HBCU alumni: Business, education and innovation

Education

HBCU alumni: Business, education and innovation

Graduates of historically black colleges and universities who have made their marks as educators, scholars, business leaders, scientists and innovators.

Xernona Clayton: Xernona Clayton is founder, president and chief executive officer of the Trumpet Awards Foundation Inc. and creator of the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame. The Tennessee State University graduate was the first Southern African-American to host a daily prime time talk show and was a confidant of several major civil rights leaders. (Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com)

Rosalind Brewer: Once the CEO of Sam's Club, Brewer became president and COO of Starbucks in October. She is a 1984 graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, where she majored in chemistry. Brewer was an executive with Atlanta-based Kimberly-Clarke before joining the Walmart organization in 2006. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

John Thompson: A 1971 graduate of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Thompson succeeded Bill Gates as chairman of Microsoft Corp. Also was CEO of Symantec Corp, the only African-American leading a major technology company at the time. He now runs a startup called Virtual Instruments. Thompson and his wife, Sandi, pledged to donate $5 million to FAMU, in $1 million-per-year installments, beginning in 2014. (Noah Berger/Bloomberg News)

Janice Bryant Howroyd: A leading entrepreneur, science graduate and board member of North Carolina A&T University. Howroyd is founder and CEO of Act 1 Group, a staffing and human resources company. It is said that she left North Carolina for California and turned $1,500 and a single phone line into a $3 billion company. (Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for BET)

Marian Wright Edelman: The first black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar (mid-1960s) served as counsel to Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign in 1968. She is CEO of the Children's Defense Fund, which she founded in 1973. Edelman earned her B.A. at Spelman College and then a degree from Yale Law School in 1963. She chaired Spelman's Board of Trustees from 1976 to 1987. (Kimberly Smith/staff)

Ruth J. Simmons: A graduate of Dillard University, Simmons is the former president of Brown University, serving from 2001 until 2012. She was the first African American to lead an Ivy League university. (AP Photo/Sandy Hill)

Booker T. Washington: Hampton Institute's most illustrious alumnus, Booker T. Washington (class of 1875), was born a slave and went on to become a great orator and national leader, even advising presidents. He cofounded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 and delivered his famous "Atlanta Compromise" accommodationist speech in 1895. He died in 1915.

John Hope Franklin: John Hope Franklin was a historian, best known for his 1947 tome, "From Slavery to Freedom." A graduate of Fisk University, Franklin taught at several colleges, including N.C. Central University, Howard University, the University of Chicago, Brooklyn College and Duke University. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He died in 2009. (Derek Anderson/The New York Times)

Louis Wade Sullivan: A 1954 Morehouse College graduate, Louis Wade Sullivan is the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the founding dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine.

David Satcher: A 1963 graduate of Morehouse College who went on to earn an M.D. and a Ph.d. from Case Western Reserve University. Satcher was director of the CDC from 1993 to 1998, when he was nominated by President Clinton to become U.S. surgeon general. He later served as president of Morehouse School of Medicine.

Joycelyn Elders: Jocelyn Elders was the first African American to be appointed United States Surgeon General. A 1952 graduate of Philander Smith College, she was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. She was fired a year later after a string of controversial comments regarding her views on health.

Rod Paige: Appointed by President Bush in 2001, Paige became the nation's first African-American secretary of education. He graduated from Jackson State University in Alabama and was head football coach there from 1964 to 1968. He now serves as president of Jackson State. (Lawrence Jackson / AP file)

Johnnetta B. Cole: Enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville at the age of 15. Later transferred to Oberlin College to complete her bachelor's. President of Spelman College from 1987 to 1997; she was a Distinguished Professor at Emory University; and then became president of Bennett College in 2002. Cole was named in 2009 to direct the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

Katherine Johnson: A graduate of West Virginia State, Johnson is a physicist, space scientist, and mathematician who contributed to America's aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Known for accuracy in computerized celestial navigation, she calculated the trajectory for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. In 2015, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her career was the subject of the film "Hidden Figures." (NASA/Sean Smith)

Ronald McNair: Physicist, jazz saxophonist, karate black belt. McNair was awarded a B.S in physics at North Carolina A&T University in 1971 and a doctorate in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. McNair was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded 73 seconds after launch in 1986, killing all aboard. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

Christa McAuliffe: Received her master's in education at Bowie State College, an HBCU in Maryland, in 1978. McAuliffe was a middle school teacher for 12 years before becoming a high school teacher in Concord, N.H., in 1982. She was chosen for NASA's Teacher in Space project in 1985 and died when the Shuttle Challenger exploded after launch in 1986. (AP Photo/Nasa)

Gen. Chappie James: Daniel "Chappie" James was a fighter pilot who became a four-star general in the Air Force, the first African-American to achieve that rank. James received his bachelor's at Tuskegee Institute in 1942. He later flew more than 120 combat missions over North Korea and Vietnam. After receiving his fourth star, James was named commander-in-chief at NORAD, the North American Air Defense. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Hazel O'Leary: Hazel O'Leary was the first and only woman and first and only African American to hold the position of United States Secretary of Energy. O'Leary served from 1993 to 1997. A 1959 graduate of Fisk University, she later returned to her alma mata, to serve as president from 2004 to 2012. (AP Photo/John Russell)

Patricia Roberts Harris: Patricia Roberts Harris served under President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services). She was also the first executive director of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She is a 1945 graduate of Howard University. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Alexis Herman: The nation's first African-American secretary of labor (appointed during the Clinton administration) is a 1969 graduate of Xavier University. Herman has been chair and CEO of New Ventures LLC, a corporate consulting company, since 2001, and from 2001 to 2006 chaired the Human Resources Task Force at Coca-Cola Co., where she is now on the board of directors. (Ethan Miller/Getty)

Jelani Cobb: A Howard University graduate, Cobb is one of the nation's most foremost African-American voices on race relations, contemporary culture and politics. His subject matter has ranged from hip hop to the Cold War to former President Barack Obama. A former professor at Spelman, Cobb is currently a journalism professor at Columbia University and a staff writer at the New Yorker. (Andrew Toth/Getty Images)

Pam Oliver: The sideline reporter for Fox NFL Sports was an All-American middle-distance runner at Florida A&M University who held school records for years after she left FAMU in the 1980s. Oliver started with ESPN before moving to Fox in 1995. She obtained her B.A. in journalism in 1984. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Ed Bradley – A 20-time Emmy Award winning reporter, Bradley was a role model for countless African-American journalists. A graduate of what’s now called Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Bradley began his broadcast career as a DJ at a Philadelphia radio station and became the first black White House correspondent for CBS News and at 60 Minutes. Bradley died in 2006. (AP Photo/CBS, Tony Esparza)

Earl Graves Sr.: Earl Graves Sr. is a publisher and businessman. The 1958 graduate of Morgan State University. He is the founder of Black Enterprise magazine and chairman of the media company Earl G. Graves, Ltd. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

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Xernona Clayton: Xernona Clayton is founder, president and chief executive officer of the Trumpet Awards Foundation Inc. and creator of the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame. The Tennessee State University graduate was the first Southern African-American to host a daily prime time talk show and was a confidant of several major civil rights leaders. (Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com)

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