Sadie T.M. Alexander, First Black Woman In The US To Receive A PhD, To Be Honored With Statue In Philadelphia

CBS Philadelphia

February 19, 2025

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander was a woman of many firsts, including being the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the first Black woman to earn a PhD in the United States. A statue in Philadelphia will soon commemorate her life.

An academic, economist and an attorney, Alexander was also a wife and a mother.

"She was unassuming, self-effacing," said Dr. Rae Pace Alexander-Minter. "My mother was the first feminist that I ever knew."

Dr. Rae Pace Alexander-Minter/CBS Philadelphia

Sadie T.M. Alexander, front right, pictured with her Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated sisters/CBS Philadelphia

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