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A pathbreaker as a lawyer and a judge

Pioneering lawyer, judge, and civil rights leader Raymond Pace Alexander was born in Philadelphia in 1898. After his mother's death, Alexander and his four siblings were sent to live with their maternal aunt in North Philadelphia. Alexander's first job was unloading fish at the local docks before school each morning. He attended Central High School and was the

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Pioneering lawyer, judge, and civil rights leader Raymond Pace Alexander was born in Philadelphia in 1898.

After his mother's death, Alexander and his four siblings were sent to live with their maternal aunt in North Philadelphia. Alexander's first job was unloading fish at the local docks before school each morning. He attended Central High School and was the first black graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He furthered his studies at Harvard Law School, and married Sadie Tanner Mossell, the first black woman to earn a law degree from Penn.

In his legal practice, Alexander was involved in several landmark criminal and civil rights cases. In 1933, black parents from Chester County went to Alexander for legal assistance to fight school segregation. The school district had built a new elementary school but was keeping the old Easttown elementary open "for the instruction of certain people," which meant "for colored students." Alexander won the case, which marked an end to de jure segregation in Pennsylvania schools. Alexander's victory impressed the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which then hired him to represent two black defendants falsely accused of killing a white shopkeeper in the Trenton Six case.

In 1951, Alexander was elected city councilman, a position he held for eight years. There he spearheaded efforts to desegregate Girard College. In 1959, Alexander successfully accomplished his lifelong goal of becoming the first black judge in the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia. Judge Alexander used the law and his judicial status to obtain civil rights for the African American community, as well as improve race relations. After his 10-year term, Alexander served as a senior judge until his death in 1974.

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