. African-American Senator elected in the South |
| Randall Woodfin | 2003 | 29th mayor of Birmingham, Alabama |
| S. Howard Woodson | 1942 | Bachelor of Divinity Morehouse School of Religion; former Speaker, New Jersey General Assembly |

## Religion

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| J. Pius Barbour | 1917 | pastor of Calvary Baptist Church; executive director of National Baptist Association; editor of National Baptist Voice; mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. |
| Harrison N. Bouey | 1873 | pastor and missionary |
| Amos C. Brown | 1964 | pastor, Third Baptist Church of San Francisco; president, San Francisco branch of NAACP |
| Calvin O. Butts | 1972 | pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York; President of the State University of New York College at Old Westbury; Chairman and founder of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, an engine for $500 million in housing and commercial development in Harlem |
| W. Sterling Cary | 1949 | president of the National Council of Churches from 1972 to 1975 |
| A. D. King | 1959 | brother of Martin Luther King Jr. and served as pastor of several churches |
| Martin Luther King Sr. | 1931 | father of Martin Luther King Jr. and senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church |
| Otis Moss III | 1992 | pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ; listed on the Root 100 |
| Kelly Miller Smith | 1942 | assistant dean, Vanderbilt University Divinity School (circa 1970s–1980s) |
| Howard Thurman | 1923 | theologian; Dean of Chapel Boston University |
| Raphael Warnock | 1991 | senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and United States Senator (D-GA) |
| Frederick B. Williams | 1959 | canon of the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, New York (1971–2005) |

## Science and medicine

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Angela Doyinsola Aina | 2011 | Co-founder and executive director of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance |
| Dustin T. Duncan | 2005 | Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University; |
| Henry W. Foster Jr. | 1954 | President Emeritus, Meharry Medical College; clinical professor, Vanderbilt University; former nominee to post of U.S. Surgeon General; presidential advisor |
| Corey Hébert | 1991 | celebrity physician, radio talk show host, Chief Medical Editor for National Broadcasting Company for the Gulf Coast, first Black Chief Resident of Pediatrics at Tulane University, chief executive officer of Community Health TV |
| Donald Hopkins | 1962 | Director and Vice President, Health Programs, The Carter Center; a 1995 MacArthur Fellow; nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 |
| John Hopps Jr. | 1958 | physicist, former longtime Director of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and distinguished professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); recipient of the National Materials Advancement Award; former Deputy Under Secretary for the United States Department of Defense |
| Calvin B. Johnson | 1989 | 24th Secretary of Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania of the Pennsylvania Department of Health |
| Samuel M. Nabrit | 1925 | Distinguished Science Professor; first African-American appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; served on Dwight Eisenhower's National Science Board; first African-American to receive a doctoral degree from Brown University; first African-American to serve as Trustee at Brown University; second president of Texas Southern University |
| Roderic I. Pettigrew | 1972 | cardiologist and renowned biomedical engineer; Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; former Director of Magnetic Resonance Research and Professor of Radiology and Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine; listed annually among the "Best Doctors in America" |
| Charles DeWitt Watts | 1938 | first board-certified African-American surgeon in North Carolina; founder of Lincoln Community Health Center |
| Asa G. Yancey Sr. | 1937 | first African-American professor and Professor Emeritus at Emory University School of Medicine, first African-American doctor and Medical Director at Grady Memorial Hospital |

## Service and social reform

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Hamilton Holmes | 1963 | desegregated the University of Georgia (along with Charlayne Hunter); attended Morehouse before transferring to UGA |
| Martin Luther King Jr. | 1948 | prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; delivered the historic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington 1963 |
| Martin Luther King III | 1979 | eldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and human rights activist |
| Shaun King | 2002 | civil rights activist, entrepreneur and senior justice writer for the New York Daily News |
| Floyd McKissick | 1948 | |
| George H. Starke Jr. | 1957 | First African-American admitted to the University of Florida |
| Howard Zehr | 1965 | grandfather of Restorative Justice; 2006 winner of the Community of Christ Peace Award; first white student to attend Morehouse |

## Sports

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Donn Clendenon | 1956 | New York Mets Outfielder and 1969 World Series MVP |
| Harold Ellis | 1992 | former NBA player Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets. named Morehouse athletic director in 2023 |
| T.B. Ellis | 1934 | former Jackson State University head football coach (1946-51) and basketball coach (1949-50) |
| Caesar "Zip" Gayles | 1924 | former head football coach and former head basketball coach at Langston University, member of SWAC Hall of Fame and NAIA Basketball Hall of Fame |
| Ramon Harewood | 2010 | OL, Baltimore Ravens 2010-2012 |
| Issac Keys | 2001 | 2001-2004 NFL LB |
| Edwin Moses | 1978 | Olympic gold medalist |
| John David Washington | 2006 | RB, St. Louis Rams 2006, all-time leading rusher at Morehouse; former RB in the UFL; actor; son of Pauletta Washington and Oscar Award-winning actor Denzel Washington |

## Others

| Name | Class year | Notability |
| Ennis Cosby | 1992 | son of comedian Bill Cosby |
| Wilmer Angier Jennings | 1933 | printmaker, painter, and jeweler |
| Joshua Packwood | 2008 | first white valedictorian of Morehouse |

## Notable faculty

| Name | Department | Notability |
| Na'im Akbar | Psychology | author, Breaking the Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery |
| Amalia Amaki | History | modern and contemporary artist |
| Clayborne Carson | History | Executive Director, Martin Luther King Jr. Collection; professor, Stanford University |
| Lawrence Edward Carter | Religion | Dean, Martin Luther King Chapel; Fulbright Scholar; founder of the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize |
| Louis Delsarte | Fine Arts | painter, muralist |
| Frank Forbes | Athletics | |
| E. Franklin Frazier | Sociology | author, Black Bourgeoisie |
| Kemper Harreld | Music | established the Morehouse College Glee Club |
| John Hope | President | first black president of Morehouse |
| John Hopps Jr. | Physics | former Director, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, MIT |
| Edward A. Jones | Foreign Language | author, A Candle In The Dark: A History of Morehouse College |
| Benjamin E. Mays | President | mentor to Martin Luther King Jr.; established the institutions international academic reputation and gave rise to the Morehouse Mystique |
| Henry Cecil McBay | Chemistry | winner of the Norton Prize in Chemistry, the Norris Award, and the Herty Award for Outstanding Contributions in Chemistry; first MLK Visiting Scholar at MIT |
| Charles Wilbert Snow | Political Science | diplomat |
| Samuel Woodrow Williams | Philosophy and Religion | Baptist minister, civil rights activist |