Became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1927.
In June 1927, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, becoming the first African American woman to earn a law degree from the institution. She had entered law school after discovering that her economics doctorate could not secure her a position in academia or industry due to racial discrimination, and she resolved instead to pursue a legal career where she believed opportunity might be more attainable, though it too was fraught with obstacles.
She excelled academically, becoming the first woman of any race to serve on the editorial board of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Her achievement at Penn Law came at a time when law schools rarely admitted women, and almost never admitted Black women, reflecting both the racial and gender barriers of the American legal profession in the early twentieth century.
Later that same year, she was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar, becoming the first African American woman admitted to practice law in the state of Pennsylvania. Her pioneering legal career included work at her husband Raymond Pace Alexander's law firm, where she practiced primarily in family and estate law, and she became a tireless advocate for civil rights within the legal system. Her achievements at Penn Law paved the way for future generations of Black women lawyers and remain celebrated by the law school and legal historians today.