-
Frank Thomas (Columbia College 1956) was Columbia's star center and the first African American to captain an Ivy League basketball team. He served in the U.S. Air Force and earned a law degree from Columbia in 1963. Later in life, Thomas became the CEO of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and president of the Ford Foundation.
-
Charles R. Drew (1904-1950; College of Physicians and Surgeons 1940) discovered that plasma could be dried and reconstituted, making it possible to “bank” it for long periods of time. This work led to his development of the world’s first blood bank and improved techniques for blood storage. He also challenged the scientific fallacy of racial segregation in blood donation.
-
Lucy Diggs Slowe (1885-1937; Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1915), one of the original founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, was also a professional tennis player and first African American woman to win a major sports title. She was also a vocal advocate for women’s rights and academic opportunities. Photo Credit: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
-
Ben Johnson (1914-1992; Columbia College 1933-38) was once known as the “world’s fastest human.” After he shattered a number of world records in the 1930s—and upset world champions Ralph Metcalfe and Jesse Owens—newspapers dubbed Johnson the “Columbia Comet.” Photo Credit: Columbia University Athletics
-
Kenneth B. Clark (1914–2005; Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1940, Law School 1970) and Mamie Phipps Clark (1917–83) Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1943: The research of Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark challenged the notion of differences in the mental abilities of black and white children and thus played an important role in the desegregation of American schools. Photo Credit: Columbia University Archives
-
Beverly L. Greene (1915-57; Graduate School of Architecture 1945): Greene is believed to have been the first African American woman licensed to practice architecture in the United States. In 1936, she became the first African American woman to receive a bachelor's degree in architectural engineering, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Photo Credit: University of Illinois Archives
-
Constance Baker Motley (1921–2005; Law School 1946, 2003): As the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s associate counsel, she participated in writing the briefs for Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that ended school segregation. From 1961 to 1964, Motley won 9 of the 10 civil rights cases she argued before the court. Photo Credit: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
-
James Howard Meredith (1933– ; Law School 1968): In the fall of 1962, 29-year-old Air Force veteran James Meredith provided a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement when he enrolled as the first African American student at the University of Mississippi – sparking a riot that left two dead and dozens injured. After graduating a year later, he continued to champion the rights of African Americans. Photo Credit: Chris Meyer/Indiana University
-
Langston Hughes (1902–67; School of Engineering and Applied Science student 1921-22): Proclaimed in his time as the Poet Laureate of Harlem, Hughes chronicled black life in a variety of forms, his work inflected with the rhythms of the jazz that he absorbed and adored in the clubs of New York during the 1920s. Photo Credit: Manny Warman/Columbia University
-
Marie Maynard Daly (1921–2003; Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1947): In 1947, Daly became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. She investigated the effects of cholesterol, sugars and other nutrients on the heart. Daly also taught biochemistry at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Photo Credit: Queens College
-
Maurice V. Russell (1923-98; School of Social Work 1950, Teachers College 1964): During his more than 40-year career, Russell taught and directed social services at several New York institutions. He is credited with establishing the first professional department of social work at Harlem Hospital. He was a trustee of Columbia from 1987 to 1995. Photo Credit: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University
-
M. Moran Weston II (1910–2002; Columbia College 1930; Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1940, 1969): The longtime rector of one of Harlem's most prominent churches, Weston co-founded Carver Federal Savings Bank—the largest independent financial institution in the United States owned by African Americans—and provided affordable housing for thousands of New Yorkers. Weston was also the University’s first African American trustee. Photo Credit: Columbia University Archives
-
Paul Robeson (1898–1976; Law School 1923): One of the most prominent and politically controversial black Americans of the 1930s and 1940s, Robeson won critical and popular acclaim for his stage and screen roles. It was as a concert singer, however, that he earned his greatest fame. Photo Credit: Metropolitan Musical Bureau/Columbia University Archives
-
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1924–2005; Teachers College 1951): The first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress, Chisholm gained widespread notice as a tireless advocate for the interests of African Americans, women and the urban poor, and as a champion of greater educational opportunity for all. Photo Credit: Thomas J. O'Halloran/
U.S. News & World Report
-
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960; Barnard College 1928, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1934–35): Hurston combined literature with anthropology, employing indigenous dialects to tell the stories of people in her native rural Florida and in the Caribbean. One of the most widely read authors of the Harlem Renaissance, she died penniless and forgotten. Her reputation was resuscitated after Alice Walker's 1975 essay “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” led to rediscovery of novels such as "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Photo Credit: Carl Van Vechten/Van Vechten Trust
-
John Louis Wilson Jr., Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation 1928. The first African American graduate of Columbia’s architecture school, Wilson was the primary architect of Harlem River Houses, one of the greatest successes in public housing nationwide. The houses were lauded for their innovative design and emphasis on open spaces, trees, on-site child, health care facilities and community rooms. Photo: New York City Housing Authority
-
Eric Holder (1951– ; Columbia College 1973, Law School 1976). A trustee of the University since 2007, Holder has served in the judiciary and as a prosecutor, and developed guidelines for the criminal prosecution of corporations by the Department of Justice while he was deputy attorney general of the United States. He was recently confirmed as the first African American U.S. attorney general. Photo: Columbia University
-
President Barack Obama (1961— ; Columbia College 1983) Having won 53% of the popular vote and an overwhelming 68% of the Electoral College, Obama was inaugurated as the nation’s first African American president on Jan. 20, 2009.
-
Benjamin T. Jealous (1972– ; Columbia College 1997). In 2008, when he was just 35, Jealous became the 17th president and CEO of the NAACP—the youngest president in the group’s near-100-year history. A Rhodes Scholar, Jealous worked as an investigative reporter and managing editor of the Jackson Advocate, Mississippi’s oldest African American-owned newspaper. Photo: NAACP
-
Gov. David A. Paterson (1954– ; Columbia College 1977). Paterson represented Harlem as a state senator from 1985 until 2007 and is a former adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. His distinguished career in public service includes a number of firsts, including first visually impaired person to address the Democratic National Convention and first African American governor of New York. Photo: Eileen Barroso/Columbia University
-
Hon. Robert L. Carter (1917–2012; Law School 1941): After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Carter became chief strategist and lead counsel on the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case. He succeeded Thurgood Marshall as general counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1956, arguing and winning 21 of 22 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Carter was appointed to the federal judiciary in 1972. Photo: Dustin Ross/Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York