A Woman to Know: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
I knew well that the only way to get that door open was to knock it down; because I knocked all of them down. — Sadie T.M. Alexander
(image via Wikimedia Commons)
Sadie started at university before women had even won the right to vote. As the only black woman in her class -- and, once she graduated in 1917, the first black woman in America with a PhD in economics -- Sadie later wrote she felt lonely and isolated at school, battling microaggressions and outright prejudice from her classmates and even her professors. She joined Delta Sigma Theta, a black sorority, and rose to the rank of president, offering support for other women experiencing discrimination in their college classrooms. Once she passed the Pennsylvania bar -- again, the first black woman in America to do so -- Sadie began a decades-long career in civil service. Today DST honors her with an annual conference and a scholarship. Her advice to the sisters breaking barriers: "I never looked for anybody to hold the door open for me."
Add to your library list:
Representing Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Laywer (Kenneth W. Mack)
Sister Circle: Black Women and Work (Sharon Harley)
Missed Opportunity: Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (Julianne Malveaux)
Knocking Down Doors: The Trailblazing Life of Sadie TM Alexander (Lia B. Epperson)
Read more:
Sadie T.M. Alexander (Black Past)
Sadie T.M. Alexander, Civil Rights Advocate, Dies (The New York Times)
Becoming "Woman of the Year" (F.R. Wilson)
Sadie T.M. Alexander and the Incorporation of Black Women into Law (Kenneth W. Mack)
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander: Attorney and American Economist (Britannica)
The sorority behind black feminism (The Los Angeles Times)
** Thank you to all of you for your kind notes over the last few weeks. I am so touched. I don't even have words. Thanks for the support <3 **
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