Wendell Phillips Academy High School

Illinois · 42 alumni prominent enough for Wikipedia. Tables below need at least 3 people before a trait can appear.

All of history equally The last decade or two Recent decades The last half-century

The era pills change the weighting: "recent decades" (the default) counts someone who graduated around 2010 far more than someone from 1940.

Prominent alumni

Nat King Cole b. 1919	Herbie Hancock b. 1940	Sam Cooke b. 1931
Gwendolyn Brooks b. 1917	Dinah Washington b. 1924	Polo G b. 1999
Marla Gibbs b. 1931	Steven Williams b. 1949	Ira Murchison b. 1933
Ray Nance b. 1913	Milt Hinton b. 1910	Frances Cress Welsing b. 1935

Occupations

Most common

Occupation	% of its alumni	People
American football player	22.4%	7
basketball player	19.3%	4
singer	18.4%	7
musician	17.5%	8
songwriter	13.7%	3
actor	9.2%	5
jazz musician	8.2%	6
television actor	6.8%	4
pianist	6.5%	4
singer-songwriter	6.5%	4
composer	5.3%	3
baseball player	5.2%	4
businessperson	3.1%	3
journalist	2.8%	3

Most overrepresented

"3×" = this school's noted alumni are three times as likely to have this occupation as noted high-school alumni nationally.

Occupation	× the national rate	People
jazz musician	4.8×	6
pianist	4.2×	4
songwriter	2.4×	3
musician	2.1×	8
singer	1.8×	7
singer-songwriter	1.7×	4

Awards

Most common

Award	% of its alumni	People
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame	4.9%	3
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame	4.1%	3

Most overrepresented

"3×" = this school's noted alumni are three times as likely to have this award as noted high-school alumni nationally.

Award	× the national rate	People
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame	18.4×	3
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame	3.6×	3

Sports

Most common

Sport	% of its alumni	People
American football	21.9%	6
basketball	19.9%	5
baseball	4.6%	3

Most overrepresented

"3×" = this school's noted alumni are three times as likely to have this sport as noted high-school alumni nationally.

Sport	× the national rate	People

Notes for the methodologically curious. Shares and multiples use recency weighting (people who came of age recently count more, per the era pills) and shrinkage: each school gets 20 virtual alumni at national rates, so a school with 4 noted alumni can't post a 200× multiple. High-school data on Wikidata is far sparser than college data — a missing trait usually means Wikipedia editors didn't record it, not that no alumnus has it.