Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Sadie Tanner Mossell receiving Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania
Born January 2, 1898 (1898-01-02)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  United States
Died November 1, 1989 (1989-12) (aged 91)
Occupation Lawyer; first national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated; Civil Rights activist
Spouse Raymond Pace Alexander
Children Mary Elizabeth Alexander and Rae Pace Alexander

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, born Sarah Tanner Mossell (January 2, 1898 – November 1, 1989), was the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in the United States, the first woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.[1]

Contents

Early life

She was born as Sarah Tanner Mossell on January 2, 1898 in Philadelphia to Aaron Albert Mossell II and Mary Louisa Tanner (1867-?). Her siblings include Aaron Albert Mossell III (1893–1975), who became a pharmacist; and Elizabeth Mossell (1894–1975), who became a Dean of Women at Virginia State College.[2] Her maternal grandfather was Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835–1923), a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and editor of the Christian Recorder.[2]

Mossell's father was the first African American to graduate from University of Pennsylvania Law School, and his brother, Nathan Francis Mossell (1856–1946), was the first African American physician to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania.[2]

Education

During her high school years, Mossell lived in Washington, DC with her uncle, Lewis Baxter Moore, who was dean at Howard University. She attended the academic high school, the M Street School, now known as Dunbar High School, graduating in 1915.[2][3]

Mossell returned to Philadelphia to study at the School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1918. She pursued graduate work in economics, also at the University of Pennsylvania, earning her master's in 1919. Awarded the Francis Sergeant Pepper fellowship, she was able to continue her studies and in 1921 became the first African American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D.[4] She was the first African-American woman admitted to the University of Pennsylvania Law School.[4] In 1927, she was its first African-American woman graduate, and the first to be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar.[2]

Career

Finding it difficult to get work in Philadelphia, Mossell worked for the black-owned North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham, North Carolina for two years.

With her marriage, Mossell returned to Philadelphia and entered law school. After passing the bar, she joined her husband's law practice, specializing in estate and family law. They both were active in civil rights law as well, and Raymond Alexander served on the City Council. Mossell Alexander worked in her husband's law firm from 1927 until 1959, when he was appointed to the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. She practiced law on her own until 1976, when she joined the firm of Atkinson, Myers, and Archie as a general counsel. She retired in 1982.

In 1928 Mossell Alexander was the first African-American woman appointed as Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia, serving to 1930; she was reappointed from 1934 to 1938. She was also active in numerous professional and civic organizations. From 1943-1947 she was the first woman to serve as secretary of the National Bar Association.[4] Because of her work in civil rights, she was appointed to the Commission on Human Relations of the City of Philadelphia in 1952, serving through 1968.

Marriage and children

Mossell married Raymond Pace Alexander (1897–1974) on November 29, 1923 in her parents' home on Diamond Street in North Philadelphia, with the ceremony performed by her father. Alexander had graduated from Harvard Law School.

They had two children: Mary Elizabeth Alexander (born 1934), who married Melvin Brown; and Rae Pace Alexander (born 1937) who married Archie C. Epps III, and later married Thomas Minter.[5]

Civic life

Alexander was the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta, serving from 1919 to 1923.[6]

She served on Harry Truman's Committee on Human Rights in 1947

Death

She died on November 1, 1989. She was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery.[7]

Legacy and honors

External links

References

  1. ^ "Sadie T. M. Alexander". Washington Post. November 5, 1989. "Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, 91, who was appointed by President Truman to the Committee on Civil Rights in 1948, and by President Carter as chairman of his White House Conference on Aging in 1981, died Nov. 1 at her home in Philadelphia. She had Alzheimer's disease. Mrs. Alexander, who is believed to be the first black woman to hold a doctorate in economics and to become a lawyer in Pennsylvania, founded a chapter of the Howard University-based black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, and became its first national president. She was active nationally in the ..." 
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Alexander Family Collection". University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. http://www.archives.upenn.edu/faids/upt/upt50/alexander_stma.html. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  3. ^ Sowell, Thomas (2002). Lazear, Edward P. ed. The Education of Minority Children. pp. 79–92. ISBN 978-0-8179-2892-6. http://www.tsowell.com/speducat.html. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  4. ^ a b c d "Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander", University of Pennsylvania Almanac, accessed 31 March 2011
  5. ^ Martin, Douglas (May 26, 2009). "Thomas Minter, 84, New York and Federal Education Official, Dies". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/nyregion/27minter.html?ref=obituaries. Retrieved May 27, 2009. 
  6. ^ "Delta Sigma Theta National Presidents". Delta Sigma Theta. http://deltasigmatheta.xohost.com/inside.php?id=0305AH1PP. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
  7. ^ "Lawyer Sadie Alexander, a Black pioneer dies at 91.". Philadelphia Inquirer. November 3, 1989.