{"id":31997,"date":"2024-02-15T09:36:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T14:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=31997"},"modified":"2024-02-15T09:36:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T14:36:59","slug":"cox-math-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/cox-math-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Cornellian Who Broke Racial Barriers in Math"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">After becoming the first Black person to earn a PhD in the field, Elbert Cox, PhD 1925, spent a lifetime inspiring others to follow<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By <strong>Alexandra Bond \u201912<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Mathematician <a href=\"https:\/\/maa.org\/programs-and-communities\/outreach-initiatives\/summa\/summa-archival-record\/elbert-frank-cox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elbert Cox, PhD 1925<\/a>, is a legend in his field: when he graduated from Cornell nearly a century ago, he became the first Black person to receive a doctorate in math, not only in this country but anywhere in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>And after breaking that barrier, he went on to a lifetime of teaching and mentorship, holding the door open behind him for others to follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAt that time, it was hard for nonwhite people to be admitted to just about any institution\u2014but from the very beginning, Cornell has had a legacy of accepting students of all races,\u201d observes math department chair <a href=\"https:\/\/math.cornell.edu\/tara-holm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tara Holm<\/a>. \u201cSo in many ways it was incredibly remarkable for Cox to have earned his PhD, and in others it was just business as usual at Cornell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cox studied theoretical math; as Holm explains it, \u201che used abstract mathematical structures to better understand patterns in numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"716\" height=\"894\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A.jpg\" alt=\"Cox in academic regalia\" class=\"wp-image-32022 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A.jpg 716w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-632x790.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-316x395.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-280x350.jpg 280w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-140x175.jpg 140w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-70x87.jpg 70w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-400x500.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-200x250.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/Elbert-Cox-ca.-1925-A-100x125.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\" \/><figcaption>Cox in academic regalia.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>But he also had wide-ranging interests, taking courses in physics, botany, zoology, chemistry, and even dairy science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the workload and rigors of grad student life were challenging, notes a 2000 biography of Cox in <em>American Mathematical Monthly<\/em>, \u201cthese were years that he remembered fondly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who knew Cox\u2014who passed away in 1969 at age 73\u2014have described him as a conservative, patient, and reserved man who always wore a tie to dinner. Born in Evansville, Indiana, he grew up in a mixed-race neighborhood in an era when racial tensions ran high. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite attending segregated schools where resources were woefully insufficient, he became a strong proponent of education\u2014likely due to the influence of his father, a longtime elementary school teacher and principal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignwide is-style-solid-color\"><blockquote><p>Despite attending segregated schools where resources were woefully insufficient, he became a strong proponent of education.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cox was one of just three African Americans in his undergraduate class at Indiana University, where he earned a degree in math (and where the word \u201ccolored\u201d was emblazoned across his transcript). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn class at Indiana, while everyone else was in the lecture hall, the Blacks had to sit out in the hallway with the door open so they could hear,\u201d recalls Elbert Lucien Cox Sr., one of Cox\u2019s four sons, noting that despite the unequal treatment, \u201cmy father received an A in every mathematics course he took.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A century after he graduated, the school honored Cox with a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.libraries.indiana.edu\/iubarchives\/2017\/02\/09\/efcox\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2017 story<\/a> about his accomplishments, acknowledging the racism he&#8217;d faced during his time on campus and noting, &#8220;Cox (understandably) may have had mixed feelings about IU by the time he left.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also observed that\u2014given Ezra Cornell and A.D. White&#8217;s forward-thinking opinions on educational access\u2014&#8221;the founder and the first president of Cornell University made sure that Cornell would be a perfect fit for Cox.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1929, Cox joined the math faculty at Howard University, where he would go on to teach for nearly four decades. During his tenure, he was instrumental in expanding the department and supervised a record-breaking 30 master\u2019s students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A page from Cox's PhD thesis\" class=\"wp-image-32041 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-1264x1580.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-632x790.jpg 632w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-316x395.jpg 316w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-280x350.jpg 280w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-140x175.jpg 140w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-70x87.jpg 70w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-400x500.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-200x250.jpg 200w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1-100x125.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/cox-thesis-76-A-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><figcaption>A page from his PhD thesis.<\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>Back then, Howard didn\u2019t have a PhD program in math, but in 1975\u2014ten years after Cox\u2019s retirement, and thanks in large part to the groundwork he\u2019d laid\u2014it became the first historically Black college or university to establish one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The university memorialized him with the Elbert F. Cox Scholarship Fund, aimed at encouraging Black students to pursue math at the graduate level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy father was not one to wear his achievements on his sleeve, so to speak,\u201d recalls Cox Sr.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t go around talking about them; in fact, he didn\u2019t do a whole lot of talking in general. But when he did say something, it always made an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Holm notes, people of color remain severely underrepresented in mathematics. Of the 1,003 PhDs granted to U.S. citizens in the fields of statistics, biostatics, math, and applied statistics in 2021\u201322, only 30\u2014less than 3%\u2014went to Black or African American individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that disparity prevails across many STEM disciplines, says Cox\u2019s grandson Elbert Lucien Cox Jr., a program executive in astrophysics at NASA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn his time, my grandfather was the only African American in a field of Caucasian students; he had to break through barriers, and he did it with excellence,\u201d Cox Jr. says. \u201cHis legacy\u2014his hard work, what he was up against, and how he pressed on\u2014has instilled in me the same drive to be the best in my profession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>He had to break through barriers, and he did it with excellence.<\/p>\n<cite><strong>Elbert Lucien Cox Jr.<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>When Cox received his doctorate, he was only the second Black man to graduate with a Cornell PhD in any subject; the first, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.cornell.edu\/stories\/2022\/02\/fellowship-honors-cornells-first-black-doctorate-phd-1921-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Wyatt Turner<\/a>, had earned his in biology four years earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Cox\u2019s advisor realized his status as a pioneer, he urged him to submit his dissertation to universities in other countries\u2014a common practice at the time, since granting PhDs was a relatively new endeavor in the U.S.\u2014to ensure his achievement could not be disputed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Cox\u2019s work was rejected by multiple institutions in Europe, likely due to his race, it was accepted by the Imperial University in Sendai, Japan, solidifying his accomplishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within two decades, some two dozen African Americans had followed in Cox\u2019s footsteps by receiving PhDs from Cornell\u2014including seven in math or physics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(All images provided.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Published February 15, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After becoming the first Black person to earn a PhD in the field, Elbert Cox, PhD 1925, spent a lifetime inspiring others to follow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":32020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[17588,626,7451],"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-31997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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