"I memorialize the memorializers that memorialize
African American Women."
Dr. Alexandria Russell is the Interim Vice President of Education & External Engagement at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She is a 2023-2024 W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. She earned Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Secondary Education from the College of Charleston in 2009 and her Ph.D. in History from the University of South Carolina in 2018.
Her book project, Black Women Legacies: Public History Sites Seen and Unseen (University of Illinois Press, Fall 2024), examines the evolution of African American women’s public commemorations across the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present.
Greetings!
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She has received several fellowships to support her research, including a Rose Library Research Fellowship at Emory University. In 2023, she was a recipient of the South Carolina Preservation Service Award for her contributions to African American Women’s History Research and Documentation.
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She is the Founder & Executive Director for Black Women Legacies, a nonprofit organization that digitally maps historical and contemporary memorials of Black women on a free, public website. As a historian and memorializer, she is committed to making her research accessible to ALL!
Research Spotlight
In April 2023, Alexandria Russell was featured in the University of South Carolina dedication ceremony for
Celia Dial Saxon Hall,
their first campus building dedicated to a Black person.
Alexandria Russell’s research reveals that Saxon is the “most memorialized African American woman in South Carolina,” and she is committed to celebrating Black Women Legacies to educate our communities about the public history that surrounds them.
The Legacy of Celia Dial Saxon
Click "Full Article" below to learn more about the Life & Legacy of Celia Dial Saxon!
