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The Rev. Dr. Sadie S. Mitchell (née Sadie Alberta Stridiron; born 4 January 1921) is an American civic leader in Philadelphia, known for her advocacy for children, particularly in connection to anti-poverty, racial equality, and education.

Career

 * bio

Educator in urban public schools
Before becoming a priest, the Rev. Dr. Mitchell had spent 39 years, from 1942 to 1981, as an educator in the Philadelphia public schools. She spent much of her career as an administrator, notably as:

Leadership in urban public schools

 * 1968–1969: Principal of the Henry Longfellow Elementary School
 * 1969–1972: Principal of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar School
 * 1973–1980: Principal of Joseph C. Ferguson Elementary School, which, in 1977, had 950 students

In 1975, while working as a school administrator, she co-founded, with three other public school administrators, the Black Women's Educational Alliance in Philadelphia. The other three co-founders were (i) Florence H. Scott, EdD, (ii) Gwendolyn Gates-Hewlett, EdD (née Gwendolyn Gates; 1928–1983), and (iii) Leontine Scott (née Leontine G. Dillon; 1928–2011), granddaughter of the African American artist, Frank Joseph Dillon (1856–1954), of Mount Holly, New Jersey. The organization, which endures today (as of 2024), was founded with 36 charter members. In 2016, there were four chapters: the Philadelphia chapter, the Montgomery County chapter, a New Jersey chapter, and the National Board, the governing body of all chapters.

Episcopal priesthood
Mitchell became an ordained deacon in the Episcopal church in 1987 and a priest in 1988. In 1990, Mitchell earned a Master of Divinity, from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Her ordinations transpired in the same diocese that, 13 years earlier, had ordained the first female Episcopal priests, who became known as the "Philadelphia Eleven."


 * 1) 1988–1989: Priest intern Diocese of Pennsylvania (St. Mark's)
 * 2) 1989–1990: Old Swedes Church (Christ Church), Upper Merion, serving as Pastor
 * 3) 1990–1992: Church of St. Luke and The Epiphany, serving as Assistant to the Rector, the Reverend Canon Charles Luther Lewis Poindexter (1932–2014).
 * 4) 1992–19??: Associate Priest at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, is now retired.

In 1990, The Rev. Dr. Mitchell was part of a group of Philadelphia ministers, lawyers, and civic leaders, including Senator Arlen Specter, who decried, on the basis of civil rights, the actions of Philadelphia law enforcement, who, on May 13, 1985, as a means for evicting armed MOVE protesters who were holed up in fortified row houses at 6221 Osage Avenue in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of West Philadelphia, dropped a bomb on one of the row houses which resulted in 11 deaths (John Africa, five other adults, and five children aged 7 to 13) the destruction of 61 homes that left 250 homeless. The Rev. Dr. Mitchell, more vocally criticized the lack of response on several levels, particularly the refusal by the U.S. Department of Justice, led by John R. Dunne, to hold hearings and by the lack of reparations of those left homeless.

Secondary education

 * 1938: Graduated, Overbrook High School at 59th Street and Lancaster Avenue in the Overbrook neighborhood of West Philadelphia

Higher eduation

 * 1942: Bachelor of Science in Education, Temple University, Philadelphia
 * 1968: Master of Science in Educational Administration, University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education
 * 1978: Doctor of Education, Nova Southeastern University, Davie, Florida
 * 1990: Master of Divinity, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

National

 * Member, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
 * Member, Delta Sigma Theta (chaplain since 1988)

Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania

 * 1991-1995: Member, Family Services Board
 * Member, Philadelphia Theological Institute
 * 2008–present: Honorary member of the Board of Trustees, Episcopal Community Services
 * 2010–present: Anti-Racism Team

Other

 * 1988–1994: Secretary, Bethesda Court Personal Care Institution, Philadelphia
 * Member, American Academy of Religion
 * Member, Society of Biblical Literature

Publications

 * "The design and implementation of a program to reduce the number of dropouts in inner city schools," by Samuel P. Beard, Jr., Sadie S. Mitchell & Walter H. Scott, Washington D.C.: Educational Resources Information Center, May 1, 1978;



Addresses

 * 1921: 2235 W. Oxford Street, in the Sharswood neighborhood of North Philadelphia. Her mother, Lucinda Stridiron, had been living with her father and mother (Sadie's maternal grandparents), John Henry Clifton (1867–1921) and Sarah (Sallie) Rebecca Carter (maiden; 1869–1934)
 * 1930: 405 N. 53rd Street (owned), between Parrish & Ogden Streets, in the Haddington, Philadelphia neighborhood of West Philadelphia, less than 2 miles south of Fairmount Park
 * 1938: 405 N. 53rd Street
 * 1940: 405 N. 53rd Street (owned)
 * 1976: 5510 Locust Street, Philadelphia (Charles T. Mitchell obit)

Parents
Rev. Mitchell's parents, Joseph Alphonso Stridiron (1888–1955) and Lucinda Gertrude Clifton (maiden; 1900–1956) married February 12, 1918, at the Crucifixion Episcopal Church (Episcopal) at Bainbridge and Eighth Streets in South Philadelphia. Rev. Mitchell (née Sadie Alberta Stridiron) was born January 4, 1921. She was baptized April 17, 1921, at the Church of the Crucifixion by the Rev. Robert Henry Tabb (1874–1951), church rector. Sadie's sister and three brothers were also baptized there.

Late husband
The Rev. Dr. Sadie S. Mitchell married Charles Thomas Mitchell, Jr. (1906–1976), August 19, 1946, in Philadelphia. He, too, was a civic leader in Philadelphia.


 * Mitchell was an organizer, around 1941, of the Philadelphia Municipal Recreation Teachers Association, a local of the AFL, and, in 1953, was its President.


 * In the 1960s, he served as Field Director of the Philadelphia Anti-Poverty Action Committee (PAAC), an initiative established February 22, 1965, by Mayor James H. J. Tate. Charles T. Mitchell, in his youth, had been star basketball player for Howard University.


 * In Philadelphia, he played in a black basketball league – with the Scholastics, the Philadelphia Giants, and the Quaker City Elks. He coached the Peerless team and was a referee in the league for many years. For 32 years, from 1928, Charlie Mitchell, Jr. (aka "Charley Mitchell" or "Mitch"), was Supervisor of the Seger Recreation Center at 10th and Lombard Streets in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Center City.


 * In 1928, the City of Philadelphia, Department of Welfare, Bureau of Recreation, appointed Mitchell as supervisor of the Seger Recreation Center, a position he held until 1952.


 * In 1952, Mitchell was Acting District Supervisor, Department of Recreation, City of Philadelphia. This was when he became highly involved in helping handicapped children, notably those with cerebral palsy, as well as those with intellectual disabilities. The United Cerebral Palsy Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity designated an annual award in Mitchell's name, The Charles T. Mitchell, Jr., Award, the associations highest award for a client. Notable recipients include:


 * 1979: Christina (Cricket) Schindler (born abt. 1953), born without fully developed arms and legs, Schindler was a leader of the Cerebral Palsy Association's social recreation and bowling programs.
 * 1980: William Paul Wright (1923–2006) and wife of 26 years, Nancy Wright (né Nancy Ann Dalgleish; 1930–2003). The Wrights, despite both having cerebral palsy and in wheelchairs, William has been a gardener, using special equipment, at the Morris Arboretum since 1963


 * Beginning 1954, Mitchell became District Supervisor, Department of Recreation, City of Philadelphia, for West Philadelphia and Germantown.


 * Mitchell was a life member of the NAACP and former board member.


 * Mitchell was a life member of the Quaker City Elks No. 720, of which, from about 1945 to 1947, he was Exalted Ruler (basically, the CEO of Lodge 720) and National Youth Director. In 1945, Lodge 720 was the second largest African American Elks Lodge in the country.


 * From 1955 to 1961, Mitchell was President of Philadelphia County Chapter, Pennsylvania Association of the Arc of the United States, then called the National Association for Retarded Children. When he was elected, there were 1,600 members, of which less that 1 percent were African American. In 1961, he became Vice President of the Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Children (PARK) and was Chairman of its Recreation Committee. ARC of Pennsylvania has established an award in Mitchell's name: the Charles T. Mitchell, Jr. Humanitarian Award.
 * Selected recipients:
 * 1996: Elmer MacDonald Matter (born 1919)
 * Joe MacDonald (né Joseph MacDonald), CEO (until 2016) of Growth Horizons, Inc. (formerly known as the Philadelphia Center for Developmental Services)


 * Mitchell retired in 1971.

Charley Mitchell, the Seger Recreation Center principal and erstwhile basketball promoter, is beating the drum for a musical program to be held Thursday night in the interests of inter-racial relations at 1920 Rittenhouse Square

Mitchell was known in Philadelphia as an exponent – an influential sports impresario – of track and field events, basketball, and baseball. Seger Park, in 1976, was renamed Charles T. Mitchell, Jr., Playground. But, because the neighboring community had gotten used to calling the playground Seger Park, it was difficult to enforce the new name. A compromise was reached with the ordinance of April 18, 1977, that designated the newer, one-story building within Charles T. Mitchell, Jr. Playground, the Charles M. Seger Recreation Building.

Philadelaphia basketball teams

 * Southwest Scholastics of Philadelphia
 * Philadelphia Giants, Danny McClellan, coach
 * Quaker City Elks – Mitch was a guard on the team from about 1927 to 1929
 * Peerless Athletic Club of New Castle, Mitch was coach
 * Philadelphia Toppers, Mitch was coach in 1942 whe Wilmeth Sidat-Singh was on the team
 * Big Y (Christian Street YMCA)
 * Philadelphia Panthers was a semi-pro team. Notable players included Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, Jackie Bethards, and Billy Yancey
 * Philadelphia Americans, owned by Jules Aronson (né Jules Ephraim Aronson; 1879–1947)
 * Philadelphia Sphas

Other teams that played the Philadelphia league

 * Atlantic City Vandals
 * Atlantic City Buccaneers
 * Baltimore Mets
 * Commonwealth Big Five of Harlem, debuted in 1922
 * Ct. C
 * Leondi
 * Renaissance
 * New York Original Celtics
 * Baltimore Athenians
 * New York Renaissance Big Five (aka the "Rens" or the "Gothamites") debuted 1923
 * Washington, D.C., Elks (Columbia Lodge No. 85)
 * Pittsburgh Ritz Club
 * New York Violets
 * Wilmington Blue Bombers
 * Pittsburgh Scholastics

Basketball venues

 * Philadelphia – New Broadway Athletic Center, at Broad and Christian Streets (1927)
 * Palais Royal Court – at Broad and Bainbridge Streets
 * Scenic Auditorium


 * The basketball events charged admission, generally 75¢ to $1, and often featured dancing before and after.

Other family
The Rev. Dr. Sadie S. Mitchell's maternal aunt, Florence Ramos C. Ramos (née Florence H. Clifton; 1902–1985) spent her entire career, 43 years (from 1924 to 1967), teaching 1st and 2nd grade at the Singerly School (later known as the Douglass-Singerly School) at 22nd and Norris Streets in Philadelphia. Rev. Mitchell's grandfather, John Henry Clifton (1867–1921), was also an educator who, among other things, taught at the Octavius V. Catto School, then located on Lombard Street, near South 20th Street (south side of Lombard Street, west of 20th). The building for the Catto School was erected sometime after 1878 and closed in 1910.

Evorn "Ronnie" Gilmore Stridiron Stewart (née Evorn Gilmore; 1928–2013), wife of Rev. Mitchell's cousin, Clifton Thomas Maxwell Stridiron, Sr. (1923–1979), taught high school English and French in Bowie, Maryland, before accepting the position of librarian at the Brownsville Children's Library in Brooklyn. Ronnie eventually moved to Philadelphia, where she had a long career as a librarian with the Philadelphia public schools.