32 Notable alumni of Shaw University
Updated: June 13, 2026 EliteDegrees
Shaw University is ranked #4,696 in the world and #1,231 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 32 notable alumni from Shaw University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with Shaw University won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.
1. Edward Hart Lipscombe
1858-. (aged 168)
journalist
Edward Hart Lipscombe was an educator and religious leader in North Carolina in the late 19th century. He was a professor at Shaw University and a co-founder of the journal, the African Expositor. Later, he became a professor of the Dallas Institute, which he developed into the Western Union Institute, a leading Baptist school in Asheville, North Carolina.
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2. James H. Holmes
1826-1900 (aged 74)
Christian minister
James H. Holmes was a Baptist minister in Richmond, Virginia. As pastor of Richmond's First African Baptist Church, he was the leader of one of the largest churches in the country.
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3. Lawson A. Scruggs
1857-1914 (aged 57)
pharmacist
physician
Lawson Andrew Scruggs was a physician in North Carolina who was active in politics and civil rights. He was African American. In 1893, he published a volume of biographies of African-American Women, Women of Distinction.
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4. William Henry Steward
1847-1935 (aged 88)
journalist
civil rights advocate
William Henry Steward was a civil rights activist from Louisville, Kentucky. In February 1876, he was appointed the first black letter carrier in Kentucky. He was the leading layman of the General Association of Negro Baptists in Kentucky and played a key role in the founding of Simmons College of Kentucky by the group in 1879. He continued to play...
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5. John Crosby
1850-. (aged 176)
academic administrator
Christian minister
John Oliver Crosby was an American educator and the first President of what is now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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6. Nicholas Franklin Roberts
1849-1934 (aged 85)
journalist
Nicholas Franklin Roberts was a leading Baptist minister and educator in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a faculty member and for a short time acting president at Shaw University. He was also a city alderman in Raleigh and served on the county board of education.
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7. Vernon Malone
1931-2009 (aged 78)
politician
Vernon Malone was an American politician. A Democrat, he served was a member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's fourteenth Senate district from 2003 until his death in 2009. His district included constituents in Wake County. A retired teacher and educational administrator from Raleigh, Malone was a graduate of Shaw University and held public offices in Wake...
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8. James H. Young
1860-1921 (aged 61)
politician
James Hunter Young was an American soldier and politician from North Carolina. He was a colonel in the Third North Carolina Regiment during the Spanish–American War and served in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He was a Republican.
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9. Louise Celia Fleming
1862-1899 (aged 37)
missionary
physician
Louise Celia "Lulu" Fleming was an American physician. She was one of the first African Americans to graduate from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She returned from Africa to improve her skills and she was the first African American woman to be commissioned for work in Africa by the Woman's American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society.
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10. Edward A. Johnson
1860-1944 (aged 84)
lawyer
politician
Edward Austin Johnson was an attorney who became the first African-American member of the New York state legislature when he was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1917.
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11. Roger Demosthenes O'Kelly
1880-1962 (aged 82)
lawyer
Roger Demosthenes O'Kelly was a deaf, mute, partially-blind African-American lawyer.
12. Ezekiel Ezra Smith
1852-1933 (aged 81)
diplomat
Ezekiel Ezra Smith was an American educator and diplomat.
13. Henry P. Cheatham
1857-1935 (aged 78)
politician
Henry Plummer Cheatham was an educator, farmer and politician, elected as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1889 to 1893 from North Carolina. He was one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South in the Jim Crow era of the last decade of the nineteenth century, as disfranchisement reduced black voting....
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14. Aaron McDuffie Moore
1863-1923 (aged 60)
physician
Aaron McDuffie Moore, M.D. was a medical doctor, medical director, and officer at a bank, hospital, pharmacy, university and insurer serving African Americans in North Carolina. He was born in Whiteville, North Carolina. He lived in Durham, North Carolina.
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15. Rita Walters
1930-2020 (aged 90)
politician
Rita Dolores Walters was an American politician.
16. William R. Pettiford
1847-1914 (aged 67)
banker
teacher
Christian minister
William Reuben Pettiford was a minister and banker in Birmingham, Alabama. Early in his career he worked as a minister and teacher in various towns in Alabama, moving to the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1883 and serving there for about ten years. In 1890 he founded the Alabama Penny Savings Bank. It played an important role in black economic...
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17. Radovan Trifunović
1973-. (aged 53)
basketball coach
basketball player
Radovan "Rado" Trifunović is a Slovenian professional basketball coach and former player. He is the current assistant coach for Anadolu Efes of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and the EuroLeague.
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18. Angie Brooks
1928-2007 (aged 79)
judge
university teacher
lawyer
diplomat
politician
Angie Elizabeth Brooks was a Liberian diplomat and jurist. She was the first African female President of the United Nations General Assembly. Brooks was also the second woman from any nation to head the U.N. body.
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19. James E. Shepard
1875-1947 (aged 72)
pharmacist
James Edward Shepard was an African American pharmacist, civil servant and educator, the founder of what became the North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He first established it as a private school for religious training in 1910 but adapted it as a school for teachers. He had a network of private supporters, including northern white philanthropists such as...
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20. Shelia P. Moses
1961-. (aged 65)
children's writer
biographer
writer
Shelia P. Moses is an American writer.
21. Max Yergan
1892-1975 (aged 83)
civil rights advocate
missionary
Max Yergan was an American activist notable for being a Baptist missionary for the YMCA, then a Communist working with Paul Robeson, and finally a staunch anti-Communist who complimented the government of apartheid-era South Africa and colonial dominion over Africa, particularly in the case of Portuguese Angola. He was a mentor of Govan Mbeki, who later achieved distinction in the...
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22. James E. Cheek
1932-2010 (aged 78)
educator
theologian
James Edward Cheek was president of Howard University from 1968 to 1989. He was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.
23. Shirley Caesar
1938-. (aged 88)
singer
Shirley Ann Caesar-Williams, known professionally as Shirley Caesar, is an American gospel singer. Her career began in 1951, when she signed to Federal Records at the age of 12. Throughout her seven decade career, Caesar has often been referred to as the "First Lady of Gospel Music" and "The Queen of Gospel Music". Her accolades include 12 Grammy Awards (along...
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24. James Smith
1719-1806 (aged 87)
writer
politician
James "Bonecrusher" Smith is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1981 to 1999 and held the WBA heavyweight title from 1986 to 1987.
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25. Ella Josephine Baker
1903-1986 (aged 83)
public figure
civil rights advocate
women's rights activist
activist
Ella Josephine Baker was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin...
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26. Julian Bond
1940-2015 (aged 75)
journalist
politician
Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1971, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president...
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27. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr
1908-1972 (aged 64)
religious leader
politician
journalist
founder
pastor
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was an American Baptist pastor and politician who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was the first African American to be elected to Congress from New York, as well as the first from any state in the Northeast. Re-elected for nearly three...
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28. John A. Lankford
1874-1946 (aged 72)
architect
John A. Lankford, American architect. He was the first professionally licensed African American architect in Virginia in 1922 and in the District of Columbia in 1924. He has been regarded as the "dean of black architecture".
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29. James B. Dudley
1859-1925 (aged 66)
academic
James Benson Dudley was President of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University from 1896 until his death in 1925. James B. Dudley High School in the city of Greensboro, North Carolina, where the Agricultural and Technical University is located, was named after Dudley in recognition of his work for his community.
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30. Charles L. Purce
1856-1905 (aged 49)
Charles L. Purce was an American educator and academic administrator, active in Louisville, Kentucky, and Selma, Alabama. He was a leader in the Baptist church, and served as president of Selma University and Simmons College of Kentucky, both Baptist institutions.
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31. John A. Kenney Sr
1874-1950 (aged 76)
surgeon
physician
John Andrew Kenney Sr. was an African-American surgeon who was the medical director and chief surgeon of the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, from 1902 to 1922. He served as secretary of the National Medical Association (NMA) from 1904 to 1912, and was elected president of the NMA in 1912. He was the...
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32. Clinton Caldwell Boone
1872-1939 (aged 67)
missionary
Clinton Caldwell Boone was an African-American Baptist minister, physician, dentist, and medical missionary who served in the Congo Free State and Liberia. The son of Rev. Lemuel Washington Boone and Charlotte (Chavis) Boone of Hertford County, North Carolina, he played an important role in Africa as a missionary for the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention and the American Baptist Missionary...
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