Sadie T. M. Alexander

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (January 2, 1898 – November 1, 1989) was a pioneering Black professional and civil rights activist of the early-to-mid-20th century. In 1921, Mossell Alexander was the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in economics. In 1927, she was the first Black woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and went on to become the first Black woman to practice law in the state.

Biography

thumb|right|upright|alt=Photo of Sadie Tanner Mossell|Mossell in 1918

Sadie Tanner Mossell was born on January 2, 1898, in Philadelphia to Aaron Albert Mossell II and Mary Louisa Tanner (born 1867). Mossell attended high school in Washington, D.C. at the M Street School, now known as Dunbar High School, graduating in 1915. She was able to do so because she stayed with her uncle Dr. Lewis Baxter Moore and step aunt at their home on the campus of Howard University.

Mossell returned to Philadelphia to study at the School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1918. There, she faced numerous hardships, due to her race and gender, such as poor advising, false accusations of plagiarism, and other students stealing her intellectual property. She pursued graduate work in economics, also at Penn, earning her m

aster's in 1919. Awarded the Francis Sergeant Pepper fellowship, she was able to continue her studies and in 1921 became one of the first three African-American women to earn a PhD from an American university (along with Georgiana Simpson and Eva Beatrice Dykes, all within days of one another).

Finding it difficult to get professorship work in Philadelphia as an African-American even with her doctorate, She was in contact with the Alpha chapter of Delta Sigma Theta since 1915 when she arrived at the University of Pennsylvania. However, she needed five students to charter a chapter of the sorority, which was not possible until 1918. In March 1918, the Gamma chapter of Delta Sigma Theta was established with Mossell as its first President. At the request of the Alpha chapter, the four existing chapters of Delta Sigma Theta were called to convene at Howard University in December 1919. The sorority planned to host their meetings in the women's dormitory on campus until Mossell's uncle Lewis Baxter Moore offered his office as a meeting place. At this convention, the Grand Chapter of the sorority was established, taking the sorority from a loose federation of chapters to a national body. Under Mossell's leadership the Sorority expanded to new locales in the West, the South, and further into the Midwest and Northeast. She also initiated Delta's first national program, May Week.

In 1923, Mossell married Raymond Pace Alexander shortly after he was admitted to the bar, then returned with him to Philadelphia. Mossell received job offers from several Black colleges and universities, but none of them was located in Philadelphia, and she had no desire to leave her new family. So she stayed home for a year, did volunteer work, and eventually entered law school. In 1927, she was Penn's first African-American woman graduate, and the first to be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. She was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Family

thumb|Sadie Alexander in 1982

Her maternal grandfather was Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835–1923), a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and editor of the Christian Recorder. Bishop Tanner and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Tanner had seven children, including Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), who became a noted painter, and Hallie Tanner Johnson, the first female physician to practice medicine in Alabama Her uncle, Nathan Francis Mossell (1856–1946) was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

During her high school years, Mossell lived in Washington, DC, with her uncle, Lewis Baxter Moore, who was dean at Howard University and her step aunt Lavinia W. Moore.

On November 29, 1923, Sadie Tanner Mossell married Raymond Pace Alexander (1897–1974) in her parents' home on Diamond Street in North Philadelphia, with the ceremony performed by her father. Alexander, whose parents were formerly enslaved, grew up in Philadelphia. He attended and graduated from Central High School (1917, valedictorian), Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1920), and Harvard Law School (1923). At the time of their marriage, he had established a law practice in Philadelphia.

Sadie and Raymond had four premature children, with only the last two surviving. They were able to raise two daughters:

Views and activities

thumb|450px|This graph shows the inequality of real median [[Household income in the United States|US household income by race: 1967 to 2011, in 2011 dollars.]]

According to Nina Banks, Alexander's opposition to racial oppression was within a tradition of 19th century scholars Frederick Douglass and T. Thomas Fortune, and with later scholars W.E.B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph. Alexander's focus was frequently on racial and economic justice for the working class, especially for working men and women. However, unlike Dubois or Randolph, Alexander never embraced socialism. Alexander also can be contrasted with Howard University radicals Ralph Bunche, E. Franklin Frazier, and fellow black economist Abram Harris. For example, Harris wrote that the fundamental problems facing blacks could be overcome through multi-racial labor organizing and did not support direct action for civil rights until blacks had achieved economic power. Alexander, on the other hand, was outspoken against white dominance in political, social, and economic spheres. Alexander’s 1935 speech "The Emancipated Woman: Past, Present, and Future", tackled the evolving role of women in American society, with an emphasis on the double burden carried by Black women. Alexander argued that while all women faced social and economic restrictions, Black women were especially disadvantaged by both racism and sexism. She criticized the “ideal” lifestyle of womanhood that was reserved for white middle-class women, pointing out that Black women had always worked—often in domestic labor or low-wage jobs—not out of choice, but necessity. During World War II, Alexander saw similarities in a rise in racial violence and discrimination in the US as paralleling the treatment of Jews in Germany. Near the end of the war, she supported integrating labor unions to increase their bargaining power once the war economy slowed and industrial employment moved toward pre-war levels. Her interest in labor economic issues extended to advocating for government regulation to smooth fluctuations in the business cycle, modification of tariffs, regulation of public utilities, and regulation of securities and securities markets. Her advocacy primarily focused on economic issues affecting Black workers and challenging structural impediments to African American rights. In 1949, Alexander and six other Philadelphians formed the Citizens' Council on Democratic Rights to "protect and extend the enjoyment of human rights." In 1951, joined by Henry W. Sawyer, the Council became the Greater Philadelphia Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union; Alexander continued to serve on that organization's board of directors for many years. In 1963 she gave a speech to the Annual Conference of Commission on Human Rights and she returned to the topic of economic justice, advocating for universal employment. She emphasized structural inequalities, including limited access to wealth, education, and stable employment opportunities. Alexander connected these conditions to broader questions of citizenship, arguing that political rights were incomplete without economic security. She supported policies such as minimum wage laws, full employment, and more equal income distribution, and asserted that the government had responsibility for ensuring basic economic conditions. She advocated for a federal job guarantee, treating employment as a fundamental right, a position later echoed in modern economic policy debates.

thumb|right|Penn Alexander School, 2016

In 1948, the National Urban League featured Alexander as "Woman of the Year" in its comic book of Negro Heroes.
In 1974, Alexander was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pennsylvania, her first of seven such honors. She received the degree at University of Pennsylvania Law School.
In 1980, Alexander received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Pennsylvania's Law School. The public school was developed in partnership with the university, which supports the school financially and academically.
The Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania is named in her honor.
In 2018, The Sadie Collective, an organization for Black Women in quantitative fields, was created in her honor.
In 2018, Philadelphia City Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, who was later elected mayor, proposed a measure to erect a statue of Alexander. The final design was announced in July 2025, by sculptor Vinnie Bagwell, to be installed near Philadelphia's Municipal Services Building in 2026.
The Dr. Sadie T.M. Alexander Scholarship was proposed by the Black Law Students Association at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 2020. The free-tuition program, offered to three students who intended to focus on racial justice in their studies and law practice, was established at the University of Pennsylvania in February 2021. As of August 16, 2025, in response to the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies of the second Trump administration, the law school announced that it was closing its equal opportunity office and would not accept applications for Sadie Alexander scholarships in the upcoming scholarship cycle. These choices have been strongly criticised by alumni and students.

On February 24, 2021, Alexander's life and accomplishments were the subject of an episode of the podcast Broads You Should Know.
On April 27, 2022, Alexander was named a distinguished fellow by the American Economic Association for her contributions to economic equality and civil rights. She is the first and only economist to posthumously receive the award.

Sadie T. M. Alexander

Biography

Family

Views and activities

See also

References

Further reading