Beth M. Howse (1943- ). Librarian. Class of 1965. Distinguished by a vigorous sense of service to Fisk since 1970. Continues to serve as Special Collection Librarian since 1975.and as director of the Fisk University Mini-College since 1984....
Charles H. Wesley (1891-1987). Teacher, historian, administrator. Class of 1911. Won distinction as an administrator and historian at Howard University, as president of Wilberforce University and as a founder and president of Central State...
David L. Lewis (1936- ). Historian, author. Class of 1956. Works include King: A Critical Biography (1971), Prisoner of Honor: the Dreyfus Affair (1973), When Harlem was in Vogue (1987), W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 (1993) and...
George E. Haynes (1880-1960). Sociologist, author, educator. Class of 1903. First black graduate of a school of social work (1910) and first black to receive a Ph.D from Columbia University.
Hazel R. O'Leary (1937- ). Administrator. Class of 1959. First African American and first female U.S. Secretary of Energy (1993-1997). Served under President Clinton. Presently, the fourteenth President of Fisk University.
John H. Franklin (1915- ). Historian, educator, author. Class of 1935. Works include From Slavery to Freedom (1947), Racial Equality in America (1976) and Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin (2005). Awarded the...
John R. Lewis (1940- ). Congressman - Georgia. Class of 1967. Led the march across the Edmund Peters Bridge on March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama. Involved in sit-in movement in Nashville, Freedom rides and the March on Washington.
John W. Work III (1901-1967). Educator, composer. Class of 1923. Served the University for forty years as director of the Jubilee Singers, professor of music and conductor of the Men's Glee Club. His father and uncle wrote the Fisk University Alma...
Julius Lester (1939- ). Author. Class of 1960. Gained success as a children's author in 1969 with the publication of To Be a Slave, a Newbery Honor Book, and Black Folktales. Subsequent works continued to show his interest in African-American...
