Sadie T. M. Alexander: One of the 1st African-American Women to Obtain a PhD in the US
Posted on 05. Mar, 2010 by Leshell Hatley in Scholarly Celebrations
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (January 2, 1898 – November 1, 1989) was one the first African American women 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 was the first National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.
Early Life
Sadie was born in Philadelphia in 1898 to Aaron Albert Mossell II (1863-1951) and Mary Louise Tanner (1867-?). Her birth name was Sarah Tanner Mossell and she went by the name Sadie. Her siblings include: Aaron Albert Mossell III (1893-1975); and Elizabeth Mossell (1894-1975) who married an Anderson.
Education
When she reached high school, she went to live in Washington, DC with her uncle, Lewis Baxter Moore, who was dean at Howard University. She attended the M Street High School (now called Dunbar) in Washington, DC and graduated in 1915. She then attended the School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1918. She entered the Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania to study economics. In 1921, she became the first African American woman in the U.S. to obtain a Ph.D. She went to work for the black-owned North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham, North Carolina for two years. In 1923, shortly after Raymond, her future husband was admitted to the Bar and opened his practice, she returned to Philadelphia to be married. In the fall of 1924, she entered the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
She became the first African American woman to graduate from that institution and the first African American woman admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1927.
Career
Later, she joined her husband’s law practice, specializing in estate and family law. She was appointed Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia and held that position from 1928 to 1930 and from 1934 to 1938.
Service
Sadie Alexander
Sadie T. M. Alexander was the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta, serving from 1919 to 1923. She served on many boards, committees, and commissions and held office in many local and national organizations including: President Harry Truman’s Committee on Human Rights in 1947 and on the Commission on Human Relations of the City of Philadelphia from 1952 until 1968. She 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, was ill with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases for several years, and died in 1989. She is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery.
An elementary school in West Philadelphia, the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School, is named after her; it is a public school that was developed in partnership with the University, which supports the school financially and academically.
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Information courtesy of wikipedia.
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