Sadie Alexander | All You Need To Know

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Sadie Alexander All You Need To Know
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Introduction

• Sadie Alexander was a Black American economist,
  lawyer, and civil rights activist who lived in
  the 20th century. She did many things for the
  first time as a Black woman.

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How did Sadie Alexander live?

• Sadie Tanner Mossler Alexander broke down walls
  her whole life. She came into the world at the
  end of the 19th century. She was the first black
  person in the United States to get a Ph.D. in
  economics. She was also the second woman of
  African descent to get a Ph.D., getting hers
  right after the first one.
• Alexander was also the first woman of African
  descent to finish law school at the University of
  Pennsylvania and be admitted to the Pennsylvania
  bar. She used her skills to fight for Black
  Americans civil rights and served on President
  Harry Trumans Committee on Civil Rights.
  President Jimmy Carter also asked her to serve on
  the White House Conference on Aging.

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Early Life

• In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sadie Tanner
  Mossell was born to Aaron A. Mossell and Mary
  Tanner Mossell on January 2, 1898.

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School Life

• Alexanders father left the family when she was a
  baby, so she grew up without him. She lived in
  both Philadelphia Washington, D.C., when she
  was a child. In 1915, Alexander graduated from
  what was then called M Street High School in
  Washington, DC, but is now called Dunbar High
  School.

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University of Pennsylvania

• Alexanders next step was to sign up for the
  School of Education at the University of
  Pennsylvania. There, her white classmates made
  fun of her and told her she couldnt borrow books
  from the library. But racism didnt stop her from
  getting a high grade and graduating in 1918.
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Family

• Alexander came from a family with a lot going for
  it. Bishop Benjamin Tucker was a leader in the
  African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was her
  grandfather. Henry Ossawa Tanner, one uncle,
  became a well-known painter.
• Nathan F. Mossell, another uncle, was the first
  person to get a degree in medicine from the
  University of Pennsylvania. He was a surgeon and
  helped start the hospital that would become
  Mercy-Douglass.

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Economics Ph. D.s and Jobs

• Alexander stayed at the University of
  Pennsylvania after getting her bachelors degree
  to study economics. In 1919, she got her masters
  degree, and in 1921, she got her Ph.D. in
  economics. Alexander was the first Black American
  to get a Ph.D. in economics, and the second a
  black woman will get a doctorate in any subject.

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Life Insurance Company

• Alexander couldnt get a challenging job in
  economics because of racism and sexism. From 1921
  to 1923, she worked for the North Carolina Mutual
  Life Insurance Company as an assistant actuary.

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Education in the Law and Firsts

• Alexander decided to go to law school because he
  wanted to use the courts and laws to help Black
  Americans get into places that were closed to
  them. In 1924, she went to law school at the
  University of Pennsylvania. By going to this
  school, she was doing what her father had done.
  Alexanders father was the first Black person to
  graduate from this school.

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Marriage

• Alexander got married to lawyer Raymond Pace
  Alexander in 1923, and they had two children.
  Mary Elizabeth and Rae Pace are their two
  daughters.

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Practice Law in Pennsylvania

• Alexander could join the law review, even though
  a dean didnt want her to. She was the earliest
  Black woman to finish law school in 1927. Next,
  Alexander became the first Black woman to get a
  license to practice law in Pennsylvania.

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Commission on Human Relations

• Alexander started the Commission on Human
  Relations of the City of Philadelphia with other
  people in 1951. From 1952 to 1968, she was on the
  commission.

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National Urban League

• Alexander worked with the American Civil
  Liberties Union, Americans for Democratic Action
  and the National Urban League to fight for civil
  rights. Alexander gave Martin Luther King Jr. a
  copy of the Freedom Bell after he drove a social
  equality walk from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama
  in 1965.

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Economic Subjugation of the Negroes

• Alexander did not work as an economist, but she
  still used what she knew about the field. She
  thought that a full-employment program backed by
  the government was the only way to stop the
  economic subjugation of the Negroes and of the
  great masses of white labor. Alexander thought
  that if everyone had a job, white people wouldnt
  be able to treat Black workers unfairly.

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Job in the Law

• Alexander was an expert in estate and family law
  in addition to her work on civil rights. She was
  the associate city specialist of Philadelphia
  twice, the first time right after she got her law
  degree and the second time in the 1930s.
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Start of the law firm

• Alexander started the law firm, Alexander
  Alexander, with her husband. In 1959, when her
  husband was made a judge, she started her own
  practice. In 1976, Atkinson, Myers, and Archie
  hired her to be their lawyer. In 1982, she gave
  up work.

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Accomplishments

• Alexander was the first national president of a
  group for Black women called Delta Sigma Theta.
  From 1943 to 1947, she was the secretary of the
  National Bar Association. She was the most
  important woman in the group to get this job.

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Woman of the Year

• In 1948, the National Urban Leagues comic book
  Negro Heroes was named Alexander Woman of the
  Year. In 1979, Alexander was put in charge of the
  White House Conference on Aging by President
  Carter.

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Death

• Alexander passed away on November 1, 1989, in a
  spot for more seasoned individuals in
  Philadelphia. She had pneumonia and Alzheimers
  at the same time. Alexanders name was given to
  the group in his honor.
• The group, which was started by two Black women
  in 2018, encourages other Black women to go into
  data-driven fields like economics and statistics.