Howard University

David Norman Dinkins is an American politician, lawyer and author who became the first African American Mayor of the New York City, from 1990 to 1993. He joined the faculty of Columbia University upon leaving office.

Born on July 10, 1927, in Trenton, New Jersey, Dinkins served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He used the 1944 GI Bill to earn his bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Howard University in 1950. He later obtained his law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1956.  Dinkins was a founding member of the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus of New York State, the Council of Black Elected Democrats of New York State, and the One Hundred Black Men. He was also vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors, and a member-at-large of the Black Leadership Forum.

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the foremost female writers of the 20th century. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama on January 15, 1891 to enslaved parents. At a young age, her family relocated to Eatonville, Florida where they flourished. Her father became one of the town’s first mayors. In 1917, Hurston enrolled at Morgan College, where she completed her high school studies. She then attended Howard University and earned an associate’s degree. Hurston was an active student and participated in student government. She also co-founded the school’s renowned newspaper, The Hilltop. In 1925, Hurston received a scholarship to Barnard College and graduated with a BA in anthropology.

During her time in New York City, Hurston befriended other writers such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Together, they joined the black cultural renaissance taking place in Harlem. Hurston dedicated herself to promoting and studying Black culture. She traveled to Haiti and Jamaica to study the religions of the African diaspora. Her findings were included in several newspapers throughout the United States. Hurston often incorporated her research into her fictional writing. As an author, Hurston started publishing short stories as early as 1920. Unfortunately, her work was ignored by the mainstream literary audience for years.. One of her most popular works was “Their Eyes were Watching God.” Hurston broke literary norms by focusing her work on the experience of a Black woman.

A native of South Carolina, Chadwick Boseman graduated from Howard University and attended the British American Dramatic Academy at Oxford, after which he began his career as an actor, director and writer. Boseman starred as T'Challa/Black Panther in the worldwide phenomenon Marvel Studios' "Black Panther," which has shattered box-office records both domestically and internationally. Boseman made his debut as the African superhero Black Panther in Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Civil War,” in May 2016. He reprised the role for Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2019.

Boseman's breakout performance came in 2013 when he received rave reviews for his portrayal of the legendary Jackie Robinson in Warner Bros’ “42.” He previously starred in the title role of Open Road Films’ “Marshall,” which tells the story of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases as the Chief Counsel to the NAACP. His other feature film credits include: the revenge thriller “Message from the King,” Summit Entertainment's “Draft Day,” the independent psychological post-war drama, “The Kill Hole” and Gary Fleders’ drama, “The Express.”

Kenneth Bancroft Clark is an African-American psychologist and researcher. He and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, studied psychology at Howard University in the 1930’s and were active in the civil rights movement. During his time at Howard University, the course of Clark’s life was forever changed when he took a class taught by psychology professor, Francis Sumner. “What this professor showed me,” Clark told the New Yorker, “was the promise of getting some systematic understanding of the complexities of human behavior and human interaction… the seemingly intractable nature of racism, for example.”

Together, the Clarks went on to design and conduct a series of experiments commonly known as “the doll test” to study the psychological effects of racial segregation on African-American school children. Their research was cited in arguments during Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled segregation unconstitutional and sparked a shift historic toward integration. Clark’s research contributed to the development of integrationist policies implemented at both federal and state levels of government and he published extensive work about the plight of African-Americans in impoverished urban communities.

Mamie Phipps Clark was born on April 18, 1917 in Hot Spring, Arkansas. Despite the extremely meager opportunities available to black students, she was offered several scholarships to pursue higher education, including an offer from Howard University. She began her university career in 1934 as a math major minoring in physics. At Howard University, Clark met her future husband, Kenneth Bancroft Clark, a master's student in psychology who later became famous for his involvement in the pivotal Supreme Court Case: Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka.

It was Kenneth who eventually convinced Mamie to pursue psychology. In 1938, Mamie Clark graduated magna cum laude from Howard University and immediately enrolled in the psychology graduate program. In her master's thesis, she investigated when black children became aware of themselves as having a distinct "self," and when they became aware of belonging to a particular racial group. Her thesis, "The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School Children," was the beginning of a line of research that became historic when it was used to make racial segregation unconstitutional in American public schools. Her research provided social scientific evidence that was influential in the Supreme Court's decision in the 1954 Brown case.

Classically trained on the piano, GRAMMY Award-winning musician Roberta Flack received a music scholarship at age 15 to attend Howard University. She was discovered by jazz musician Les McCann while singing at the Washington, D.C. nightclub, Mr. Henry's, and was promptly signed to Atlantic with a string of hits, including, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Where Is the Love” (a duet with former Howard University classmate Donny Hathaway), “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” “Feel Like Makin' Love,” “The Closer I Get to You,” “Tonight I Celebrate My Love,” and “Set the Night to Music.” In 1999, she received a star on Hollywood's legendary Walk of Fame.

Flack regularly performs for audiences around the world, and has had the pleasure of appearing with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In February 2009, Flack performed with critically acclaimed orchestras in Australia, including the Melbourne, Queensland, and Sydney Symphonies. She is currently involved with a new venture — an interpretive album of Beatles' classics. As a humanitarian and mentor, Flack founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, providing an innovative and inspiring music education program to underprivileged students free of charge.

Kasim Reed is an American attorney and politician who served two terms as the 59th mayor of the city of Atlanta from 2010 to 2018. Reed is a graduate and proud alumnus of Howard University where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees and an honorary Doctor of Laws. As an undergraduate member of Howard University's Board of Trustees, he created a fundraising program entitled The Independence Initiative that has contributed more than $12 million to the University’s endowment since its inception.

Reed became the institution’s youngest general trustee in June 2002 and remains a dedicated trustee emeritus. Reed was a prime-time speaker at the 2016 National Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. In 2011, Governing Magazine named Reed one of the top state-and-local government officials of the year. Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times columnist and author of That Used to Be Us, called Reed “inspiring” and labeled him as “one of the best of this new breed of leaders.” In 2013, he was ranked among the top 10 most influential African Americans in the nation by The Root. His civic leadership and service have been nationally recognized on news outlets and programs such as Meet the Press, MSNBC, CNN, FOX and CNBC; and in publications including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.