Black History Month: Thinkers of the Past and Future

Then Sadie Tanner Mossell

Alexander

Scholar and presidential adviser

Alexander was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in economics, the first to graduate from the University Pennsylvania Law School and the first to practice law in Pennsylvania.

In the 1920s and '30s, she was Philadelphia's assistant city solicitor. In the '40s, she served on President Harry S. Truman's Committee on Human Rights. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her chair of the White House Conference on Aging.

Alexander died in 1989, but her name is still on Philadelphians' lips (although many of us don't realize it). She's the "Alexander" in West Philly's acclaimed Penn Alexander School - officially the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School.

- Becky Batcha

Now Lewis Gordon

Trailblazing Temple University philosopher

Gordon is internationally known for pioneering work in schools of thought like Black existentialism, which ponders ideas such as what it means to be human and free in the modern world.

He came to Temple in 2004 from Brown University, where he established that Ivy League school's department of Africana Studies. He's also taught at Yale and Purdue.

Here, Gordon has founded the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought, where he pushes scholars to "have a more sophisticated and creative discussion of race." The 45-year-old Fairmount resident has also established the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies. He himself is a practicing Jew of Afro-Chinese-Israeli-Irish ancestry.

He co-directs both organizations with his wife, Jane, who teaches political science at Temple.

Aside from his work at the university, Gordon is the president of the Caribbean Philosophical Association - he's from Jamaica, originally - and a visiting professor at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.

- Alex Irwin

Next Wendell Pritchett

Law-school professor and member of Mayor Nutter's brain trust

Since joining the Nutter administration early last month, 43-year-old Pritchett has not been sleeping well. "Last night I woke up several times thinking about charts in the five-year plan," he said from his City Hall cubicle, across the hall from the mayor's office.

Officially, Pritchett - who is on leave from his job as a University of Pennsylvania law professor - is director of the Office of Research, Planning and Policy.

You could also call him chief wonk to mayor wonk.

"It's pretty daunting," he said of the new gig.

Pritchett boasts a law degree from Yale University and a doctorate in history from Penn. He's charged with figuring out how to implement the policy plans put out during the campaign - which range from planting more trees to setting up a 311 call system. He'll work with the deputy mayors and department heads to get things done.

The Philly native lives in West Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters. He was an unpaid adviser to the Nutter campaign from the beginning. But Nutter called him after the primary last spring and asked him to come on full time.

"He said 'I heard you professors have the summer off,' " Pritchett recalled. " 'Why don't you come and help me out?' "

- Catherine Lucey

WE KNEW HIM WHEN

Because he's known as a Father of the Harlem Renaissance, and was a leading light at Howard University, it's reasonable to associate Alain Leroy Locke with either New York City or Washington, D.C. But the esteemed writer, philosopher, educator and patron of the arts was born and raised in Philly.

Besides his cultural contributions, the Central High grad was the first African-American Rhodes Scholar. *

- Becky Batcha

MONDAY: Sports