Adele Logan Alexander (born January 26, 1938) is an American academic and author who is a history professor at George Washington University. She is known for her work on family history, gender, and social issues in African American families.

Adele Logan Alexander
Born (1938-01-26) January 26, 1938 (age 86)[1]
Academic background
Alma materHoward University
ThesisAmbiguous lives : free women of color in rural Georgia, 1789-1879 (1994)

Education and career

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Alexander graduated from Radcliffe College, her aunt's alma mater, in 1959.[2][3] She earned her Ph.D. from Howard University in 1994,[4] after beginning her doctoral work at age 46.[5] She is a professor of American history at George Washington University.[6][7] In 2009 she was named to the National Endowment for the Humanities.[8][7]

Biography

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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[9] about her grandmother the suffragist Adella Hunt Logan.[10][11] 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.[12] Her book Parallel Worlds describes the life of the diplomat William Henry Hunt and his wife Ida Gibbs who was a leading figure in the Pan-Africanism movement in the 1910s.[7] In 1999 she was on the Charlie Rose show where she talked about racial identity and class.[13] In 2020, Alexander was within a group of women talking with The New York Times 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.[14][10]

Selected publications

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  • Alexander, Adele Logan (1991). Ambiguous lives : free women of color in rural Georgia, 1789-1879. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-214-5. OCLC 23180035.[15]
  • Alexander, Adele Logan (2000). Homelands and waterways : the American journey of the Bond family, 1846-1926 (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75871-2. OCLC 44791716.[16]
  • Alexander, Adele Logan (2019). Princess of the Hither Isles : a Black suffragist's story from the Jim Crow south. New Haven. ISBN 978-0-300-24484-7. OCLC 1117641100.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Alexander, Adele Logan (2012). Parallel worlds : the remarkable Gibbs-Hunts and the enduring (in)significance of melanin (First paperback ed., 2012 ed.). Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-3245-3. OCLC 793010738.[17]

Awards and honors

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In 2000, Alexander won the 2000 Black Caucus Literary Award from the American Library Association.[18] In 2003, she received a lifetime achievement award from the African American Historical and Genealogical Society.[8]

Personal life

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She married Clifford Alexander Jr. in 1959; he served as Secretary of the Army from 1977 until 1981.[5] Their daughter, Elizabeth Alexander, is a poet and writer.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Alexander, Adele Logan 1938- [WorldCat Identities]".
  2. ^ Jampel, Catherine E. (October 6, 2003). "Alums Trace Radcliffe's Black History | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  3. ^ Heller, Karen (2015-05-05). "Elizabeth Alexander". Hartford Courant. pp. D1, D3. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  4. ^ Alexander, Adele Logan (1994). Ambiguous lives: free women of color in rural Georgia, 1789-1879 (Thesis). OCLC 40128970.
  5. ^ a b c Cooper, Desiree (1999-09-03). "2 women dig into the past, refreshingly". Detroit Free Press. p. 28. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  6. ^ Robinson, Lori (February 2, 1996). "Putting Black History on the Map". Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  7. ^ a b c "Husband And Wife Duo Paved The Way For Blacks In Diplomacy". Tell Me More; Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.: NPR. February 10, 2010.
  8. ^ a b "PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCES MORE KEY ADMINISTRATION POSTS". US Fed News Service, Including US State News; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]. 29 September 2009.
  9. ^ Alexander, Adele Logan (2019). Princess of the Hither Isles : a Black suffragist's story from the Jim Crow south. New Haven. ISBN 978-0-300-24484-7. OCLC 1117641100.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ a b Harlan, Jennifer (2020-07-02). "My ___ Was a Suffragist". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  11. ^ "Adella Hunt Logan". Harvard Magazine. August 8, 2019.
  12. ^ Reviews for Homelands and Waterways:
  13. ^ "Adele Logan Alexander". Charlie Rose.
  14. ^ Bennett, Jessica; Chambers, Veronica (2020-07-10). "Suffrage Isn't 'Boring History.' It's a Story of Political Geniuses". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  15. ^ Reviews for Ambiguous Lives:
  16. ^ Reviews for Homelands and waterways:
  17. ^ Reviews for Parallel Worlds:
  18. ^ "Front Matter". Reference & User Services Quarterly. 39 (3). 2000. ISSN 1094-9054. JSTOR 20863768.
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