Elbert frank cox quotes

Cox was born in Evansville, Indiana to Johnson D. Cox, a Kentucky -born teacher active in the church, and Eugenia Talbot Cox. He grew up with his parents, maternal grandmother and his brother in a racially mixed neighborhood; in , in his block, there were three Black and five white families. Cox went to a segregated college with inadequate resources.

Cox was offered a scholarship to study violin at the Prague Conservatory of Music , but chose to pursue his interest in mathematics instead. Cox studied at Indiana University Bloomington. Besides mathematics, Cox also took courses in German, English, Latin, history, hygiene , chemistry, education, philosophy and physics. Cox's brother Avalon went to Indiana University as well.

What did elbert frank cox contribute to math

There were three other Black students in his class. He received his bachelor's degree in , at a time when the transcript of every Black student had the word " Colored " printed across it. He received A's on all his exams while at Indiana. After he graduated in , Cox joined the U. Army to fight in France during World War I from to Cox returned to pursue a career in teaching, as an instructor of mathematics at a high school in Henderson, Kentucky.

In the autumn of , he was appointed as a professor in physics, chemistry and biology at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina where he also became chairman of the Department of Natural Sciences. In December , he applied for a graduate scholarship at Cornell University , one of seven American universities with a doctoral program in mathematics.

One of his references wrote a positive letter followed by another letter anticipating difficulties for him because he was a "colored man".