


Before the school became Clark Atlanta University, it was known as Clark College in 1869. Atlanta University was actually the nation's first graduate school to award degrees to African Americans, and Clark College was the nation's first four-year liberal arts college to serve African-American students. In 1988 the two consolidated to form what we know now as Clark Atlanta University.
Notable alumni include Federal judge Clarence Cooper; Ralph Abernathy who was a Civil rights activist; Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, former U.S Congressman for Georgia's 4th District; Louis Tompkins Wright, the first black surgeon to head the Department of Surgery at Harlem Hospital in New York City; and many more.