Adele Logan Alexander is history professor at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

and an author. She is known for her work on family history, gender, and social issues in African American families.

Education and career

Alexander graduated from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

, her aunt's alma mater, in 1959. She earned her Ph.D. from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

in 1994, after beginning her doctoral work at age 46. She is a professor of American history at George Washington University. In 2009 she was named to the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Biography

Alexander is an author known for her books on African American families, including notable members of her family which she chronicled in ''Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragist's Story from the Jim Crow South'' about her grandmother the suffragist

Adella Hunt Logan Adella Hunt Logan (February 10, 1863 – December 10, 1915) was an African-American writer, educator, administrator and suffragist. ''Includes image'' ''Indicates that she has sufficient notability to be covered in two of OUP's biographical wor ...

. In ''Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family, 1846-1926'', Alexander chronicles the transition from a working poor family to the middle class in the period from the Civil War to the Jazz Age. Her book ''Parallel Worlds'' describes the life of the diplomat William Henry Hunt and his wife

Ida Gibbs Ida Alexander Gibbs Hunt (November 16, 1862 – December 19, 1957) was an advocate of racial and gender equality and co-founded one of the first YWCAs in Washington, D.C. for African-Americans in 1905. She was the daughter of Judge Mifflin Wist ...

who was a leading figure in the

Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

movement in the 1910s. In 1999 she was on the

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co-an ...

show where she talked about racial identity and class. In 2020, Alexander was within a group of women talking with

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

about the 100-year mark of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, during the discussion she shared her thoughts on the actions taken by women to obtain the right to vote and her personal memories of going to vote with her mother as a young child.

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

In 2000, Alexander won the 2000 Black Caucus Literary Award from the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

. In 2003, she received a lifetime achievement award from the African American Historical and Genealogical Society.

Personal life

She married Clifford Alexander Jr. in 1959; he served as

Secretary of the Army The secretary of the Army (SA or SECARMY) is a senior civilian official within the United States Department of Defense, with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, insta ...

from 1977 until 1981. Their daughter, Elizabeth Alexander, is a poet and writer.

References

External links

* , October 12, 2010 * , October 30, 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Adele Logan Living people Radcliffe College alumni Howard University alumni George Washington University faculty 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century African-American writers American women historians 21st-century American historians Historians of African Americans African-American historians 20th-century American historians 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American women writers 1938 births 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 20th-century American women academics