Raymond Pace Alexander-Philadelphia Lawyer, Judge and Activist

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 @ 10:06 pm | We Think

Philadelphia Judge Raymond Pace Alexander (RPA) has been called by historian Darlene Clark Hine, one of the “black legal soldiers … who transformed constitutional jurisprudence to embrace the primacy of civil rights over states rights, and replaced the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ with one of equality.”

Raymond Pace Alexander born in Philadelphia in October 1898 into a working class family, the grandson of slaves was destined to beat the odds to become a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, who later was to serve as a judge as well as advisor to other lawyers including the future federal Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Raymond Pace Alexander with his talented wife, Sadie T. M. Alexander, worked to transform a segregated society in order to afford opportunity for those who had been denied.

Early on in his education Alexander, influenced by historian Carter G. Woodson, chose to study black history and use it as a tool to vigorously oppose racism and develop better relations between the races. Having heard Woodson’s speech “Stranger in the House” Raymond Alexander was motivated to work for equality rights. As a result Alexander and Woodson remained professional friends. Raymond Alexander became a life member of Woodson’s organization established for the study of black history, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASALH).
The Philadelphia local chapter of the ASALH was founded by Raymond P. Alexander.

Alexander, himself, had personally experienced racial discrimination; he was excluded from a Chestnut Street theater showing The Ten Commandments in 1924. He was so successful in taking the theater owners to court, he was able to win their assurance never to discriminate again. That experience is the reason Raymond Pace Alexander was determined to see the implementation of such racist policies end.

After the death of his mother in childbirth, Raymond went to work to help his father provide for himself and his four siblings. By the time he was the age of twelve Alexander was earning money from his own shoe shine stand.

He received a scholarship in order to attend the best secondary high school in Philadelphia. At the time Central High School, the second oldest high school in the United States, was an all male academic high school, and Raymond Alexander graduated with honors in the top percentile of his class.

He later received a scholarship to attend the University of Pennsylvania. Upon completion of his course work in three years he graduated with honors while having worked evenings and weekends as a waiter. Raymond Alexander was the first black graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School. In 1920 Alexander began studying law at Harvard Law School; in 1923 he earned the Juris Doctorate.

When he returned to Philadelphia, in 1923, Raymond Alexander married Sadie Tanner Mossell; together they founded the premier black law firm in Philadelphia.

Raymond Alexander became president of the National Bar Association in 1929. As the president of the newly formed organization Alexander exerted his considerable influence on every black attorney in the nation to become an advocate for civil rights. This action supplied the legal guidance to finally force the courts to move toward handing down more reasonable and equal rulings concerning blacks. Alexander was elected president of the National Bar Association again in 1933 until 1935.

When a Civil Rights Bill was passed in Pennsylvania, in 1935, Raymond Alexander was involved in getting the measure approved. He was counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP ).

In the early 1930s Alexander sued two Chester County school districts to court when they tried to establish racially segregated school systems. The legal victory achieved in that case was the demise of de jure segregation in Pennsylvania schools.

In the sixteen years since his graduation from Harvard Law he’d built a legal reputation so strong attorney Thurgood Marshall presented a brief for Raymond Alexander’s review. It was this 1939 brief that provided the framework for the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.

Raymond Alexander was named Honorary Consul of Haiti in Philadelphia in 1946; during that time he also functioned as representative for Haiti in the settlement of its war debt as well as in other litigation.

After some time, in 1948, in the case of the Trenton Six, he was finally able to have the black defendants cleared who’d been falsely accused of killing a white storeowner. This was a case Alexander won on appeal with assistance from attorney Thurgood Marshall who would become the first black appointed as a justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.

When he ran for election to Philadelphia’s City Council he won. He was a member of the Council from 1951 to 1958.

It was 1951 when RPA solely began the legal maneuvers to bring to an end the exclusion of blacks from Girard College. More than 15 years later his efforts reached a successful conclusion when the United States Supreme Court ruled blacks be admitted to the college.

Raymond Pace Alexander was appointed in January 1959 by Governor George M. Leader to fill a vacancy in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, thus becoming the first black judge in this court.

“As a judge I have seen at first hand the helplessness and bewilderment of the poor when faced with the legalities of our complex society.”~Judge Raymond Pace Alexander, decision in favor of the Philadelphia Community Legal Services Case 1966

In 1966 several local attorneys opposed the Philadelphia Bar Association’s proposal to organize Community Legal Service, Inc., a nonprofit corporation funded by money from the federal Office of Economic Opportunity.

The proposed service, part of the War On Poverty, was to open twelve law offices in neighborhoods around the city, under a 20-man board of directors, which included four leading lawyers and seven representatives from the local communities.

The dispute was turned over to then 67 year-old Judge Raymond Pace Alexander of the Court of Common Pleas to decide. Long hearings ensued. Judge Alexander gave a detailed decision which upheld the service as lawful and completely beneficial to the community.

“It is in the public interest that this program go forward. Let it begin—now.”~Judge Raymond Pace Alexander, in his decision upholding the Philadelphia Community Legal Services Case 1966

Judge Raymond Alexander remained on the judicial bench, as Senior Judge until his death in 1974.

Judge Raymond Pace Alexander challenged numerous segregated institutions in the Philadelphia area. He will be remembered for the indelible impression he made on the city and on the legal profession.