Please click here to view a student eulogy for Alexander at the Virginia Veterans Cemetery at Amelia in Amelia Court House, Virginia, in 2025: https://youtu.be/KKnFm5b6lNw. 

Biography - Part 1
Early Life
Milton David “Mickey” Alexander was born on October 13, 1930, to Edith and William Alexander in Henrico, Virginia. He had one older brother named Raymond. He received the nickname “Mickey” because of his large ears. Rodriguez and his family lived in Richmond City under the shadow of Jim Crow laws. While his parents worked for White employers they had to live in the segregated Black neighborhood Lee Ward, which became part of Jackson Ward.

When Mr. Alexander was born, it was a year after the beginning of the Great Depression. As many families were forced to do during this time, the Alexander family had to make difficult decisions to survive. His father moved to Washington, D.C. where he found work as a live-in cook in a boarding house. Alexander and his mother and brother moved in with his mother’s aunt, Clara Shaffer, to save money on rent. His mother took on a job as a laborer in a steam laundry business and his great aunt worked as a maid for a White family.

During World War II, Mr. Alexander’s father would not be called up for service because he had an artificial right leg. His brother, Raymond Alexander, began serving in the military in October 1945. He was part of the occupying force in Germany. During the war, Alexander attended segregated schools including the all-Black Armstrong High School. With a desire to serve his country, he vowed to join the U.S. Army when his brother Raymond’s enlistment term ended.
Homefront
Richmond, home to Milton Alexander and the capital of Virginia, had a culturally rich and complex history. The 1950s found Richmond to be a segregated city in the wake of President Truman’s Executive Order 9981 to desegregate the military.

Jackson Ward, the African American neighborhood in which Mr. Alexander grew up, was known as the “Harlem of the South.” It was rich in African American culture and thriving Black businesses. Residents established businesses to cater to African Americans to combat the discrimination they faced in White-owned businesses. 

Maggie L. Walker founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank which provided economic freedom and empowerment to African Americans. Neverett Eggleston established the Hotel Eggleston, providing African Americans a place to stay when visiting Richmond. Guests, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Oliver Hill, and Spottswood Robinson III, established their civil rights law practices in Jackson Ward. Jackson Ward became a community where African Americans could be treated with dignity.

In the 1950s, the General Assembly of Virginia decided to build Interstate 95 through the middle of Jackson Ward. This decision led to the destruction of historic Black homes and businesses and displaced thousands of its residents, tearing the community apart.

Schools throughout Virginia were segregated during the 1950s. The Virginia Constitution stated that “White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school.” As a result of segregation, schools for African Americans were inferior and overcrowded. One such school was Robert Russa Moton High School in Prince Edward County, Virginia. 

Moton High School had been built in 1939 under the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. It was built to hold 180 students, but by 1951 over 450 students attended the school. Despite repeated pleas to the Prince Edward School Board to build a larger school, the board responded by putting up tar paper shacks.

Because the school board refused to address the needs of the students of Moton High School, Barbara Johns led a strike of her fellow students on April 23, 1951 to demand a new school. Barbara Johns reached out to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Richmond. Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson from Jackson Ward and NAACP lawyers agreed to help the students if they would be willing to go beyond just asking for a new segregated school, and instead ask for integrated schools; 117 students agreed. 

Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson filed a suit with the Richmond, Virginia Courts in May 1951. The case, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, was heard by the U.S. District Court in Richmond from February 25 to 29, 1952. On March 7, 1952, the panel ruled that segregation had not caused harm to the students of Moton High School and did not violate their rights. They appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their case became one of the five cases that made up the Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and it was the only one led by students. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional and violated the rights of students.

By the 1940s and 1950s Richmond, Virginia was known for its tobacco industry. Major tobacco companies such as Philip Morris, Larus and Brother, and P. Lorriland thrived in Richmond. Philip Morris integrated its factory in 1933 over 30 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 required them to do so. In 1953 Larus & Brother founded the first Richmond-based television station, WRVA-TVA.

The tobacco industry became so prevalent in Richmond that in 1949 Richmonders began hosting the National Tobacco Festival. They continued to hold it annually until 1984.

Biography - Part 2

Military Experience
Milton Alexander made the decision at a young age to join the military to serve his country. When his brother Raymond served in the U.S. Army, Alexander vowed that when his brother’s enlistment was completed, he would join. On June 8, 1948, at the age of 17, he dropped out of high school and enlisted. Because he was under 18, his mother had to provide her permission. 

Despite President Truman’s issuance of Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which mandated the end of discrimination in the military, the implementation did not happen immediately. As a result, when Alexander enlisted in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, he was most likely placed in a segregated unit. 

Alexander’s first assignment was to serve as part of the Occupation Force in Western Germany, for which he received the Occupation Medal. His three-year enlistment term was over in 1951, but the Korean War extended his service by 11 months.

Alexander’s Official Military Personnel File was lost in the 1973 fire in St. Louis, making it challenging to trace the stages of his service. He told other Veterans of his service in Korea, where he served as a mortar gunner on a mortar crew. Alexander served as the gunner, and he eventually rose to the rank of corporal, commanding his mortar crew. A mortar crew was part of an infantry unit and provided artillery support to the infantry, hitting long-range targets.

He spoke about the Battle of the Outposts, which included the initial seizing of Pork Chop Hill. During this time when reporters would only speak to White soldiers, Mr. Alexander participated with his fellow African American soldiers to protest the discrimination they faced. 

Alexander’s DD-214 does not reflect this service in Korea through medals, but confirms that the majority of his service was spent overseas.

Alexander returned to the United States in spring 1953 and was stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky with the Third Armored Division before he was honorably discharged from the military May 7, 1953. He returned home to Richmond, but would not speak about what happened in the war with his family. He did not want to burden them. He would only speak to other Veterans.

Veteran Experience
Shortly after being discharged from the military, Alexander married Estelle Scott in Richmond, Virginia, and became a plumber for the city of Richmond. He served in that job for 35 years. He and Estelle had three children. In 1960, they divorced. 

Alexander later met Mary Edith Johnson at church. On April 26, 1967, they married at Gospel Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. They blended their families bringing their children from their previous marriages together, his three and Mary’s four. They never viewed any of their children as step children, but rather all as “their children.” They had two additional children together, Sandra, who died at four months, and Sylvia. 

Milton Alexander was very involved and loved to be of service at Gospel Baptist Church. He served both as a Chairman of the Trustee Board, acting as the right-hand-man to the pastor, and as Chairman of the Usher Board, which oversaw the ushers and made sure everything was set for religious services. Alexander not only attended events he also helped to organize them along with his family. His children have followed in his footsteps and serve in many of the roles he did.

With nine children the Mr. Alexander’s household was bustling with liveliness. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander not only raised their own children but they also welcomed foster children, loving them as their own. Mr. Alexander also served as a father figure to many children within his community who were without one in their own homes. He took in other elderly family members who could not support themselves. No matter who they were, what their age was, relationship, or occupation, Mr. Alexander always showed kindness and compassion towards others, and made them feel valued.

Commemoration
Milton Alexander throughout his life built a legacy of love and service. Through his example he showed others the importance of treating others with kindness and respect, of doing and standing up for what is right and just, and striving to make a positive difference in the world. He stressed to his children that a life well lived is one in which you open your heart to others. 

When Mr. Alexander became ill and suffered for some time, he did not let his illness define him. He continued to be an example to others of what it means to love and serve. He passed away on March 31, 2019, but his legacy lives on through his children, grandchildren, and all those whose lives he touched. He is buried at Virginia Veterans Cemetery at Amelia in Amelia Court House, Virginia.

Students in front of the all-Black Armstrong High School where Milton Alexander attended, c.1930. Courtesy of The Valentine Museum.

Several dozen African American students posed outside of a high school entrance.

Milton Alexander in his U.S. Army uniform, 1948. Courtesy of Sylvia Williams.

A photograph of Alexander in his military uniform. Love, Mickey is written on the photo.

Milton Alexander received an Occupation Medal for his service in West Germany. U.S. Air Force Personnel Center.

An Army of Occupation (Germany) medal on a red, white, and black ribbon.

Milton Alexander’s DD-214, issued May 7, 1952. Certain information has been redacted for privacy reasons. Virginia Department of Veteran Services.

Milton Alexander, shortly after being discharged from the United States Army. Courtesy of Sylvia Williams.

A picture of Alexander as a young Veteran wearing a coat and tie.

Milton Alexander with his family at his 79th birthday party, October 2009. Courtesy of Sylvia Williams.

A large African American family at a birthday party.

Program for Milton Alexander’s Celebration of Life held at the Gospel Baptist Church, April 6, 2019. Courtesy of Sylvia Williams.

MILTON D ALEXANDER

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