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Oliver Cox, Sociologist born

Oliver Cox

*Oliver Cox was born on this date in 1901. He was a Black lawyer and sociologist.

Oliver Cromwell Cox, from Port of Spain, Trinidad, was one of eight children raised by his uncle Reginald, a teacher.

He came to the United States and earned a Bachelor of Science in Law from Northwestern University in 1928. Initially, he had planned to return to Trinidad after graduation; however, he succumbed to poliomyelitis which permanently crippled both legs.  Faced with this disability, he felt compelled to find another career. He entered the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. In June 1932, he graduated with a Master’s Degree.

He also attended the University of Chicago Department of Sociology and graduated in 1938 with a Ph.D. in Sociology. In 1949, he joined the faculty of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, and stayed there until 1970, when he joined the faculty of Wayne State University in Michigan.

Cox is best known for his attack on the “caste school of race relations." In later years, he argued his Marxist views of capitalism and race in three books: Foundations of Capitalism (1959), Capitalism and American Leadership (1962), and Capitalism as a System (1964). His final work was Jewish Self-Interest and Black Pluralism (1974). Oliver Cromwell Cox died on September 4, 1974.
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