Raymond Pace Alexander (1897–1974) was a civil rights leader, lawyer,
and politician who was the first African-American judge appointed to the
Pennsylvania courts of common pleas. In 1920, he became the first black
graduate of the Wharton School of Business. He married in 1923; in 1927
his wife, Sadie, became the first black woman to earn a law degree from
the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating from Harvard Law School
in 1923, Alexander became one of the leading civil rights attorneys in
Philadelphia. He represented black defendants in high-profile cases,
including the Trenton Six, a group of black men arrested for murder in
Trenton, New Jersey. Alexander also entered politics, unsuccessfully
running for judge multiple times. He finally ran for, and won, a seat on
the Philadelphia City Council in 1951. After serving two terms,
Alexander was appointed as the first black judge to sit on the courts of
common pleas, where he served until his death in 1974.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Pace_Alexander>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1791:
French playwright Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration of
the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, hoping to expose the
failures of the French Revolution in the recognition of gender equality.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Woman_and_of_the_Female_Citizen>
1916:
Tanks (example pictured), the "secret weapons" of the British
Army during the First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle
of Flers–Courcelette in France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flers%E2%80%93Courcelette>
1959:
Nikita Khrushchev began the first state visit by a Soviet
leader to the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_visit_by_Nikita_Khrushchev_to_the_United_States>
2017:
A homemade bomb partially exploded on an eastbound District
line train at Parsons Green tube station in West London, injuring 30
passengers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_Green_train_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
democratic:
1. Pertaining to democracy; constructed upon or in line with the
principle of government chosen by the people.
2. Exhibiting social equality; egalitarian.
3. (US, politics) Alternative letter-case form of Democratic (“of,
pertaining to, or supporting the Democratic Party”)
4. (chiefly in the plural, dated) Synonym of democrat (“a supporter of
democracy; an advocate of democratic politics (originally (historical)
as opposed to the aristocrats in Revolutionary France)”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/democratic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn
to grow, he cannot make business good; although when these things occur,
political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have
happened in this way.
--William Howard Taft
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft>
Show replies by date