
Husband of Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Ed’1918, G’1921, L’1927, Hon’1974, the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, Raymond Alexander W’1920 graduated from the Wharton School with a degree in economics in 1920. He went on to earn a law degree from Harvard, where he was the only Black person in his graduating class. Born to a large, working-class family in Philadelphia, Alexander began working at the age of seven, shortly after his mother’s death. He attended Penn on scholarship.
In 1951, Alexander was elected to Philadelphia’s City Council. As a council member, he chaired the Committee on Recreation and the Committee on Public Property and Public Works. In 1959, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Court of Common Pleas, and was subsequently elected to a full 10-year term, becoming the first Black judge on the court. During his first month as judge, Alexander created an alternative probation program called the Spiritual Rehabilitation Program, which combined social work with the mutual aid traditions of Black communities and religious organizations. He was involved in the civil rights struggle until the day he died at his desk in 1974.
Alexander’s portrait hangs alongside one of his wife, Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Ed’1918, G’1921, L’1927, Hon’1974.
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