Births on January 2

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, American economist and lawyer (d. 1989)

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (January 2, 1898 – November 1, 1989), was a pioneering Black professional and civil rights activist of the early-to-mid-Twentieth Century. Mossell Alexander was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in economics in the United States (1921). A few years later, she was first woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1927), becoming the first Black woman to practice law in Pennsylvania. She was also the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, serving from 1919 to 1923.Mossell Alexander and her husband were active in civil rights, both in Philadelphia and nationally. In 1946 she was appointed to the President's Committee on Civil Rights established by Harry Truman. In 1952 she was appointed to the city's Commission on Human Relations, serving through 1968. She was a founding member of the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (1963). She served on the board of the National Urban League for 25 years. U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed her in 1979 to chair the decennial White House Conference on Aging, an honor later withdrawn by the Reagan administration.