28 HBCU Alums That Made History

He was a Baptist preacher/minister and civil rights activist. King is viewed as the leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He rose to prominence as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked by the arrest if Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to White man. He was essential in fighting for the federal civil rights and voting rights legislation that came to be the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He later became a chief advocate for human rights, the poor (economic justice), workers’ rights, and anti-war (Vietnam) and U.S. imperialism abroad.

Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in United States history. He rose to prominence as the legal arm of the NAACP, establishing the Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1940. He won more cases before the Supreme Court than anyone else, including the infamous Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) which ended legal segregation in the school system.

Rice is an NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver. He is widely recognized as the greatest receiver in the history of the NFL and at any position, holding many of the receiving all-time records. He won three super bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers.

Lee is a world famous innovative director who was one of the few African-American film directors to be nominated for an academy award, His notable works include: “Do the Right Thing,” “School Daze,” “Malcolm X,” Inside Man,” “Jungle Fever,” “She’s Gotta Have It,” and “He Got Game.”

He graduated summa cum laude in 1958 from NCCU where he also served as Student Body President. Chambers was an accomplished civil rights attorney who succeeded Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg as president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1984. He had a law practice in Charlotte, North Carolina. He won case after case against racial segregation enduring firebombings of his house, office, and car in the process. He argued eight cases before the Supreme Court and won each of them. In addition, he served as Chancellor of his Alma Mater from 1993-2001.

Morrison is Nobel Prize winning author. Some of her classic works include Beloved and Song of Solomon.

Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. She is most recognized for her work The Color Purple. (The exception on the list, in terms of graduating; she later transferred)

She has been seen on the sidelines of numerous NBA and NFL games. She has been a reporter for ESPN, Fox Sports, and TNT. Oliver earned her degree in broadcast journalism in 1984.

Jackson is a world famous actor with a significant list of notable films to his credit. He originally studied marine biology at Morehouse before switching his major studies to acting.

She is a famously acclaimed Academy Award-nominated actress. She actually worked as a secretary at the Pentagon to pay bills during her college career.

He is a prominent civil rights activist who graduated from NC A&T in 1964. He has often been regarded in the past as one of the most important Black leaders. He also ran for President twice, in 1984 and 1988, gaining significant support an progress although ultimately unsuccessful.

Abernathy was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who cofounded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was a close advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. during his life in the civil rights struggle.

Edelman is a writer, lawyer, and civil rights activist. She is probably best known for her legal advocacy work for African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement era and after. She was the first woman in Mississippi to pass the bar exam. She was a lawyer for the NAACP and has written many books on the issue of racial inequality in the United States.

Nicknamed “The Professor” Johnson is an inventor and engineer. He joined the U.S. Air Force after receiving his master’s degree from Tuskegee University. He was assigned to the Strategic Command and in this capacity he helped to develop the stealth bomber program. In addition, he was a system engineer for both the Galileo and Cassini mission to Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. He is probably most famous for inventing the super soaker, which became and still one of the most popular toys in the world.

He was poet, playwright, novelist, and social activist. He was a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance publishing his first poem in 1921 and his first book in 1926. He went on to write great works of poetry, prose, and plays with African-American themes.

Ellison was a scholar, educator, literary critic, and author. He is best known for his award-winning Invisible Man published in 1952. The work influenced many writers and thinkers in that generation and the generations to follow.

The ESPN analyst is a host of his own radio show and a part of the duo, along with Skip Bayless, on the popular ESPN debate show First Take.

He is a world famous Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter with numerous top hits. He was successful both with his R&B group the Commodores and as a solo artist. He co-wrote “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson, which became the anthem for relief from hunger and for the conditions of people around the world.

Shuttlesworth was a civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a key leader in the Civil Rights Movement along with Dr. King. He co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Washington was a former slave that went on to become one of the most prominent African-American leaders in history. He was educator and civil rights activist. He founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute that is now known as Tuskegee University.

Sullivan was a Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and social justice. He was also an anti-Apartheid activist. He had a focus on job training opportunities for African-Americans. Additionally, he founded the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC).

Satcher is a physician who graduated from Morehouse College. Under the Clinton administration he served as the surgeon general (1998-2002). Before that appointment he was the director of the Center for Disease Control.

She was a mathematician and computer scientist. Johnson became a part of the all-male flight research division of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). When NACA became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) she went on to join the Spacecraft Controls Branch. In this capacity she calculated the flight trajectory for Alan Shepard, the first American to enter space in 1959. In 1962 she verified the mathematics behind John Glenn’s orbit around the Earth in 1962. Most notably she calculated the flight trajectory for Apollo 11’s moon flight in 1969.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business from Alabama A&M University. He is best known for being the Associate Deputy Administrator for NASA.

Giovanni is a world renowned poet, writer, activist, and educator. She remains a passionate civil rights activist and remains a powerful voice in the Black community, specifically, and beyond. She has received a plethora of awards and honors, which is a testament to her living legend.

Adams is an award-winning Gospel Artist. She currently host The Yolanda Adams Morning Show radio show on Praise.

He is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who was a columnist for the Washington Post. He served as Deputy Editor of the paper as well. He now frequently appears on ABC’S Inside Washington.

Hammonds earned her degree in physics from Spelamn in 1976. She eventually went on to become Harvard College Dean. Her writing on science and race is broadly cited in academic circles. She has earned degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard.