Frederick D Alexander

Frederick Douglas Alexander (February 21, 1910 – April 13, 1980) was a politician from North Carolina and the First African American to serve on the Charlotte City Council. Alexander was was born in Charlotte, NC and was the son of Zechariah Alexander, a prominent African American businessman and district manager of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and owner of the Alexander Funeral Home. Kelly Alexander, who eventually became a national leader for the NAACP, was Frederick's brother. Alexander graduated from Charlotte's Second Ward High School in 1926. He attended collect at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. Upon his graduation in 1931 he returned to Charlotte to work at his father's funeral home.^[1]

Alexander began his political work organizing voter registration drives among Charlotte's African American population. He also worked for the appointment of black police officers and mail carriers. He spoke about the importance of business courses in black high schools and about the need for better health care. In 1949 he served as executive secretary for the Citizens Committee for Political Action which sponsored African American candidates for school board and city council. Through continuing his civil rights work Alexander gained more and more notability throughout the community as a civil rights leader. He was a charter member of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Council on Human Relations, was elected to the Southern Regional Council, and served on the United Community Services committee.^[2]

In 1962 Alexander became the first African American member of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and the Mecklenburg County Board of Public Welfare in 1963. In 1965 he ran for and won a seat on the Charlotte City Council, making him the first African American on the Council since the 1890s. As a candidate Alexander stressed "his desire not to be considered ‘the Negro candidate,’ but rather as a man who will work for the good of the entire community,” as one Charlotte Observer article put it.^[1] He served for nine years, helping pass several anti-discrimination ordinances while on the council including the removal of the fence separating the white and black section of Pinewood and Elmwood cemeteries, the construction of a fire-station for northwest Charlotte, and the preservation of the Thompson Orphanage Chapel. He also pushed to have African Americans appointed to various committee's and governmental boards in Charlotte as a way to increase African American participation in government.^[3]

The Alexander home was one of the four houses hit during the Charlotte bombings on a November night in 1965. His brother Kelly, Julius Chambers and Reginald Hawkins's homes were also bombed that night in an attempt to stop civil rights lobbying in Charlotte. The terrorist were never caught and no one was killed by the blasts.^[1][4]

Alexander's worked reached outside of Charlotte when he was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1974 as a representative of the 22 district. While senator he served as vice chair of the Higher Education Committee. In 1979 he introduced legislation calling for the second week in February to be designated Black History Week in North Carolina. He was also part of the NAACP, the North Carolina Good Neighbor Council, Governor's Committee on Law and Order, and was president of the Mint Museum of Art from 1978-1979.^[1]

On April 13, 1980, Alexander died, and he is buried at York Memorial Park in Charlotte.^[1]

References

• Frederick Douglas Alexander Papers, J Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte