life.style: Black Celebration - 13 of 28

life.style: Black Celebration - 13 of 28

"...She has been a steady and forceful advocate...reminding people everywhere that freedoms are won not only by idealism but by persistence and will over a long time."

My heart swells with pride over African American women (particularly sorors!) who have accomplished as much as Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander. I would be here all day if I were to write a biography of her lifetime achievements, so I've decided to highlight some of her most remarkable accomplishments:

 

 

• The first national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, 1919

• One of the first African American woman in the nation to receive a doctorate and the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in economics, 1921

 

• The first African American woman to enroll in the University of Pennsylvania School of Law (where her father Aaron Albert Mossell had been the first African American to graduate), 1924

• The first African American woman to earn a law degree at Penn, pass the bar and practice law in Pennsylvania, 1927

 

 

• The first African American woman to serve as assistant city solicitor of Philadelphia, 1928

• The first woman to hold a national office with the National Bar Association (serving as secretary), 1943