View source for Tuskegee University

{{short description|Historically black university in  Tuskegee, Alabama, US}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox university
| name                  = Tuskegee University
| image_name            = Tuskegee University seal.svg{{!}}class=skin-invert
| image_upright         = .7
| accreditation         = [[Southern Association of Colleges and Schools|SACS]]
| former_names          = Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers (1881–1891)<br />Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (1891–1937)<br />Tuskegee Institute (1937–1985)<ref>{{cite web |title=Tuskegee University is Founded |url=https://aaregistry.org/story/tuskegee-university-founded/ |website=aaregistry.org |publisher=African American Registry |access-date=December 14, 2022}}</ref>
| motto                 = ''Scientia Principatus Opera''
| mottoeng              = Knowledge, Leadership, Service
|faculty                = 263 full-time and 45 part-time (spring 2022)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?id=102377 |title=College Navigator – Tuskegee University |website=nces.ed.gov}}</ref>
| established           = {{start date and age|1881|07|04}}
| type                  = [[Private university|Private]] [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black]] [[land-grant university]]
| academic_affiliations = {{hlist|[[National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities|NAICU]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.naicu.edu/member_center/members.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151109231238/http://www.naicu.edu/member_center/members.asp |url-status=dead |title=NAICU – Membership |archive-date=November 9, 2015}}</ref>|[[Oak Ridge Associated Universities|ORAU]]|[[United Negro College Fund|UNCF]]|[[National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program|Space-grant]]}}
| endowment             = $157 million (2021)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/Content/Uploads/Tuskegee/files/IE/TUFactBook22-23.pdf}}</ref>
| president             = Mark Brown
| students              = 2,570 (fall 2022)<ref name="22FAqf">{{cite web |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/Content/Uploads/Tuskegee/files/IE/Quick%20Facts%2022FA.pdf |title=Microsoft Word – Quick Facts 22FA}}</ref>
| undergrad             = 2,100 (fall 2022)<ref name="22FAqf"/>
| postgrad              = 215 (fall 2022)<ref name="22FAqf"/>
| city                  = [[Tuskegee, Alabama|Tuskegee]]
| state                 = [[Alabama]]
| country               = United States
| coor                  = {{coord|32|25|48.76|N|85|42|27.81|W|type:edu_region:US-AL}}
| campus                = Rural, {{convert|5,200|acre}}
| colors                = Crimson and old gold<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.tuskegee.edu/sites/www/Uploads/files/OCPRM/PolicyManual.pdf |title=Visual identity and COmmunications Policies for Tuskegee University |date=August 1, 2012 |access-date=September 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405134831/http://www.tuskegee.edu/sites/www/Uploads/files/OCPRM/PolicyManual.pdf |archive-date=April 5, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref><br />{{color box|#7B0707}}&nbsp;{{color box|#F2BD2C}}
| nickname              = [[Tuskegee Golden Tigers|Golden Tigers]]
 | free_label           = Newspaper
 | free                 = ''The TU Campus Digest'' <ref>{{cite web |title=Home |url=http://www.tucampusdigest.com/ |website=tucampusdigest.com}}</ref>
| sporting_affiliations = [[NCAA Division II]] – [[Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference|SIAC]]
| website               = {{url|https://www.tuskegee.edu/|tuskegee.edu}}
| logo                  = Tuskegee univ wordmark.png
| logo_size             = 200
}}

'''Tuskegee University''' ('''Tuskegee''' or '''TU'''; formerly known as the '''Tuskegee Institute''') is a [[Private university|private]], [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black]] [[land-grant university]] in [[Tuskegee, Alabama]], United States. It was founded as a [[normal school]] for teachers on [[Independence Day (United States)|July 4]], 1881, by the [[Alabama Legislature]]. In 1932 Tuskegee was involved, in collaboration with the [[United States Public Health Service]], in recruiting participants for an [[Tuskegee Syphilis Study|infamous syphilis study]].<ref>Reverby, Susan (2009). Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 30. {{ISBN|9780807833100}}</ref>

Tuskegee University offers 43 [[bachelor's degree]] programs, including a five-year accredited professional degree program in [[architecture]], 17 [[master's degree]] programs, and 5 [[doctoral degree]] programs, including the [[Doctor of Veterinary Medicine]]. Tuskegee is home to nearly 3,000 students from around the U.S. and over 30 countries.

Tuskegee's campus was designed by architect [[Robert Robinson Taylor]], the first African-American to graduate from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], in conjunction with [[David Williston]], the first professionally trained African-American landscape architect.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/02/first-african-american-landscape-architect-launched-career-cornell |title=First African-American landscape architect launched career at Cornell |website=Cornell Chronicle |access-date=January 23, 2019}}</ref> The campus was designated as the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site by the [[National Park Service]] in 1974. The university has been home to a number of important [[African American]] figures, including founder and first principal/president [[Booker T. Washington]], scientist [[George Washington Carver]], and [[World War II]]'s [[Tuskegee Airmen]].

==History==

===Planning and establishment===
[[File:Tuskegee Institute in 1882.jpg|thumb|left|Original campus buildings on the Miller plantation, 1882]]
The school was founded on July 4, 1881, as the Tuskegee [[Normal School]] for Colored Teachers. This was a result of an agreement made during the 1880 elections in [[Macon County, Alabama]], between a former Confederate Colonel, [[Wilbur F. Foster]], who was a candidate for re-election to the Alabama Senate, and a local black leader, [[Lewis Adams]].<ref name="tuskegee.edu">{{cite web |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/about-us/history-and-mission |title=History and Mission &#124; Tuskegee University}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://oxfordaasc.com/page/2739 |title=Tuskegee Institute}}</ref> Wilbur Foster offered that, if Adams could persuade the black constituents to vote for Foster, then Foster, if elected, would push the state of Alabama to establish a school for black people in the county. The majority of Macon County's population was black, so black constituents had political power. Adams succeeded and Foster followed through with the school.<ref>{{cite web |title=History and Mission {{!}} Tuskegee University |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/about-us/history-and-mission |access-date=May 31, 2024 |website=www.tuskegee.edu}}</ref>

[[File:History class at Tuskegee.jpg|thumb|left|History class at Tuskegee, 1902]]

The school became a part of the expansion of higher education for [[African American|black people]] in the former [[Confederate States of America|Confederate states]] following the [[American Civil War]], with many schools founded by the northern [[American Missionary Association]]. A teachers' school was the dream of Lewis Adams, a former slave, and George W. Campbell, a banker, merchant, and former slaveholder, who shared a commitment to the education of black people. Despite lacking formal education, Adams could read, write, and speak several languages. He was an experienced [[tinsmith]], harness-maker, and [[shoemaker]] and was a [[Prince Hall Freemasonry|Prince Hall Freemason]], an acknowledged leader of the [[African-American]] community in Macon County.

Adams and Campbell had secured $2,000 from the State of Alabama for teachers' salaries but nothing for land, buildings, or equipment. Adams, Campbell (replacing Thomas Dryer, who died after his appointment), and M. B. Swanson formed Tuskegee's first board of commissioners. Campbell wrote to the [[Hampton Institute]] in [[Virginia]], requesting the recommendation of a teacher for their new school. [[Samuel C. Armstrong]], the Hampton [[Principal (academia)|principal]] and a former [[Union Army|Union]] general, recommended 25-year-old [[Booker T. Washington]], an alumnus and teacher at Hampton.

As the newly hired [[Principal (academia)|principal]] in Tuskegee, Booker T. Washington began classes for his new school in a rundown church and shanty. The following year (1882), he purchased a former [[Plantations in the American South|plantation]] of 100 acres in size. In 1973 the Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, did an oral history interview with Annie Lou "Bama" Miller. In that interview she indicated that her grandmother sold the original 100 acres of land to Booker T. Washington. That oral history interview is located at the Tuskegee University archives. The earliest campus buildings were constructed on that property, usually by students as part of their work-study. By the start of the 20th century, the Tuskegee Institute occupied nearly 2,300 acres.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Grace Powers |title=Where to educate, 1898–1899. A guide to the best private schools, higher institutions of learning, etc., in the United States |url=https://archive.org/stream/wheretoeducate1800thomrich#page/5/mode/1up |publisher=Brown and Company |location=Boston |year=1898 |page=5 |access-date=August 17, 2012}}</ref>

Based on his experience at the Hampton Institute, Washington intended to train students in skills, morals, and religious life, in addition to academic subjects. Washington urged the teachers he trained "to return to the plantation districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people."<ref>{{cite book |last=Washington |first=Booker |title=Up From Slavery |url=https://archive.org/details/upfromslavery000wash |url-access=registration |publisher=Dover |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/upfromslavery000wash/page/127 127] |isbn=9780486287386}}</ref> Washington's second wife [[Olivia A. Davidson]], was instrumental to Tuskegee's success. As assistant principal, she worked with Washington to raise funds from donors in Massachusetts, and within a few months, they had raised enough to purchase a farm and construct a large school building.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Soares |first=Leigh |title="Tuskegee is Her Monument": Gender and Leadership in Early Public Black Colleges |journal=[[History of Education Quarterly]] |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=357–377 |date=April 2023 |s2cid=257891566 |doi=10.1017/heq.2023.3}}</ref><ref>"Olivia Davidson Washington". Notable Black American Women. Gale, 1992. Biography In Context. Web. October 24, 2013.</ref>

Gradually, a rural extension program was developed, to take progressive ideas and training to those who could not come to the campus. Tuskegee alumni founded smaller schools and colleges throughout the [[Southern United States|South]]; they continued to emphasize teacher training.

===Booker T. Washington's leadership===
[[File:Booker T Washington retouched flattened-crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Booker T. Washington]]
[[File:Booker T. Washington residence - The Oaks.jpg|right|thumb|The Oaks, [[Booker T. Washington]]'s home on the Tuskegee campus, c. 1906]]

As a young free man after the Civil War, Washington sought a formal education. He worked his way through Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) and attended college at [[Wayland Seminary]] in Washington, DC (now Virginia Union University). He returned to Hampton as a teacher.

Hired as principal of the new [[normal school]] (for the training of teachers) in Tuskegee, Alabama, Booker T. Washington opened his school on July 4, 1881, on the grounds of the [[Butler Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church (Tuskegee, Alabama)|Butler Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]]. In the following year he bought the grounds of a former [[Plantations in the American South|plantation]], out of which he expanded the institute in the decades that followed.

The school expressed Washington's dedication to the pursuit of self-reliance. In addition to training teachers, he also taught the practical skills needed for his students to succeed at farming or other trades typical of the rural South, where most of them came from. He wanted his students to see labor as practical, but also as beautiful and dignified. As part of their work-study programs, students constructed most of the new buildings. Many students earned all or part of their expenses through the construction, agricultural, and domestic work associated with the campus, as they reared livestock and raised crops, as well as producing other goods.

The continuing expansion of black education took place against a background of increased violence against blacks in the South, after [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]s regained power in state governments and imposed white supremacy in society. They instituted legal [[racial segregation]] and a variety of [[Jim Crow]] laws, after [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchising]] most blacks by constitutional amendments and electoral rules from 1890 until 1964. Against this background, Washington's vision, as expressed in his "[[Atlanta Compromise]]" speech, became controversial and was challenged by new leaders, such as [[W.E.B. Du Bois]], who argued that blacks should have opportunities for study in [[Classics|classical]] academic programs, as well as vocational institutes. In the early twentieth century, Du Bois envisioned the rise of "[[the Talented Tenth]]" to lead African Americans.

Washington gradually attracted notable scholars to Tuskegee, including the botanist [[George Washington Carver]], one of the university's most renowned professors.

===1881–1900===
Perceived as a spokesman for black "industrial" education, Washington developed a network of wealthy American [[philanthropist]]s who donated to the school, such as [[Andrew Carnegie]] (funding a library building), [[Collis P. Huntington]], [[John D. Rockefeller]], [[Henry Huttleston Rogers]], [[George Eastman]], and [[Elizabeth Milbank Anderson]]. An early champion of the concept of [[matching funds]], Henry H. Rogers was a major anonymous contributor to Tuskegee and dozens of other black schools for more than fifteen years. There is some discussion as to whether his strong support for "industrial" education was fully earnest or at least partly a strategy to attract such large donors, as he thought the idea of an "industrial" college would appeal to them. Publication of the article "Industrial Education of the Negro" in a leading magazine designed for African-American readers is one piece of evidence against this claim.<ref>{{cite web|title=Industrial Education for the Negro|url=https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/industrial-education-for-the-negro/|access-date=November 10, 2020|website=Teaching American History|language=en-US}}</ref>

Thanks to recruitment efforts on the island and contacts with the U.S. military, Tuskegee had a particularly large population of [[Afro-Cuban]] students during these years. Following small-scale recruitments prior to the 1898–99 school year, the university quickly gained popularity among ambitious Afro-Cubans. In the first three decades of the school's existence, dozens of Afro-Cubans enrolled at Tuskegee each year, becoming the largest population of foreign students at the school.<ref>Guridy, Frank. ''Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of Empire and Jim Crow''. Chapel Hill, NC: [[University of North Carolina Press]], 2010.</ref>

===1900–1915===
[[File:George Washington Carver, ca. 1902.jpg|thumb|left| George Washington Carver (front row, center) poses with fellow faculty of Tuskegee Institute in this c. 1902 photograph taken by [[Frances Benjamin Johnston]].]]
Washington developed a major relationship with [[Julius Rosenwald]], a [[self-made man]] who rose to the top of [[Sears, Roebuck and Company]] in Chicago, [[Illinois]]. He had long been concerned about the lack of educational resources for blacks, especially in the South. After meeting with Washington, Rosenwald agreed to serve on Tuskegee's board of directors. He also worked with Washington to stimulate funding to train teachers' schools such as Tuskegee and Hampton institutes.

Washington was a tireless fundraiser for the institute. In 1905 he kicked off an endowment campaign, raising money all over America in 1906 for the 25th anniversary of the institution. Along with wealthy donors, he gave a lecture at [[Carnegie Hall]] in New York on January 23, 1906, called the [[Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture]], in which Mark Twain spoke.

Beginning with a pilot program in 1912, Rosenwald created model rural schools and stimulated construction of new schools across the South. Tuskegee architects developed the model plans, and some students helped build the schools. Rosenwald created a fund but required communities to raise matching funds, to encourage local collaboration between blacks and whites. Rosenwald and Washington stimulated the construction and operation of more than 5,000 small community schools and supporting resources for the education of blacks throughout the rural [[Southern United States|the South]] into the 1930s.

Despite his travels and widespread work, Washington continued as principal of Tuskegee. Concerned about the educator's health, Rosenwald encouraged him to slow his pace. In 1915, Washington died at the age of 59, as a result of [[Hypertension|high blood pressure]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/05/AR2006050501345.html |title=Booker T. Washington's Death Revisited |last=Dominguez |first=Alex |date=May 6, 2006 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=April 5, 2018 |agency=Associated Press |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> At his death, Tuskegee's endowment exceeded US$1.5 million. He was buried on the campus near the chapel.

{{wide image|Tuskegee Institute panoramic photograph, 1916.jpg|1000px|alt=Tuskegee campus, 1916|Tuskegee campus, 1916}}

Tuskegee, in cooperation with church missionary activity, worked to set up industrial training programs in Africa.<ref>Andrew E. Barnes, ''Global Christianity and the Black Atlantic: Tuskegee, Colonialism, and the Shaping of African Industrial Education'' (Baylor University Press, 2017).</ref>

===1915–1940===
[[File:Tuskegee University (c. 1916).jpg|thumb|right|Tuskegee Institute, c. 1916]]
After Washington's death, he was succeeded as principal by [[Robert Russa Moton]] for the next 20 years.<ref name="presidents">{{cite web |title=TU Presidents {{!}} Tuskegee University |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/discover-tu/tu-presidents |website=www.tuskegee.edu |access-date=March 5, 2023}}</ref>

The years after World War I challenged the basis of the Tuskegee Institute. Teaching was still seen as a critical calling, but southern society was changing rapidly. Attracted by the growth of industrial jobs in the North, including the rapid expansion of the Pennsylvania Railroad, suffering job losses because of the [[boll weevil]] and increasing mechanization of agriculture, and fleeing extra-legal violence, hundreds of thousands of rural blacks moved from the South to Northern and Midwestern industrial cities in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]]. A total of 1.5 million moved during this period. In the South, industrialization was occurring in cities such as [[Birmingham, Alabama]] and other booming areas. The programs at Tuskegee, based on an agricultural economy, had to change. During and after [[World War II]], migration to the North continued, with California added as a destination because of its defense industries. A total of 5 million black Southerners moved out of the South from 1940 to 1970.

===United States Public Health Service syphilis experiment<!-- Final Report of the Syphilis Study Legacy Committee, May 20, 1996 -->===
Tuskegee Institute had become a center for medical excellence, with the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital (the first full service hospital in the nation developed and operated by African Americans) and the Tuskegee Veterans Hospital (the only ever U.S. African American staffed Veterans Administration hospital). This medical center had more medical professionals than any other medical facility of its size in the U.S. Because of Booker T. Washington's community outreach, with National Health Week, and the success of these facilities, trust in modern medicine and African American medical professionals, like the National Medical Association, African American families had full trust in science and medicine, which began extending the lives in the African American community. However, in the middle of this progress, from 1932 to 1972, the United States government, through the United States Public Health Service, conducted the [[Tuskegee Syphilis Study|USPHS syphilis experiment]] by which the effects of deliberately untreated [[syphilis]] were studied, in Macon County, Alabama, with African-American men, living in remote rural communities near Tuskegee, Alabama. These experiments have become infamous for deceiving study participants, poor African-American men, both by not telling them that they had latent syphilis and by pretending to give them medical care; in fact researchers were only monitoring the progression of the disease, so that when the men were deceased their bodies could be studied in the laboratory. Syphilis is a debilitating disease that can leave its victims with permanent neurological damage and horrifying scars. Penicillin was discovered in 1927 and it was being used to treat human disease by the early 1940s. In 1947 it had become the gold standard in treating syphilis and often only required one intramuscular dose to eliminate the disease. The researchers were well aware of this information and in order to continue their experiments, they chose to withhold the life-saving treatment. The researchers proceeded to actively deter study participants from obtaining penicillin from other physicians. The patients were told that they had "bad blood". This experiment was conducted by the [[U.S. Public Health Service]]. This was a direct violation of the [[Hippocratic Oath]]; however, not a single researcher was legally punished. Academic research has shown that the study had long-term, damaging effects on black men's health, and the health of their families and contributed to mistrust of white medical professionals among black men.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men |url=https://www.nber.org/papers/w22323.pdf |publisher=[[National Bureau of Economic Research]] |access-date=November 30, 2019}}</ref><ref name="YouTube">{{cite web |title=The Appalling Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment |date=January 2, 2019 |via=YouTube |publisher=Today I Found Out |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxeLohZEqs0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/fxeLohZEqs0 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |url-status=live | access-date=July 20, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===World War II===
[[File:Rudolph Tuskegee Chapel exterior.jpg|thumb|right|Tuskegee University Chapel (1969)]]
In 1941, in an effort to train black [[aviator]]s, the [[U.S. Army Air Corps]] established a training program at Tuskegee Institute, using [[Moton Field]], about {{convert|4|mi|km}} away from the campus center. The graduates became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The [[Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site]] at Moton Field was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1998. The U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy have [[R.O.T.C.]] programs on campus today.

Numerous presidents have visited Tuskegee, including [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] was also interested in the Institute and its aeronautical school. In 1941 she visited Tuskegee Army Air Field and worked to have African Americans get the chance as pilots in the military. She corresponded with F.D. Patterson, the third president of the Tuskegee Institute, and frequently lent her support to programs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/tuskegee.html |title=The Tuskegee Airmen and Eleanor Roosevelt |access-date=June 26, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625100341/http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/tuskegee.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=June 25, 2008}}</ref>

===Postwar===
The noted architect [[Paul Rudolph (architect)|Paul Rudolph]] was commissioned in 1958 to produce a new campus master plan. In 1960 he was awarded, along with the partnership of John A. Welch and Louis Fry, the commission for a new chapel, perhaps the most significant modern building constructed in Alabama.

The postwar decades were a time of continued expansion for Tuskegee, which added new programs and departments, adding graduate programs in several fields to reflect the rise of professional studies. For example, its School of Veterinary Medicine was added in 1944. Mechanical Engineering was added in 1953, and a four-year program in Architecture in 1957, with a six-year program in 1965.

=== Civil Rights activism (1960s) ===
During the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, students at Tuskegee Institute formed the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League (TIAL) to lead civil rights activities on campus. Although TIAL was an affiliate of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC), its leaders were local Tuskegee Institute students.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=Younge Jr., Samuel |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/samuel-younge-jr/ |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Patton |first1=Gwedolyn |title=My race to freedom |last2=Moses |first2=Robert P. |date=2020 |publisher=NewSouth Books |isbn=978-1-60306-450-7 |location=Montgomery}}</ref> TIAL led sit-ins at the state capital, wade-ins (to desegregate city pools), voter registration efforts and education in rural areas and protest marches including a Tuskegee to Montgomery contingent of the Selma to Montgomery March on March 21, 1965.<ref name=":1" /> Student activist, [[Sammy Younge Jr.|Samuel (Sammy) Younge, Jr]]. was one of TIAL's leaders, and the first Black college student to die in the Civil Rights Movement.<ref name=":02" /> His murder by a white gas station attendant, Marvin Segrest, and Segrest's subsequent acquittal by an all-white jury galvanized thousands to march on the city of Tuskegee in protest.<ref name=":02" />

In 1968, student activists seeking more say over their education engaged in a series of protests, sit-ins, walk-outs and other demonstrations at Tuskegee Institute in an effort to get the administration to hear and act upon their demands regarding the quality of life on campus, the quality of the education they received, mandatory [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps|Reserve Officer's Training Corps]] (ROTC) participation, and other grievances.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Brian |title=The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History |date=2022 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-1-4798-0942-4 |edition=1st |series=Black Power Series |location=New York}}</ref> These protests culminated with around 300 students surrounding Dorothy Hall during a meeting of Tuskegee Institute's board of trustees on April 6, 1968 and effectively holding them hostage inside. The governor sent the National Guard to respond to the incident. Immediately afterward, campus was closed down, and all students had to reapply for admission.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Waxman |first=Olivia B. |date=2022-10-04 |title=The Overlooked History of a Student Uprising at Tuskegee |url=https://time.com/6219595/tuskegee-student-uprising-black-students-history/ |access-date=2025-05-15 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> While initially met with harsh repercussions from the administration, the student activists were ultimately successful in prompting the administration to meet their demands.<ref name=":2" />

=== Recent history ===
In 1985, Tuskegee Institute achieved university status and was renamed Tuskegee University.<ref name="tuskegee.edu"/>

In July 2020, philanthropist [[MacKenzie Scott]] donated $20 million to Tuskegee. Her donation is the largest single gift in Tuskegee's history from a known donor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tuskegee gifted $20M; largest donation in school history |url=https://www.al.com/news/montgomery/2020/07/tuskegee-university-receives-20-million-donation-from-jeff-bezos-philanthropist-ex-wife.html |date=July 28, 2020}}</ref>

In 2023, Tuskegee received funding from the [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]] to develop plans for safeguarding the school's historic buildings against climate change.<ref>{{cite news |title=$3.8M in Action Fund Grants Help Protect 40 African American Historic Sites |date=June 13, 2023 |url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/2023-action-fund-grant-recipients |publisher=National Trust for Historic Preservation}}</ref>

In April 2024, Tuskegee received a $20 million gift from an anonymous donor. The major gift will go towards supporting Tuskegee's [[STEM]] programs and a variety of campus improvements.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/news/tuskegee-university-receives-anonymous-20-million-gift |title=Tuskegee University Receives Anonymous $20 Million Gift &#124; Tuskegee University}}</ref> The following month, Mark Brown became the first Tuskegee graduate (Class of 1986) to be appointed president of the institution.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/news/tuskegee-university-names-dr-mark-brown-distinguished-alum-as-10th-president |title=Tuskegee University Names Dr. Mark Brown, Distinguished Alum, as 10th President &#124; Tuskegee University}}</ref>

Later that same year, on November 10, 2024, LaTavion Jashun Johnson, a visiting 18-year-old high school male, was killed and 16 other people were injured in a [[Tuskegee University shooting|mass shooting]] on campus during homecoming weekend by a lone gunman. The gunman was later identified as 25-year-old Jaquez Myrick; he was not a Tuskegee student and traveled from [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wbrc.com/2024/11/10/1-dead-16-injured-mass-shooting-tuskegee-university/ |title=1 dead, 16 injured in mass shooting at Tuskegee University; suspect arrested |date=November 10, 2024}}</ref> As a result of the mass shooting, Tuskegee decided to end its open campus policy.<ref>{{cite video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEcnYKidfMs |title=Tuskegee University 'is no longer an open campus' after shooting, president says |date=November 11, 2024 |publisher=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref>

===Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site===
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                 = Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
| nrhp_type            = nhl
| image                =
| caption              =
| nearest_city         = [[Tuskegee, Alabama]]
| coordinates          = {{coord|32|25|49|N|85|42|28|W|region:US-AL_type:edu|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin             = USA Alabama#USA
| area = {{convert|57.92|acre|km2}}<ref name="area">{{NPS area|year=2012|access-date=May 5, 2025}}</ref>
| built                = 1882
| architect            = [[Robert Robinson Taylor]]
| architecture         = Greek Revival, Queen Anne
| designated_nrhp_type = June 23, 1965<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web |title=Tuskegee Institute |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=74&ResourceType=District |access-date=October 28, 2007 |work=National Historic Landmark summary listing |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218090357/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=74&ResourceType=District |archive-date=February 18, 2008}}</ref>
| added                = October 15, 1966<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>
| website              = [https://www.nps.gov/tuin/index.htm Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site]
| refnum               = 66000151
}}

In 1965 Tuskegee University was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]] for the significance of its academic programs, its role in higher education for African-Americans, and its status in United States history.<ref name="nhlsum"/> Congress authorized the establishment of the Tuskegee Institute [[National Historic Sites (United States)|National Historic Site]] in 1974.

The National Historic Site includes Booker T. Washington's home The Oaks and the George Washington Carver Museum. The district historic landmark district includes the entire Tuskegee University campus at the time.<ref name="nrhpinv2">Horace J. Sheely, Jr. (March 1, 1965) {{NHLS url|id=66000151|title=National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings: Tuskegee Institute}}, National Park Service and {{NHLS url|id=66000151|title=Accompanying 20 or so photos, undated.|photos=y}}</ref>
"Points of special historic interest" noted in the landmark description include:
* The Oaks (Washington's Home)
* Booker T. Washington monument, ''Lifting the Veil of Ignorance'' statue by [[Charles Keck]]
* Grave of Booker T. Washington
* Grave of [[George Washington Carver]]
* [[The George Washington Carver Museum]]

The [[Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site]] is at Moton Field, in Tuskegee, Alabama.<ref name="Scott 2004 p. ">{{cite book | last=Scott | first=David |title=Guide to the National Park Areas Eastern States |publisher=Globe Pequot Press |location=Guilford, CT |year=2004 | isbn=0-7627-2988-0 |oclc=55075855 |page=5}}</ref>

===Presidents===
Tuskegee has had 10 presidents and 2 interim presidents since its founding in 1881. Matthew Jenkins was the only interim president to not later become a president.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 October 2025 |title=Legacy of Leadership |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/legacy/tu-presidents.html |access-date=26 October 2025 |website=Tuskegee University}}</ref>

# [[Booker T. Washington]] (1881-1915), the founding president
# [[Robert Russa Moton]] (1915-1935), help established the [[Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital|Tuskegee Veterans’ Administration Hospital]]
# [[Frederick Douglass Patterson]] (1935-1953), created the first veterinary medicine program at [[Historically black colleges and universities|Historically Black College]] [[Historically black colleges and universities|and University]]
# Luther Hilton Foster Jr. (1953-1981)
# [[Benjamin Franklin Payton]] (1981-2010)
# [[Gilbert L. Rochon]] (2010-2013)
# [[Brian L. Johnson]] (2014-2017)
# [[Lily McNair|Lily D. McNair]] (2018-2021), the first female president
# [[Charlotte P. Morris]] (2021-2024), (2010, 2017-2018)
# Mark A. Brown (2024-present), the first alum to be president

{| class="wikitable floatright plainrowheaders"
|+ Presidents of Tuskegee University
|-
! scope="row" | [[Booker T. Washington]]
| 1881–1915
|-
! scope="row" | [[Robert Russa Moton]]
| 1915–1935
|-
! scope="row" | [[Frederick Douglass Patterson]]
| 1935–1953
|-
! scope="row" | [[Luther H. Foster Jr.]]
| 1953–1981
|-
! scope="row" | [[Benjamin F. Payton]]
| 1981–2010
|-
! scope="row" | [[Gilbert L. Rochon]]
| 2010–2013
|-
! scope="row" | [[Brian L. Johnson]]
| 2014–2017
|-
! scope="row" | [[Lily McNair]]
| 2018–2021
|-
! scope="row" | [[Charlotte P. Morris]]
| 2021 (effective August 1)<ref name="Elected president">{{cite web |last=McGough |first=Kawana |title=Dr. Charlotte P. Morris elected as 9th President of Tuskegee University by Board of Trustees |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/news/dr-charlotte-p-morris-elected-as-9th-president-of-tuskegee-university-by-board-of-trustees |publisher=Tuskegee University |date=July 26, 2021 |access-date=July 26, 2021}}</ref>
|-
|}

==Campus==
Tuskegee University provides Campus Police protection for its students and staff, on and off-campus, which is on-call 24-hours.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/police |title=Police |publisher=Tuskegee University |access-date=August 20, 2022}}</ref> All officers are state certified.<ref name=":0" />

<gallery widths=180>
File:Statue of Booker T. Washington "Lifting the Veil of Ignorance," by Charles Keck located at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama LCCN2010637781.tif|The ''Lifting the Veil of Ignorance'' statue of Booker T. Washington was designed by sculptor [[Charles Keck]] and unveiled on April 5, 1922. The statue depicts Dr. Washington lifting the veil of ignorance off his people, who had once been enslaved, by showing them the ways of a better life through education and skills.
File:James H.M. Henderson Hall.jpg|James Henry Meriwether Henderson Hall is Tuskegee University's new Agricultural Life Science Teaching, Extension and Research Building. Henderson Hall provides labs for teaching introductory courses in animal, plant, soil, and environmental sciences as well as biology and chemistry.
File:Tuskegee University's Tompkins Hall.JPG|Built in 1906 and completely renovated in 2013, Tompkins Hall serves as the primary student dining facility and student center. The building includes a ballroom, an auditorium, a game room, a retail restaurant, and a 24-hour student study with healthy food vending machines. It is home to the offices of the Student Government Association.
File:Tuskegee University Museum-The Legacy Museum.jpg|The Legacy Museum houses: The African collection (contains approximately 900 items), the antiques and miscellaneous items collection and The Lovette W. Harper Collection of African Art. Third Floor exhibition contains "The United States Public Health Service Untreated Syphilis Study in the Negro Male, Macon County, Alabama 1932-1972."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title=Lovette W. Harper Collection of African Art |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Alabama]] |access-date=August 20, 2022 |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-7279}}</ref>
File:Booker T Washington grave.jpg|Booker T. Washington is laid to rest in the Tuskegee University Campus Cemetery. Many other notable university people are interred on the Tuskegee campus including: George Washington Carver, Cleveland L. Abbott, William L. Dawson, Luther Hilton Foster (4th president), Frederick D. Patterson (3rd president), many other Washington family members and others.
File:Tuskegee University -The Commons Apartments.jpg|Tuskegee University provides on-campus apartment style living for students in the Commons Apartments located across the campus in three different locations
File:Margaret Murray Washington Hall.jpg|Margaret Murray Washington Hall is home to Office of Admission, University Bookstore and additional dining services for the students
File:The Avenue- Tuskegee.JPG|"The Avenue" is one of the main pedestrian corridors on campus that is rarely open to vehicular traffic
File:Booker T. Washington Boulevard.jpg|Booker T. Washington Boulevard is the main drive into the campus of Tuskegee University
File:Tuskegee University grounds.jpg|Tuskegee University's campus has a park like setting and features many large green areas
File:Tuskegee College of Veterinary Medicine Williams Bowie Hall.JPG|College of Veterinary Medicine Williams Bowie Hall
File:Tuskegee football game -Alumni Bowl.JPG|Tuskegee football game
File:Tuskegee University main entrance.jpg|Main entrance to the campus
File:Tuskegee University -campus sidewalk.JPG|A scenic campus corridor
File:Tuskegee_Chapel_Interior_Photo.jpg|Interior view of the Tuskegee Chapel
File:Fall on the campus of Tuskegee.JPG|Fall at Tuskegee University
File:George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee University.JPG|George Washington Carver Museum
File:Hollis Burke Frissell Library.jpg|The Main Library, Hollis Burke Frissell now known as the Ford Motor Company Library/Learning Resource Center
File:Tuskegee_University_campus_banners.jpg|Campus banners
File:Tuskegee_College_of_Business_Exterior.jpg|Andrew F. Brimmer College of Business and Information Sciences
File:Tuskegee_James_Center_Arena_Exterior.jpg|Daniel "Chappie" James Center
File:Tuskegee_James_Center_Arena_Interior.JPG|Daniel "Chappie" James Center -Tuskegee basketball pre-game warm-up
File:Tuskegee_James_Center_Basketball_Game_Interior.jpg|Daniel "Chappie" James Center basketball game
File:Tuskegee_University_view_of_valley.JPG|Tuskegee University campus partial view of the "Valley" and the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center
File:Tuskegee_University_I-85_Exit.JPG|I-85 exit for Tuskegee University
</gallery>

==Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center==
[[File:Tuskegee University Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center.jpg|thumb|right|The Tuskegee University Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center]]
The Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center at the renovated Dorothy Hall (built 1901) was established in 1994 on the campus of Tuskegee University by the [[W.K. Kellogg Foundation]]. The Kellogg Conference Center offers multimedia meeting rooms, as well as a 300-seat auditorium and a ballroom that accommodates up to 350 guests. Students studying [[Hospitality Management]] within the [[Andrew F. Brimmer]] College of Business and Information Science & [[Dietetics]] students within the Department of Food and Nutrition Science are able to receive hands on experience at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center. The Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center is the only center at a historically black university; there are only 11 worldwide. Other Kellogg Conference Centers in the United States are located at: [[Michigan State University]], [[Gallaudet University]] and the [[California State Polytechnic University, Pomona]] (Cal Poly Pomona).{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed for this paragraph|date=January 2022}}

==Academics==
{| class="wikitable floatright sortable collapsible"; text-align:right; font-size:80%;"
|+ style="font-size:90%" |Undergraduate demographics as of Fall 2023<ref>{{cite web |title= Tuskegee University|url=https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?102377-Tuskegee-University|website=College Scorecard |publisher=[[United States Department of Education]] |access-date=June 20, 2025 }}</ref>
|-
! Race and ethnicity
! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Total
|-
| [[African Americans|Black]]
|align=right| {{bartable|92|%|2||background:purple}}
|-
| [[Multiracial Americans|Two or more races]]
|align=right| {{bartable|4|%|2||background:violet}}
|-
| Unknown
|align=right| {{bartable|3|%|2||background:grey}}
|-
| [[Non-Hispanic whites|White]]
|align=right| {{bartable|1|%|2||background:cyan}}
|-
! colspan="4" data-sort-type=number |[[Economic diversity]]
|-
| [[American lower class|Low-income]]{{efn|The percentage of students who received an income-based federal [[Pell grant]] intended for low-income students.}}
|align=right| {{bartable|53|%|2||background:red}}
|-
| [[Affluence in the United States|Affluent]]{{efn|The percentage of students who are a part of the [[American middle class]] at the bare minimum.}}
|align=right| {{bartable|47|%|2||background:black}}
|}

[[File:Tuskegee University campus.jpg|thumb|White Hall bell tower]]
The academic programs are organized into five colleges and two schools: (1) The College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Sciences; (2) The College of Arts and Sciences; (3) The Brimmer College of Business and Information Science; (4) The College of Engineering; (5) The College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health; (6), The Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science; and (7) The School of Education.

Tuskegee houses an undergraduate [[Honors College|honors program]] for qualified rising sophomores with at least a cumulative 3.2 GPA.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tuskegee.edu/honors_program.aspx|title=Honors Program – Tuskegee University|access-date=April 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416214903/http://www.tuskegee.edu/honors_program.aspx|archive-date=April 16, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Tuskegee University is accredited by the [[Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges]] to award Baccalaureate, Master's, Doctorate, and professional degrees. The following academic programs are accredited by national agencies: Architecture, Business, Education, Engineering, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work, and Veterinary Medicine.

Tuskegee University is the only Historically Black University to offer the [[Doctor of Veterinary Medicine]] (D.V.M.); its School of Veterinary Medicine was established in 1944. The school is fully accredited by the Council on Education of the [[American Veterinary Medical Association]] (AVMA). About 75% of the nation's African-American veterinarians graduated from Tuskegee's program.<ref>{{cite web |title=Black History Month: Celebrating Diversity » Black History Month » College of Veterinary Medicine » University of Florida |url=https://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/about-the-college/diversity-inclusion/black-history-month/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218150309/https://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/about-the-college/diversity-inclusion/black-history-month/ |archive-date=February 18, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://uncf.org/member-colleges/tuskegee-university |title=Tuskegee University}}</ref>

[[File:Tuskegee University's College of Engineering -Luther H. Foster Hall.jpg|thumb|Luther H. Foster Hall, College of Engineering]]

Tuskegee University offers several engineering degree programs all with [[ABET]] accreditation. The Aerospace Science Engineering department was established in 1983. Tuskegee University is the first and only [[Historically black colleges and universities|Historically Black University]] to offer an accredited B.S. degree in [[Aerospace Engineering]]. The Mechanical Engineering Department was established in 1954 and the Chemical Engineering Department began in 1977; The Department of Electrical Engineering is the largest of five departments within the College of Engineering. The program is accredited by EAC/[[ABET]] (Engineering Accreditation Commission/Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology) and the [[Southern Association of Colleges and Schools]].

The Tuskegee University [[Andrew F. Brimmer]] College of Business and Information Science is fully accredited by the [[Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business]] (AACSB-International).

The school of Nursing was established as the Tuskegee Institute Training School of Nurses and registered with the Alabama State board of Nursing, September 1892 under the auspices of the [[John A. Andrew]] Memorial Hospital. In 1948 the university began its baccalaureate program in Nursing; becoming the first nursing program in the state of Alabama. The Nursing department holds full accreditation from the [[National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission]] and is approved by the Alabama State Board of Nursing.

[[File:Tuskegee School of Nursing -Basil O'Connor Hall.jpg|thumb|Basil O'Connor Hall houses the School of Nursing, the first baccalaureate Nursing program in Alabama.]]

The [[Occupational Therapy]] program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the [[American Occupational Therapy Association]]. The Clinical Laboratory Science Program is accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. (NAACLS)

[[File:Willcox Hall -Tuskegee University Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science.jpg|thumb|Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science]]

Tuskegee University began offering certificates in [[Architecture]] under the Division of Mechanical Industries in 1893. The 4-year curriculum in architecture leading to the Bachelor of Science degree was initiated in 1957 and the professional 6-year program in 1965. The Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture offers two professional programs: Architecture, and Construction Science and Management. The 5-year Bachelor of Architecture program is fully accredited by the [[National Architectural Accrediting Board]] (NAAB). Graduates of the program are qualified to become registered architects.

In 2019, Tuskegee signed a partnership with the [[Ross University School of Medicine]] to help redress diversity shortages in the medical field. Qualified Tuskegee students will automatically gain admissions into the medical school with a tuition-free first semester.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/news/ross-university-school-of-medicine-and-tuskegee-partner-to-address-physician-diversity-in-the-us|title=Ross University School of Medicine and Tuskegee partner to address physician diversity in the U.S. &#124; Tuskegee University|website=www.tuskegee.edu}}</ref>

In 2020, Tuskegee established a strategic partnership with the [[Cumberland School of Law]] that will allow Tuskegee students to receive a bachelor's degree and [[Juris Doctor]] degree in six years as opposed to the traditional seven.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/news/tuskegee-university-enters-new-partnership-with-samford-universitys-cumberland-school-of-law |title=Tuskegee University Enters New Partnership with Samford University's Cumberland School of Law &#124; Tuskegee University}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.samford.edu/cumberlandlaw/news/2020/Cumberland-School-of-Law-Partners-with-Tuskegee-University-for-Accelerated-Program |title=Cumberland School of Law Partners with Tuskegee University for Accelerated Program}}</ref>

===Reputation and rankings===
''[[U.S. News & World Report]]'' places Tuskegee 3rd out of 79 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in their 2022 rankings.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/hbcu |title=Historically Black Colleges and Universities |magazine=U.S. News & World Report |access-date=September 26, 2020}}</ref> ''U.S. News & World Report'' also rated Tuskegee 20th "Best Regional College in the South" for 2021 out of 134 schools evaluated.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-south |title=Best Regional Universities South Rankings |magazine=U.S. News & World Report |access-date=September 26, 2020}}</ref> Tuskegee is ranked 109th among 614 master's universities (which award a significant number of master's degrees but few or no doctoral degrees) in the U.S. according to the ''[[Washington Monthly]]'' 2020 rankings, which rate schools' contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020college-guide/masters |title=2020 Master's University Rankings |magazine=Washington Monthly |date=August 28, 2020 |access-date=September 2, 2020}}</ref>

===National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care===
National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care is the nation's first [[bioethics]] center devoted to engaging the sciences, humanities, law and religious faiths in the exploration of the core moral issues which underlie research and medical treatment of African Americans and other under-served people. The official launching of the Center took place two years after President [[Bill Clinton]]'s apology to the nation, the survivors of the [[Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male|Syphilis Study]], Tuskegee University, and Tuskegee/[[Macon County, Alabama]] for the U.S. Public Health Service medical experiment (1932–1972), where 399 poor—and mostly illiterate—African American sharecroppers became part of a study on non-treating and natural history of syphilis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/category.asp?C=35026&nav=menu200_14/National|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212093837/http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/category.asp?C=35026&nav=menu200_14%2FNational|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 12, 2009|title=Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care|access-date=August 30, 2018}}</ref> The center houses the Bioethics Honors Program available to undergraduate students interested in bioethics.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 3, 2019 |title=A Message from the National Bioethics Center for Research in Health Care |url=https://www.voicesforfathers.org/newsletter/2019/1/22/xdz2buye1w3d4podc02cjvo4fghusv-ztbzg-az369 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416161946/https://www.voicesforfathers.org/newsletter/2019/1/22/xdz2buye1w3d4podc02cjvo4fghusv-ztbzg-az369 |archive-date=April 16, 2023 |access-date=December 17, 2024 |website=voicesforfathers.org}}</ref>

==Athletics==
{{main|Tuskegee Golden Tigers}}
Tuskegee is a member of the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA) [[NCAA Division II|Division II]] and competes within the [[Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference]] (SIAC). The university has a total of 10 varsity sports teams, five men's teams called the "Golden Tigers", and five women's teams called the "Tigerettes".

Tuskegee's Men's Basketball won the 2014 SIAC Championship and the 2014 NCAA Division South Region Championship. The Golden Tigers also made it to the Elite Eight during the [[2014 NCAA Men's Division II basketball tournament]]. Tuskegee's Women's Softball won the 2014 SIAC Championship.

The Tuskegee Department of Athletics sponsors the following sports:
{{col-float-begin}}
'''Men's athletic teams'''
* [[College baseball|Baseball]]
* [[College basketball|Basketball]]
* [[Track and field|Track and Field/Cross Country]]
* [[American football|Football]]
* [[Tennis]]
{{col-float-break}}
'''Women's athletic teams'''
* [[College basketball|Basketball]]
* [[Track and field|Track and Field/Cross Country]]
* [[Softball]]
* [[Tennis]]
* [[Volleyball]]
{{col-float-end}}

===Football===
{{main|Tuskegee Golden Tigers football}}
[[File:Cleveland Leigh Abbott Memorial Alumni -Tuskegee University.JPG|thumb|right|Tuskegee University's historic Cleveland Leigh Abbott Memorial Alumni Stadium, completed 1924. The stadium was the first of its kind to be built at any HBCU in the south.]]
The Tuskegee University football team has won 29 SIAC championships (the most in SIAC history). As of 2013 the Golden Tigers continue to be the most successful HBCU with 652 wins.

In 2013 Tuskegee opted not to renew its contract to face rival [[Alabama State University]] ([[NCAA Division I|Division I]] FCS) in the [[Turkey Day Classic]], the oldest black college football classic in the country. Instead, after going 10–2 the Golden Tigers made their first playoff appearance in school history for the 2013 NCAA Division II Football Championship, for which they had qualified in the past but could not participate due to the Turkey Day Classic. Tuskegee competed against the [[University of North Alabama]] in the first round of the playoffs, but lost 30–27.
Tuskegee won the 2014 SIAC Football Championship and advanced to the first round of the NCAA Division II football playoffs with a loss of 20–17 to [[University of West Georgia]].

===Baseball===
The [[baseball]] program has won thirteen SIAC championships and has produced several professional players, including [[Major League Baseball|big-leaguers]] [[Leon Wagner]], [[Ken Howell]], [[Alan Mills (baseball)|Alan Mills]] and [[Roy Lee Jackson]].

===Basketball===

Tuskegee won the 2013–14 SIAC Championship and advanced to the 2014 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament. Tuskegee won the NCAA Division II South Regional Championship by defeating [[Delta State University]] 80–59.
The Golden Tigers fell to No. 1-ranked Metro State ([[Metropolitan State University of Denver]]), 106–87, in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II tournament at Ford Center, in [[Evansville, Indiana]].

===Track and field===
{{see also|List of NCAA schools with the most Division I national championships}}
Track began (Men and Women) at Tuskegee in 1916. The first Tuskegee Relays and Meet was held on May 7, 1927; it was the oldest African American relay meet.

The Tuskegee women's team won the championship of the [[Amateur Athletic Union]] national senior outdoor meet for all athletes 14 times in 1937–1942 and 1944–1951. The team likewise won the AAU national indoor championship four times in 1941, 1945, 1946 and 1948.<ref>{{cite book |title=American Women's Track and Field – A History, 1895 through 1980 |first=Louise Mead |last=Tricard |publisher=McFarland & Co., Inc. |location=Jefferson, NC |year=1996}}</ref>

Tuskegee's [[Alice Coachman]] was the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in any sport, at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. [[Iram Lewis]], a Tuskegee graduate of architecture, is an Olympian relay runner who competed for the Bahamas.

==The Marching Crimson Piper Band==
The Marching Crimson Piper Band (MCP) is one of the oldest HBCU marching bands in the nation, having been founded in 1883. Since its inception, the band has performed at TU athletic events, nationally televised shows, NFL games, the Honda Battle of the Bands, Mardi Gras parades, and many other notable events. MCP is accompanied by the Crimson Piperettes (danceline) and Twirling Divas.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tuskegee.edu/student-life/student-organizations/band#:~:text=For%20nearly%20100%20years%2C%20the,Crosley%20Field%20(Cincinnati) | title=Band &#124; Tuskegee University }}</ref>

==Notable faculty and staff==
<!-- Alphabetical order by surname -->
{{FacultyStart}}
{{Faculty|name=[[J. Pius Barbour]]|dept=Theology<br />(1919–1921)|nota=Executive director of the National Baptist Association, editor of the National Baptist Voice, mentor to [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]|ref=<ref name=kinginstitute>{{cite web |title=Barbour, Joseph Pius |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/barbour-josephus-pius |website=www.kinginstitute.stanford.edu |date=April 25, 2017 |access-date=July 11, 2018}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[C. M. Battey]]|dept=Photography<br /> (1916–1927)|nota=Photographer who made portraits of many black leaders and shot covers for ''The Crisis'' magazine|ref=}}
{{Faculty|name=[[George Ruffin Bridgeforth]]|dept=Agriculture<br>(1902–1918) |nota=Director of agricultural operations and instruction at Tuskegee, first Black graduate from the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] (1901), feuded with George Washington Carver at Tuskegee|ref=<ref>{{Cite book |last=McMurry |first=Linda O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlMkIgwg9KEC |title=George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-19-503205-5 |location=New York |pages=59–161 |language=en-US}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[James Nathan Calloway]]|dept= Agriculture|nota=Established the Institute's Tuskegee-Togo Cotton Scheme|ref=<ref>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Radcliffe|first=Kandahl L. |date=1998|title= The Tuskegee-Togo Cotton Scheme, 1900-1909|publisher=University of California, Los Angeles|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/mpact/mpact.php?op=show_tree&id=7251}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Nathaniel Oglesby Calloway]]|dept= Chemistry|nota=1930 [[Iowa State University]] alumni, first African-American to receive PhD}}
{{Alum|name=[[George Washington Carver]]|dept=|nota=African American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor whose studies and teaching revolutionized agriculture in the Southern United States|ref=}}
{{Faculty|name=[[William V. Chambliss]]|dept=Agriculture<br />(1890s–1920s)|nota=[[Planter class|Planter]], dairy farmer, businessperson, teacher |ref=<ref name="The New York Age-1928">{{Cite news |date=June 23, 1928 |title=William V. Chambliss, Wealthy Alabaman Dies Near Tuskegee Institute |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-obituary-for-william-v/56319504/ |work=[[The New York Age]] |pages=7 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> }}
{{Faculty|name=[[Samuel E. Courtney]]|dept=Mathematics<br />(1885–1888)|nota=physician in Boston, founding member of the [[National Negro Business League]], served two terms on the [[Boston School Committee]] |ref=<ref name="Staples-2024">{{Cite web |last=Staples |first=Cynthia |date=July 9, 2024 |title=From the Historian: Samuel E. Courtney |url=https://trinitychurchboston.org/from-the-historian-samuel-e-courtney/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250719215332/https://trinitychurchboston.org/from-the-historian-samuel-e-courtney/ |archive-date=July 19, 2025 |access-date=2025-09-11 |website=Trinity Church |language=en-US}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Louis Edwin Fry Sr.]]|dept=Architecture<br /> (1935–1940)|nota=Architect and professor; appointed as the first chair of the architecture department at Tuskegee Institute, a newly formed department|ref=<ref name="Wilson">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OaSAgAAQBAJ |title=African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95629-5 |pages=217–221 |language=en |chapter=Louis Edwin Fry Sr. (1903–2000)}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[P. H. Polk]]|dept=Photography<br /> (1933–1938)|nota=Photographer who documented working class African Americans, ex-slaves, and black leaders; also served as the institute's official photographer for four decades.|ref=}}
{{Faculty|name=[[William Augustus Hazel]]|dept=Architecture|nota=Architect, stained glass artist, educator, academic administrator, and civil rights activist|ref=<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OaSAgAAQBAJ |title=African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95629-5 |pages=273–278 |language=en |chapter=William Augustus Hazel}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[G. David Houston]]|dept=|nota=Professor of English at Howard University|ref=}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Daniel James Jr.|General Daniel "Chappie" James]]|dept=|nota=Fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, who in 1975 became the first African American to reach the rank of four-star General|ref=}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Ruth Logan Roberts]]|dept=Physical education|nota=Suffragist, YWCA leader on national level, activist for social and women's health issues, and host of a salon in Harlem|ref=<ref name="factsonfile">{{cite web |last=Alexander |first=Adele Logan |url=http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE01&iPin=AFEBW0637&SingleRecord=True |title=Roberts, Ruth Logan |work=Religion and Community. Facts On File, 1997. African-American History Online |access-date=February 6, 2016}} Sourced from {{cite book |year=1997 |editor1-last=Hine |editor1-first=Darlene Clark |editor1-link=Darlene Clark Hine |editor2-last=Thompson |editor2-first=Kathleen |editor2-link=Kathleen Thompson |title=Facts on File encyclopedia of Black women in America |location=New York, NY |publisher=[[Facts on File]] |isbn=9780816034246 |oclc=906768602}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Lamina Sankoh]]|dept=|nota=Early Sierra Leonean nationalist politician who taught at Tuskegee in the late 1920s|ref=}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Robert Robinson Taylor]]|dept=Trades Department|nota=First African American graduate of [[MIT]], architect for most of the Tuskegee campus buildings and founder of trades programs, served as second in command to Tuskegee's founder and first president, Dr. Booker T. Washington|ref=<ref name="encyclopedia">[[Ellen Weiss (academic)|Ellen Weiss]], [http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3252 Robert Robinson Taylor], [[Encyclopedia of Alabama]]</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Andrew P. Torrence]]|dept=|nota=President of [[Tennessee State University]] (1968-1974); executive vice president and provost of Tuskegee University (1974-1980)|ref=<ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Andrew Torrence, 3rd TSU President, Dies|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/111911299/?terms=%22Andrew%2BP.%2BTorrence%22|work=The Tennessean|date=June 12, 1980|pages=6; 18|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration }}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Booker T. Washington]]|dept= Appointed President<br /> (1881–1915)|nota=First principal of the university|ref=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=1070392&nav=menu200_2|title=Tuskegee University|work=tuskegee.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820002246/http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=1070392&nav=menu200_2|archive-date=August 20, 2009}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Josephine Turpin Washington]]|dept= Mathematics|nota=1886 [[Howard University]] alumni, early writer on civil rights topics|ref=<ref name="AAPE">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y80OAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22dr+samuel++h+h+washington%22&pg=PA393 |title=The Afro-American Press and Its Editors |date=1891 |pages=393–396 |access-date=September 10, 2022 |last=Penn |first=Irvine Garland |publisher=Willey & Company |isbn=9780598582683}}</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Deborah Wolfe]]|dept= Education|nota=1937 [[New Jersey City University]] alumni, 1938 and 1945 [[Columbia University]] alumni, esteemed educator and minister, Education Chief of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor|ref=<ref name="KDP">Van Hover, Stephanie. (2005). [https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ683521.pdf Deborah Partridge Wolfe: Biography of a Kappa Delta Pi Laureate]. The Educational Forum, V.69. 264–275.</ref>}}
{{Faculty|name=[[Donald F. White]] |dept=Architecture<br /> (1934–1938) |nota=Canadian-born American architect and engineer, of African descent. He was the first black architect registered in the states of Alabama (in 1935) and Michigan (in 1939). |ref=<ref name="DSWilson">{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OaSAgAAQBAJ |title=African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95629-5 |pages=600–604 |chapter=Donald Frank White (1908–2002)}}</ref>}}
{{FacultyEnd}}

==Notable alumni==
{{alumni|date=January 2018}}
{{AlumniStart}}
{{Alum|name=[[Chalmers Archer]]|year=1972|nota=Author of "Growing Up Black in Mississippi" and "Green Berets in the Vanguard"}}
{{Alum|name=[[Claude Albert Barnett]]|year=1906 |nota=Founder of the [[Associated Negro Press]]|ref=<ref>{{cite web|title=Claude A. Barnett Collection of Visual Materials|url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/bmrc/view.php?eadid=BMRC.CHM.BARNETT.SURVEY|access-date=August 21, 2021|website=www.lib.uchicago.edu}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Chokwe Antar Lumumba]]|year=2005 |nota=53rd mayor of [[Jackson, Mississippi]]|ref=<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/chokweantarlumumba/ |title=Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba |website=JFP |access-date=September 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023074836/https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/chokweantarlumumba/ |archive-date=October 23, 2017}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Iceberg Slim|Robert Beck]]|year= |nota=1970s writer known as [[Iceberg Slim]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Bradford Bennett]]|year= |nota=Negro League outfielder/second baseman|ref=<ref>News-Messenger staff (June 1, 1942). [https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=77711963 "Black Yanks Claim Game's Best Infield"]. ''The Fremont News-Messenger''. p.&nbsp;9. Retrieved May 14, 2021.</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Charles Sumner Bowman]] |year=1898 |nota=Architect, educator and director at [[Western University (Kansas)|Western University]] |ref=<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OaSAgAAQBAJ |title=African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95629-5 |pages=68–70 |chapter=Charles Sumner Bowman}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Amelia Boynton|Amelia Boynton Robinson]]|year=1927 |nota=International civil and human rights activist, the first woman from Alabama to run for United States Congress in 1964 (affectionately known as "Queen Mother Amelia"), best known for her role in the "[[Bloody Sunday (1965)|Bloody Sunday]]" event in [[Selma, Alabama]] on March 7, 1965|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Albert Grant Brown]] |year= |nota=Architect and educator at [[West Virginia Colored Institute]] (now West Virginia State University) |ref=<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5r5cXC67igC |title=African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=December 12, 2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-49312-0 |pages=97–100 |chapter=Albert Grant Brown}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[William A. Campbell (Tuskegee Airman)|William A. Campbell]]|year=1937 |nota=A member of the Tuskegee Airmen who rose to the rank of Colonel|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Charles William Carpenter]]|year=1909 |nota=Baptist minister and civil rights activist|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Carl Henry Clerk]]|year=1925 |nota=Gold Coast educator, administrator, journalist, editor, Presbyterian minister and fourth Synod Clerk, Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Alice Coachman|Alice Marie Coachman]]|year=1942 |nota=Athlete who specialized in high jump, and was the first black woman to win an [[Olympic gold medal]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[The Commodores]]|year= |nota=1970s R&B band whose members met while attending Tuskegee|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[George Williamson Crawford]]|year= |nota=Lawyer and city official in New Haven, Connecticut|ref=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgecrawfordblackbar.org/about/|title=George W. Crawford Black Bar Association|access-date=January 8, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204161601/http://www.georgecrawfordblackbar.org/about/|archive-date=December 4, 2010}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Leon Crenshaw]]|year= |nota=Former [[NFL]] player|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=General [[Oliver W. Dillard]]|year= |nota=Retired Army major general, [[Silver Star]] recipient in Korea – 1950|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Milton C. Davis]]|year=1971 |nota=Lawyer who researched and advocated for the pardon of Clarence Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro Boy|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Cecile Hoover Edwards]]|year=B.A. 1946, M.A. 1947 |nota=Nutritional researcher and government consultant|ref=<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/blackwomenscient00warr|url-access=registration|title=Black Women Scientists in the United States|first=Wini|last=Warren|year=1999|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253336031|pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackwomenscient00warr/page/88 88]–92}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Ralph Ellison]]|year= |nota=Scholar, author of ''[[Invisible Man]]''|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Chauncey Eskridge]]|year=1939 |nota=Lawyer for [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Muhammad Ali]]|ref=<ref name=chicago>{{cite news |last=Heise |first=Kenan |title=Chuancey Eskridge, 70, close ally of Rev. King |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-01-19-8803230464-story.html |access-date=July 4, 2019 |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 19, 1988}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Vera King Farris]]|year=1959|nota=President of [[Stockton University|Richard Stockton College of New Jersey]] from 1983–2003|ref=<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/education/press/article_fd19b764-dc38-11de-ad35-001cc4c03286.html |title=Vera King Farris, Stockton college's longest-serving president, dies after short illness – pressofAtlanticCity.com: Education |publisher=pressofAtlanticCity.com |date=November 29, 2009 |access-date=March 1, 2012}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Isaac Fisher (educator)|Isaac Fisher]]|year=1898 |nota= Educator, taught at [[Hampton University]] and [[Fisk University]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Drayton Florence]] |year=2003 |nota=NFL defensive back |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Lovett Fort-Whiteman]]|year= |nota=Political activist and Comintern functionary |ref=<ref>Tim Tzouliadis, ''The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia''. New York: Penguin Press, 2008; p. 98.</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Manet Harrison Fowler]]|year=1913 |nota=Singer, founder of Mwalimu School in Harlem, president of Texas Association of Negro Musicians|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Al Green (Texas)|Alexander N. Green]]|year= |nota=U.S. Representative from [[Texas's 9th congressional district]] |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Winston C. Hackett]]|year= |nota=First African-American physician in Arizona |ref=<ref name="AI">{{cite web |url=http://azinformant.com/arizona-black-history-and-the-hackett-aldridge-connection/ |title=Arizona Informant |access-date=December 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925132330/http://azinformant.com/arizona-black-history-and-the-hackett-aldridge-connection/ |archive-date=September 25, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="CB">{{cite web |url=http://www.phoenixmag.com/history/color-blind-care.html |title=Color Blind Care |access-date=September 25, 2017 |archive-date=September 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907145532/http://www.phoenixmag.com/History/color-blind-care.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Ken Howell]]|year=1982 |nota=Former [[Major League Baseball]] pitcher |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[William Talbot Handy]]|year= |nota=Methodist minister and district superintendent|ref=<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.la-umc.org/obituary/1547371 |title=Handy, Sr., Dr. William Talbot}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Charlotte Moton Hubbard]]|year=1931 |nota=First black woman to serve as a deputy assistant [[secretary of state]] in the U.S. |ref=<ref>{{cite news |title=Charlotte Hubbard, First Black Woman Deputy Asst. Secretary of State, Dies in Maryland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qj0DAAAAMBAJ&q=%22maceo+hubbard%22+AND+charlotte&pg=PA18 |access-date=March 9, 2021 |work=Jet |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |date=January 9, 1995}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Marvalene Hughes]]|year= |nota=President of [[Dillard University]] |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Daniel James, Jr.|General Daniel "Chappie" James]]|year=1942 |nota=US Air Force Fighter pilot, in 1975 became the first African American to reach the rank of four-star General|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Lonnie Johnson (inventor)]]|year= |nota=Inventor of the [[Super Soaker]], former [[NASA]] aerospace engineer|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Ken Jordan (American football)|Ken Jordan]]|year= |nota=Former NFL player|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Tom Joyner]]|year=1971 |nota=Radio host whose daily program, ''The Tom Joyner Morning Show'', was syndicated across the United States and heard by over 10 million radio listeners.|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[John A. Lankford]]|year= |nota=20th century [[architect]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Marion Mann]]|year=1940 |nota=Former dean of the College of Medicine at [[Howard University]] and US Army Brigadier General (retired)|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Claude McKay]]|year=1912 |nota=[[Jamaica]]n writer and poet, [[Harlem Renaissance]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Marilyn Mosby]]|year=2002 |nota=State's Attorney in Baltimore, MD}}
{{Alum|name=[[Albert Murray (writer)|Albert Murray]]|year=1939 |nota=Literary and jazz critic, novelist, and biographer|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Ray Nagin]]|year=1978 |nota=Former mayor of [[New Orleans, Louisiana]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Dimitri Patterson]]|year= |nota=NFL player |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Ptolemy Reid|Dr. Ptolemy A. Reid]]|year=1955 |nota=[[Prime Minister of Guyana]] (1980–1984)|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Rich Boy]]|year= |nota=Rapper|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Lionel Richie]]|year=1974 |nota=R&B singer, [[Grammy Award]] winner|ref=<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Lacher-Feldman |first=Jackie |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2614 |title=Lionel Richie |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=July 4, 2022}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Lawrence E. Roberts]]|year= |nota=Member of the [[Tuskegee Airmen]] and a colonel in [[The United States Air Force]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[John Robinson (aviator)]]|year= |nota=Early aviator and colonel in the [[Imperial Ethiopian Air Force]] against Fascist Italy during WWII|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[George C. Royal]]|year=1943 |nota=Microbiologist, was professor emeritus at Howard University|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Roderick Royal]]|year=|nota=President of the [[Birmingham City Council]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Jessica A. Scoffield]]|year=2002 |nota=Microbiologist and professor at the [[University of Alabama at Birmingham]]|ref=<ref>{{cite web |date=June 27, 2019|title=UAB Prof. Jessica Scoffield Becomes First Recipient of Notable Fellowship|url=https://www.birminghamtimes.com/2019/06/uab-prof-jessica-scoffield-becomes-first-recipient-of-notable-fellowship/|access-date=June 22, 2020|website=The Birmingham Times|language=en-US}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Betty Shabazz]]|year= |nota=Wife of [[Malcolm X]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Jake Simmons Jr.]]|year=1919 |nota=Oil broker and civil rights advocate|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Roscoe Simmons]]|year=1899 |nota=Columnist for the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Danielle Spencer (American actress)|Danielle Spencer]]|year= |nota=Television actress best known as Dee from the 1970s TV show ''[[What's Happening!!]]''|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[McCants Stewart]]|year=1896 |nota=Lawyer, first African American to practice law in Oregon|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[William Townsend (politician)|William Townsend]]|year=1941 |nota=Optometrist, Arkansas state legislator|ref=<ref>{{cite web |last=Besett |first=Cody |date=2002 |title=Dr. William H. Townsend papers, 1962-2005, UALR.MS.0299 |url=https://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/findingaids/id/12616/rec/1 |access-date=December 27, 2023 |website=Center for Arkansas History and Culture, University of Arkansas at Little Rock}}</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Frank Walker (American football)|Frank Walker]]|year= |nota=[[NFL]] defensive back |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Keenen Ivory Wayans]]|year= |nota=Actor, comedian, and television producer|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Alfreda Johnson Webb]]|year=1943 |nota=First African-American woman in the North Carolina General Assembly (1972)|ref=<ref name="Hairston">Hairston, Otis L. Greensboro, NC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Jack Whitten]]|year= |nota= Abstract painter|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[David Wilson (university administrator)|Dr. David Wilson]]|year= |nota=President of [[Morgan State University]]|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Roosevelt Williams (gridiron football)]]|year=2000 |nota=Former NFL player for the [[Chicago Bears]], [[Cleveland Browns]], [[New York Jets]] |ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Ken Woodard]]|year= |nota=former NFL player|ref=}}
{{Alum|name=[[Edward Woolridge]]|year= |nota=Negro League infielder|ref=<ref>Defender staff (April 21, 1928). [https://www.mediafire.com/view/ajwhzls4qtvea9p "Tuskegee Captain, Edward Woolridge"]. ''The Chicago Defender''. p.&nbsp;8. Retrieved July 14, 2021.</ref>}}
{{Alum|name=[[Elizabeth Evelyn Wright]]|year= |nota=Educator and humanitarian, founder of [[Voorhees College]] |ref=}}

{{AlumniEnd}}

== See also ==
* [[List of National Historic Landmarks in Alabama]]
* [[UNCF]]

==Notes==
{{noteslist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Brandon, Dwayne T., Lydia A. Isaac, and Thomas A. LaVeist. "The legacy of Tuskegee and trust in medical care: is Tuskegee responsible for race differences in mistrust of medical care?." ''Journal of the National Medical Association'' 97, no. 7 (2005): 951.
* [[Tim Brooks (television historian)|Tim Brooks]], ''Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919'', 320–327. University of Illinois Press, 2004. Early recordings by the Tuskegee Institute Singers.
* Brown, M. Christopher. "The politics of industrial education: Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee State Normal School, 1880-1915." ''The Negro Educational Review'' 50, no. 3 (1999): 123.
* Buckley, Ingrid A., and Hira Narang. "A Study: Exploring the Feasibility of Developing a Computer Science Online Degree Program at Tuskegee University." ''Higher Education Studies'' 4, no. 3 (2014): 48–57.
* Chandler, Dana R. "Lifting the veil: digitizing Black archives at Tuskegee University." ''The Public Historian'' 40, no. 3 (2018): 232–251.
* Jones, Brian. ''The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History.'' Vol. 2. NYU Press, 2022.
* Jones, Brian P. ''The Tuskegee Revolt: Student Activism, Black Power, and the Legacy of Booker T. Washington.'' City University of New York, 2018.
* Mayes, McKinley. "Status of agricultural research programs at 1890 land-grant institutions and Tuskegee University." In ''A Century of Service'', pp.&nbsp;53–58. Routledge, 2017.
* Sodeke, Stephen Olufemi, and Lauren R. Powell. "Paying tribute to Henrietta lacks at Tuskegee University and at the Virginia Henrietta lacks commission, Richmond, Virginia." ''Journal of health care for the poor and underserved'' 30, no. 4 Suppl (2019): 1.
* Sodeke, Stephen Olufemi. "Tuskegee University experience challenges conventional wisdom: is integrative bioethics practice the new ethics for the public's health?." ''Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved'' 23, no. 4 0 (2012): 15.

==External links==
{{Commons category }}
* {{oweb}}
* [https://goldentigersports.com/ Athletics website]
* [https://www.nps.gov/tuin/index.htm Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site]

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