Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in economics in the United States when she received the degree from Penn in 1921 (Photo from University Archives & Records).
The City of Philadelphia will honor Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander — the first Black woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in economics and the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School — with a statue at Thomas Paine Plaza outside the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building.
The statue will be the second art piece dedicated to a Black woman in Philadelphia. In 1921, Alexander earned her Ph.D. in economics, and in 1927, she graduated from Penn Carey Law. She was also the first national president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
In an interview with CBS News, Alexander’s youngest daughter, Rae Alexander-Minter, spoke about the challenges her mother faced as one of the only Black students at Penn.
“She experienced racial isolation,” Alexander-Minter noted. “It wasn’t that she wanted their friendship. She wanted respect.”
After graduating from Penn, Alexander served as assistant city solicitor for Philadelphia from 1928 to 1930 and then from 1934 to 1938, simultaneously practicing law at her own law firm while serving on the National Bar Association.
“She was interested in helping those people who were feeling unrecognized,” Alexander-Minter told CBS News. “She talked about, as an economist and a lawyer, the inequities of women, particularly women who were working, and the child care.”
Alexander was also a prominent civil rights activist, serving on former President Harry Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights. In 2018, then-Philadelphia City Councilmembers Cherelle Parker, Blondell Reynolds Brown, and Jannie Blackwell pushed for a resolution to honor Alexander’s legacy with a statue.
Creative Philadelphia, an organization dedicated to advancing “public access to arts and culture” and celebrating “the city’s cultural assets,” created the Sadie T. M. Alexander Statue Selection Committee to ensure a proper representation of Alexander’s legacy through the statue by recognizing her background at Penn. The committee invited representatives from Penn Carey Law and the Penn Black Law Students Association to work alongside Alexander’s daughter.
Penn affiliates on the committee include Nigel Davis, co-president of Penn’s Black Law Students Association and Iliana Odette Harris, assistant director for community and engagement at Penn Carey Law.
Creative Philadelphia described Alexander as “a pioneering African American civil rights activist and native Philadelphian who broke barriers in academia and law and fought to protect the civil rights of underserved communities.” The group described the project, in turn, as a “priority” for 2016 Fels Institute of Government graduate and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration.
On Feb. 19, five finalists were selected to create designs for the statue.
Vinnie Bagwell, Tanda Francis, Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark, Alvin Pettit, and a team of three — David Wilson, Stephen Hayes, and Acori Honzo — were honored by the Sadie T. M. Alexander Statue Selection Committee from a pool of 42 applicants. The five finalists will have the opportunity to submit design proposals for the statue.
“The statue will inspire generations of Philadelphians to become leaders and advocates in their communities — especially young Black women who will see themselves in her image,” Parker told The Philadelphia Tribune.
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