In 2016, Charles Barkley marked Black History Month with a daily spotlight on local African-American heroes. Many of them didn’t make it into the history books or even the newspapers of their time. But their stories are inspiring and worth knowing. Here’s another look.
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Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
Lawyer
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
Lawyer
(January 2, 1898 - November 1, 1989)
The first black female lawyer in Pennsylvania, Sadie Alexander was Philly’s assistant city solicitor at a time—the 1930s—when few women of any race held city titles.
Later, she helped author President Harry Truman’s report on civil rights.
Even as a young woman, Alexander knew that education was the key to her success. She was the first black woman to graduate from Penn Law, and the first in the nation to get a Ph.D. in economics (and only the second black female Ph.D. recipient in the country)—two of her five eventual degrees.
“I never looked for anybody to hold the door open for me,” Alexander said. “I knew well that the only way I could get that door open was to knock it down: because I knocked all of them down.”
EDUCATION:
- University of Pennsylvania, B.S. 1918
- University of Pennsylvania, A.M. 1919
- University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D 1921
- University of Pennsylvania, LL.B 1927
- University of Pennsylvania, Hon. LL.D 1974
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- Assistant City Solicitor, Philadelphia 1928-1930, 1934-1938
- Appointed to Truman’s Committee of Human Rights in 1947, coauthoring “To Secure these Rights”
- National Urban League’s “Woman of the Year”
- Philadelphia Human Relations Commissioner 1952-1968
- School District and Penn open elementary school named for Alexander, 2001
FINAL WORD:
While earning an honorary degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974, Alexander was described as: “…an active worker for civil rights, she has been a steady and forceful advocate on the national, state, and municipal scene, reminding people everywhere that freedoms are won not only by idealism but by persistence and will over a long time…”
