Guide, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers
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A Guide to the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers 1817-1985 (bulk 1920-1983) 83.0 Cubic feet UPT 50 A374S Prepared by Thomas G. Potterfield, Maureen B. Spectre, and Theresa R. Snyder, assisted by Susan M. Jenkins November 2015 The University Archives and Records Center 3401 Market Street, Suite 210 Philadelphia, PA 19104-3358 215.898.7024 Fax: 215.573.2036 www.archives.upenn.edu Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers UPT 50 A374S TABLE OF CONTENTS PROVENANCE...............................................................................................................................1 ARRANGEMENT...........................................................................................................................1 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE................................................................................................................1 SCOPE AND CONTENT...............................................................................................................3 CONTROLLED ACCESS HEADINGS.........................................................................................6 INVENTORY.................................................................................................................................. 8 I. BIOGRAPHICAL AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL.............................................................. 8 II. PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE..................................................................................13 III. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE.................................................................................. 24 IV. PROFESSIONAL CORRESPONDENCE........................................................................29 V. FINANCIAL RECORDS...................................................................................................31 VI. EDUCATION....................................................................................................................39 VII. LAW PRACTICE AND RELATED PROFESSIONAL PAPERS.................................41 VIII. LEGAL ISSUES AND ACTIONS................................................................................ 50 IX. GOVERNMENT SERVICE.............................................................................................67 X. LEGAL ORGANIZATIONS............................................................................................. 79 XI. CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS.............................................................................................. 98 XII. CLUBS AND SOCIAL GROUPS................................................................................ 122 XIII. WRITINGS, SPEECHES AND PUBLICATIONS..................................................... 129 XIV. CERTIFICATES, HONORS, AND AWARDS.......................................................... 134 XV. MEMORABILIA AND REGALIA.............................................................................. 140 XVI. AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIAL................................................................................... 141 XVII. FAMILY AND GENEALOGY..................................................................................146 Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers UPT 50 A374S XVIII. BOOKS......................................................................................................................153 Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers UPT 50 A374S Guide to the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers 1817-1985 (bulk 1920-1983) UPT 50 A374S 83.0 Cubic feet Prepared by Thomas G. Potterfield, Maureen B. Spectre, and Theresa R. Snyder, assisted by Susan M. Jenkins November 2015 Access is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center. PROVENANCE Gift of the Alexander family, 1987. ARRANGEMENT The Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers is organized into eighteen series: I. Biographical and Autobiographical; II. Personal Correspondence; III. General Correspondence; IV. Professional Correspondence; V. Financial Records; VI. Education; VII. Law Practice and Related Professional Papers; VIII. Legal Issues and Actions; IX. Government Service; X. Legal Organizations; XI. Civic Organizations; XII. Clubs and Social Groups; XIII. Writings, Speeches and Publications; XIV. Certificates, Honors, and Awards; XV. Memorabilia and Regalia; XVI. Audio-Visual Material; XVII. Family and Genealogy; XVIII. Books. Many of the series are organized into sub-series. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE - 1 - Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers UPT 50 A374S Born in Philadelphia in 1898, the youngest of three children, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (B.S., 1918; A.M., 1919; Ph.D., 1921; LL.B., 1927) is a member of two distinguished families. Her maternal grandfather was Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835-1923), a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Bishop Tanner had seven children, the best known of whom is the painter Henry O. Tanner (1859-1937). Another daughter of Bishop Tanner, Hallie Tanner Johnson, became a social worker and physician and established the Nurses' School and Hospital at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Sadie Tanner Mossell's father, Aaron A. Mossell (1863-1951) (LL.B. 1888), was the first African- American to graduate from Penn's Law School. Her uncle, Nathan Francis Mossell (1856-1946) (M.D. 1882) was the first African-American to graduate from Penn's Medical School. In 1895 Dr. Mossell was a co-founder of the Frederick Douglass Hospital, which later merged with Mercy Hospital to form Mercy-Douglass. Sadie's paternal grandfather, Aaron Mossell, sr., had established a successful brick-making business in Lockport, New York. When Sadie was a child, her mother and siblings frequently alternated residence between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. When she reached high school, she went to live in Washington with her uncle, Lewis Baxter Moore (Ph.D., 1896) who was dean at Howard University and the husband of her mother's sister, Sadie Elizabeth Tanner. She attended the M Street High School in Washington and graduated in 1915. She then attended the School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1918. Following her college graduation, she entered the Graduate School at Penn to study economics. In 1921, she became one of the first three black women in the U.S. to obtain a Ph.D. Despite her academic achievements, she had difficulty finding employment in Philadelphia and went to work for the black-owned North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company in Durham, remaining there for two years. In 1923, shortly after Raymond Pace Alexander was admitted to the Bar and opened his practice, she returned to Philadelphia to be married. The following year, in the fall of 1924, she entered the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She became the first black woman to graduate from that institution and the first black woman admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1927. Thereupon, she joined her husband's practice, specializing in estate and family law. She served as Secretary to the National Bar Association. She was appointed Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia and held that position from 1928 to 1930 and from 1934 to 1938. From that time forward, she served on numerous boards, committees, and commissions and held office in many local and national organizations. Among - 2 - Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Papers UPT 50 A374S her most notable activities was her service on President Truman's Committee on Human Rights in 1947 and on the Commission on Human Relations of the City of Philadelphia from 1952 until 1968. She continued her employment in her husband's firm from 1927 until 1959, when he was named to the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. She subsequently practiced independently until 1976, when she joined the firm of Atkinson, Myers, and Archie in the capacity of counsel. Her national stature was recognized when President Jimmy Carter appointed her chair of the White House Conference on Aging in 1978; she was removed from this committee by Ronald Reagan in 1981. She retired from practice and from public life generally in 1982. Mrs. Alexander died in 1989 and is survived by two daughters, Mary Elizabeth Alexander Brown (1934 -) and Rae Pace Alexander Minter (1937 -). SCOPE AND CONTENT STMA I: Biographical and Autobiographical. (2 cu. ft. and oversized items.) The first two subseries include articles, resumes, and interview material which review STMA's life and career, including her family history, practice in the law, and civic and governmental activities. Another subseries (approximately 2/3 cu. ft.) documents STMA's international travels (1937- 1980). The last subseries (approx. 1/2 cu. ft.) consists of clippings and other scrapbook material (1923-83 with some gaps). In addition, there are a number of oversized scrapbooks (1945-46 and 1963-67). STMA II: Personal Correspondence. (7 cu. ft.) Family correspondence (with RPA [intermittent 1921-68]; EMA [1937-64]; and Isabel Tanner Temple, her aunt [1946-57]; with and about her two daughters [1935-1983]; and with assorted other relatives) comprises approx. 2 1/2 cu. ft. of this series, over half of which relates to Mary Elizabeth and Rae Pace. The remaining 4.5 cu. ft. is made up primarily of miscellaneous and unsorted correspondence (1923-80; bulk dates 1934-80 with a clump around 1947- 48). In the 1960s she carried on a correspondence with RPA's close friend, J. Turner Layton. STMA III: General Correspondence. (2 2/3 cu. ft.; 1935-82.) Primarily miscellaneous and unsorted correspondence. As in the last (general) subseries of STMA's personal correspondence, the material