Early Life
John Hanks Alexander was born on 6 January 1864 at Helena, Arkansas to former slaves James Milo Alexander and Fannie Miller Alexander. His father was a barber in Helena and acquired property there. All of the Alexander children graduated from high school and three attended Oberlin College in Ohio.
Alexander graduated number one in his high school class in Helena and soon moved to Carrollton, Mississippi to take a position as a teacher. In late 1880 he visited his uncle in Cincinnati, Ohio and ended up remaining in that city. The next year, he enrolled at Oberlin College and attended that institution until passing the entrance examination for West Point in 1883. Alexander was sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. George W. Geddes of Ohio.
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