Wiley College - Notable Alumni

Notable Alumni

Name Class year Notability References
R. E. Brown 1899 organized the first male quartet, first brass band and first football team at Wiley. He started the first teacher-training school for African Americans in Louisiana.
Lois Towles 1933 internationally renown concert pianist.
Henrietta Bell Wells the first female member of the debate team at historically black Wiley College in Texas – the subject of the 2007 movie, “The Great Debaters”
Thelma Dewitty 1941 first African American to teach in the Seattle Public Schools
James L. Farmer, Jr. 1938 U.S. civil rights leader
Conrad O. Johnson Music educator
Henry Cecil McBay Chemist and college professor
Bill Spiller African-American golfer who challenged the segregationist policies of the PGA
Heman Marion Sweatt Plaintiff in U.S. Supreme Court case, Sweatt v. Painter (1950); helped to found Texas Southern University
Lee Wilder Thomas Prominent African-American businessman in the oil industry
James Wheaton 1945 Actor, director and educator
Jesse J. Williams 1970 Chemical Engineer, Theologian
Richard Williams Jazz trumpeter
Floyd Iglehart 1958 NFL
George Kinney 1965 NFL
Mike Lewis 1980 NFL
Lee Thomas 1973 NFL
Kelton Winston 1968 NFL

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