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Unsung Economists #1: Sadie Alexander

Creative Commons/University of Pennsylvania

In 1921, Sadie Alexander became the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in economics. A few years later, she went to law school and became a celebrated civil rights attorney. But she never abandoned her focus on economic issues. In speech after speech, she argued that full employment — when everyone who wants a job can get one — was absolutely necessary to achieve racial equality. Today on The Indicator, Episode 1 in our multipart series about overlooked economists from the past.

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Corrected: February 25, 2019 at 12:00 AM EST
In a previous version of this podcast, we said Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is a senior at the University of Maryland. In fact, she is a senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money, and is a correspondent for Planet Money.
Cardiff Garcia is a co-host of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, along with Stacey Vanek Smith. He joined NPR in November 2017.