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Most of the tour group connected to the Black Women in Sport Foundation had moved ahead, further into the All American: The Power of Sports exhibit at the National Archives in Washington D.C.

After all, there was more to see in the exhibit before a private tour of the Rotunda featuring the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence as well as the Emancipation Proclamation and General Order No. 3 and time was running out.

But Morristown’s Alpha Alexander lingered.

Something in the exhibit had caught her attention.

Maybe it was because as she was seated in her wheelchair, the display was right at eye level but more likely it was because the document in the case – vanilla colored paper with the words boxed in by a thick red line – was something very dear to Alexander’s heart and life’s mission.

She leaned in, close to the glass and read the words that changed the trajectory of her life.

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

It was Title IX, which prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from excluding students from participating in educational and athletic programs on the basis of sex.

It was the first time Alexander – who spent her professional career in women’s sports – had ever seen the actual document.

“It was very meaningful,” she said, “especially after this past year with the 50th anniversary celebration of Title IX. I can’t even explain how many interviews I’ve given. I started replaying when I used to come to D.C. and go to the congressional offices to lobby for the bill. It just brought back a lot of memories.”

Alexander’s people were from Morristown, but her dad thought she’d have more opportunities in the north and raised her in Dayton, Ohio. After attending a high school that did not offer girls sports, she was a four-sport athlete at the College of Wooster – volleyball, lacrosse, tennis and basketball – where she earned her degree in physical education.

“I entered college in 1972 and that’s the year that it came into to law,” she said.

Alexander said the previous weekend she’d been back to her college to celebrate 50 years of Title IX, a gathering of Alumni women athletes where they were presented with the athletic letters, they hadn’t been given 50 years earlier.

“I think all those memories were rushing into my head,” she said.

After college, Alexander worked as graduate assistant in Women’s Athletics at Temple University before becoming Assistant Women’s Athletic Director and then Women’s Athletic Director, earning her master’s degree and doctorate from the school. She went on to an extensive career in YWCA National office. She also served on the Olympic and Pan-American Sports Advisory Council, the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors, and was president of the Arthur Ashe Foundation.

In 1992, Alexander co-founded the Black Women in Sport Foundation with Tina Sloan Green, Nikki Franke, and Linda Greene – the organization which would later serve as consultant for the very National Archives exhibit, she was touring.

Alexander hadn’t been able to go to the exhibit’s opening, but the Archives helped arrange the private tour for Alexander, some friends and board members of the foundation.

Following the sports exhibit and a display of the 1297 Magna Carta, it was up to the Rotunda to see the nation’s founding documents as well as the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln and General Order No. 3 – the order that would finally reach the enslaved people of Texas, telling them of their freedom and becoming the basis for Juneteenth, which is now a national holiday.

“I never thought in my lifetime I would see all of that, much less see everything in one day,” she said. “For me to actually lay my eyes on the documents and being able to see all of those in one day, emotionally it hit me, made me think about the whole construction of this country is – what it was built on,” she said. “That’s what democracy is about – to think about you’re looking at the document that went out to Texas to free the slaves.

“It makes me very proud of being American. I’ve had the chance of traveling around the world, I always say there’s still nothing better than being home in the United States.”

Alexander toured the archives the Saturday before Juneteenth, then returned to Morristown for Juneteenth festivities locally.

“It just really makes you very appreciative, coming back and having a very successful event we have here in Morristown, Tenn.,” she said.