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).
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 10 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 an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
| Name | Class year | Notability | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ebenezer Ako-Adjei | Ghanaian politician, member of the United Gold Coast Convention and The Big Six (Ghana) | ||
| Alexander Darnes | 1876 | Born into slavery, owned by Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, became the second African-American physician in Florida | |
| Walter G. Alexander | 1899 | first African American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature | |
| 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 | |
| Ja A. Jahannes | 1964 | Poet, Psychologist, Playwright, Journalist, Composer, Social Critic | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| Gil Scott-Heron | Attended in the early 1970s, activist, singer-songwriter | ||
| 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 | |
| Montford "Monte" Irvin | New York Baseball Giants player; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. | ||
| Pee Wee Kirkland | 2000 | former street basketball player from New York City, he played at Rucker Park in the 1970 and 1971 season is regarded as legendary | |
| 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, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy | |
| Saara Kuugongelwa | 1994 | Namibian politician | |
| Robert Walter "Whirlwind" Johnson | 1924 | Physician, Educator, Tennis Instructor (including tennis greats Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe) | |
| 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 | |
| Thurgood Marshall | 1930 | First African-American Supreme Court Justice | |
| Thomas E. Miller | 1872 | South Carolina Congressman, and 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 | One of the leaders of the Black Arts Movement in the sixties. | http://www.umich.edu/~eng499/people/neal.html |
| 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 | |
| Fayette Pinkney | 1984 | singer, One of the original members of the singing 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 | |
| Brigadier General Harold E. Pierce | 1942 | internationally renowned African-American Dermatologist and Cosmetic Surgeon | |
| 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 | |
| Francis Cecil Sumner | 1915 | Father of Black psychology, He is the first African American to receive a Ph.D in psychology | |
| Dr. Abdulalim A. Shabazz | 1949 | Professor of Mathematics, Chairman of the Mathermatics and Computer Science Department at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) from 1998 to 2000 | |
| Wilbert "Bill" Tatum | 1958 | Publisher Emeritus of The New York Amsterdam News | |
| 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, National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education | |
| Bruce M. Wright | 1942 | Judge in New York and Connecticut, author of "Black Robes, White Justice" |
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