Notable Alumni and Faculty

Look to your left to see two houses across the street; feel free to walk down to get a closer look or just listen from here. The yellow Dutch Colonial house furthest to the left belonged to James Weldon Johnson. Born in Florida in 1871, Johnson is best known for “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a composition known as the “Negro National Anthem” that was first performed in 1900. Johnson then studied literature at Columbia University and became an early member of the Harlem Renaissance. He also served in diplomatic posts in Venezuela and Nicaragua, becoming the first African American to represent the United States in those countries. 

While abroad, Johnson continued his writing—publishing a novel, The Auto-biography of an Ex-Coloured Man, in 1912. Following his diplomatic service, Johnson returned and joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, and served as the Executive Secretary. In 1930, he retired from the NAACP and accepted a position at Fisk University as a professor of creative writing. A popular teacher and scholar, students often gathered at the Johnson home for discussions. He was killed in a car accident in 1938.

The next house was home to two notable Fisk faculty members. First was William J. Faulkner, who lived here from 1935 to 1947. Faulkner served as Dean of Men from 1934-43 and Dean of the Chapel from 1943-53. An author, folklorist, and Congregational minister, Faulkner was also president of Nashville’s NAACP chapter and on the executive committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith organization prominent in the Civil Rights Movement. The second Fisk faculty member to live here was noted poet, author, and educator of the Harlem Renaissance, Arna Wendell Bontemps. Bontemps came to Fisk after World War II to serve as the head librarian and lived in this home near campus. His friendships with leading artists and writers brought special visits, performances, and lectures to campus, including Langston Hughes. As Fisk’s head librarian, Bontemps enlarged the Special Collections holdings and published anthologies of African-American poetry and folklore while continuing his own writing. He published a book about the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1951 and wrote several young adult biographies of prominent African Americans. He was also an extraordinary poet. Bontemps retired in 1966 and lived at his home on D.B. Todd Blvd. until his death in 1973. 

Finally, the apartment building across the street is the site of the former home of Elmer Imes and Nella Larsen. As you listen to their stories, turn RIGHT and begin walking down Dr. D.B. Todd Blvd. 

Elmer Imes enrolled at Fisk in 1899 and taught for ten years after graduation. He returned to Fisk for a master’s in sociology and completed his PhD in physics at the University of Michigan—the second Black man to do so. His research in spectroscopy laid the groundwork for quantum theory. Imes wrote of Fisk, “The freedom of spirit which has motivated Fisk has been largely responsible for the vitality of that great and good tradition.” In 1918, he moved to New York, where he met Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen, who had attended Fisk Normal School. 

Imes and Larsen married in 1918, though they divorced in 1933 after Imes moved back to Nashville to develop the physics program at Fisk. Nella Larsen’s first novel, Quicksand, was published in 1928 to literary acclaim. The protagonist in the novel shares Larsen’s mixed-race background, and her writing addresses the complexities of race. In 1930, she became the first African American woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship.

From the corner of Jackson St., turn RIGHT onto D.B. Todd Boulevard. When you reach the crosswalk at Albion St., cross D.B. Todd and continue walking in the same direction on the other side of the street (closest to Meharry Medical College.) Stop when you reach the historical marker for Hulda Margaret Lyttle on your left.