The Law School has established a professorship devoted to the study of civil rights and race relations.
The Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professorship was made possible by a $1 million grant by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and a $100,000 contribution by Duane Morris, a Philadelphia law firm.
The professorship is the first at Penn Law named for African Americans.
"Establishing a civil rights chair at Penn in Sadie and Raymond Alexander's memory is a wonderful tribute to a courageous and brilliant couple," Penn President Amy Gutmann said in a press release. "Penn was honored to be an educational partner in the creation of a special community school in West Philadelphia that bears Sadie Alexander's name. With this chair, we are once again reminded that a good education should be available to everyone regardless of race or financial background."
"There is no better place for a focus on civil rights than the Penn Law School," said state Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Phila.), who helped secure the $1 million grant.
Sadie Alexander was the first African American in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in economics in 1927. She was also the first African American woman to graduate from Penn Law.
Raymond Alexander was appointed as the first African-American judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
