BHS Day 12: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Hi! For our second ELM this month we're going to learn about someone who made her career in both the Legal and Medical parts of this spotlight. Today's entrant is a pioneer in the legal field, where she spent the meat of her career. She, like everyone else in this series, broke barriers for Blacks in the legal industry but she was a trailblazer for Black women, especially those following in her footsteps. You don't hear too much about her anymore though, which is another reason why I wanted to include her in this year's BHS. 

Name: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, 1898-1989

Profession: Lawyer, activist and economist

Why is the Spotlight on her today? For her participation in fighting for civil rights, for her accomplishments in the legal industry and the example she set for Black women

Notables:
--was the first African-American woman in the country to earn her PhD in economics
--was the first African-American woman to receive a law degree by graduating with honors from University of Pennsylvania Law School
--has had her work and speeches preserved in the University of Pennsylvania archives
--was the first Black woman to be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar after graduation
--became one of the first Black husband-wife legal teams with her husband after passing the bar
--served as secretary for the National Urban League
--was named as "Woman by the Year" in 1948 by the National Urban League, who named her as such in their comic Negro Heroes
--was elected into Phi Beta Kappa towards the end of her career
--was honored as the namesake of the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professorship, which is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania
--focused a lot of her career on the inequality in the country, racially, economically and gender-based
--was part of what led to the Truman establishment of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, which helped end discrimination by employers, unions and in interstate travel
--was awarded with seven honorary doctorate degrees by seven universities, starting with her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania
--was the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta
--was selected to be the namesake for a West Philadelphia elementary school
--was appointed to the Commission on Human Relations in Philadelphia
--is the niece of famed painter (and previous BHS entrant) Henry Ossawa Tanner
--helped create and later served as national secretary of the National Bar Association; she was the first Black woman--and the first woman--to do so
--served under then-President Harry S. Truman as a member of the President's Committee on Civil Rights
--was the first Black woman to serve as the Assistant City Solicitor for Philadelphia; she did so twice throughout her career
--was the president of JFK's Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Further reading links:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4


Quote of the Day: 
"I never looked for anyone to hold the door open for me. I knew well that the only way I could get that door open was knock it down; because I knocked all of them down."