is a
Historically Black College in
Nashville ,
Tennessee ,
USA . It was established by
John Ogden ,
Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath and
Reverend Edward P. Smith and named in honor of General
Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee
Freedmen's Bureau . Fisk opened to classes on
January 9 ,
1866 . Fisk heralded its first
African American President with the arrival of Charles Spurgeon Johnson in
1947 . Johnson was a premier
Sociologist , a scholar who had been the editor of ''Opportunity''
Magazine , a noted periodical of the
Harlem Renaissance . Fisk University is currently under the direction of its 14th president, the Honorable
Hazel O'Leary , former
Secretary Of Energy under
President William Jefferson Clinton . She is the second female president of the university.
Fisk University features the world-famous
Fisk Jubilee Singers , originally a group of traveling students who set out from Nashville to earn enough money to save the school and raise sufficient funds to build the first permanent structure in the country solely built for the education of newly-freed slaves, the renowned and recently-restored Jubilee Hall. It is the oldest, and most distinctive, structure of
Victorian Architecture on the 40 acre (160,000 m²) Fisk campus.
Among many other notable firsts, Fisk University was the first historically black college or university to earn its
Phi Beta Kappa Charter in
1952 .
- Kaye George Roberts , orchestral conductor
- Joyce Bolden , first African-American woman to serve on the Commission for Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of Music
- Ted Jarrett , R&B recording artist and producer
- Aaron Douglas , painter, illustrator, muralist
- W. E. B. Du Bois , sociologist, scholar, first Black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard
- John Hope Franklin , historian, Professor , scholar, author of landmark text, ''From Slavery to Freedom'', graduate of the class of 1935
- Nikki Giovanni , poet, author, professor, scholar
- Alma Powell , wife of Gen. Colin Powell
- Kym Whitley , Actress , Comedienne
- Hortense Canady , past national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated
- Alcee Hastings , U.S. Congressman
- Roland Hayes , concert singer
- James Weldon Johnson , author, poet and civil rights activist, author of the "Negro National Anthem", "[[Lift Eve
Part of the Tom Joyner Foundation for HBCUs.
