Oliver Cromwell Cox (24 August 1901 – 4 September 1974) was a Trinidadian-American sociologist. Cox was born into a middle-class family in Port of Spain, Trinidad and emigrated to the United States in 1919. Cox was often misconceived as a Marxist due to his focus on class conflict and capitalism; however, Cox fundamentally disagreed with Marx's analysis of capitalism. One of Cox's points of contention with Marx was to argue that foreign trade, and not commodity production for the private accumulation of capital, was the primary driving force in capitalist development. Cox was a founder of the world-systems perspective, which posits a socioeconomic system that encompasses part or all of the world. Additionally, Cox was an important scholar of racism and its relationship to the development and spread of global capitalism, and a member of the Chicago School of Sociology. In 1929 he developed poliomyelitis (polio), causing both his legs to be permanently crippled and that was when he gave up his plans to study law. He was the son of William Raphael Cox and Virginia Blake Cox.

Family

Cox's father was William Raphael Cox. He worked as a captain of a revenue schooner, and later on as a customs and excise officer. Virginia Blake Cox was the mother of Cox and his seven siblings. Cox's uncle, Reginald Vidale was the Catholic school master at St. Thomas Boys’ School. He was a prominent teacher in the local school system and was highly respected in the community. Reginald transitioned from the position of a teacher to the Inspector of schools in 1943 and later became a city councilman, an alderman, and then mayor of Port Spain. Cox had three nieces Ann V. Awon-Pantin, Esther Awon-Thomasos, and Juliet Awon-Uibopuu/

Education

Early Education

He attended Saint Thomas Boys' School when he was in Trinidad, where he studied Math, English, Language and more. Cox attended YMCA High school and Crane Junior College in Chicago. Growing up in Trinidad, Cox was removed from the racial discrimination and hostilities that are present in the United States. Cox grew up as a member of the majority group, in a predominantly black world where white Europeans were considered outsiders. This perspective influenced Cox's research and sociological exploration.

University

In 1928, Cox earned a Law degree from Northwestern University. Cox also attended the University of Chicago Economics Department and graduated with a master's degree in 1932. From there, he continued at the University of Chicago in the Sociology Department, where he received his Ph.D. in 1938, with a dissertation entitled "Factors Affecting the Marital Status of Negroes in the United States" written under the supervision of William Fielding Ogburn.

Academia

Cox first initiated his teaching career at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. From there, he also lectured at Tuskegee Institute in 1944, where many thought he would "bring them prestige." Later in 1949, he moved to Missouri, where he taught at Lincoln University until March 11, 1970, where he told the president at the college, Walter Daniels, that he was retiring. Cox moved and accepted a position as a Visiting Professor in the sociology department that was encouraged by Alvin W. Rose at Wayne State University of Michigan.

Writings

Cox was a Marxist who criticized capitalism and race in Foundations of Capitalism (1959), Capitalism and American Leadership (1962), Capitalism as a System (1964) and his last, Jewish Self-Interest and Black Pluralism (1974). Perhaps Cox's most profound and influential book was Caste, Class and Race, published in 1948. Also in 1948 Cox published Race: A Study in Social Dynamics. In a scathing "Introduction" to The Black Anglo Saxons by Nathan Hare, Cox ridiculed what he regarded as a misguided approach to the study of race relations he called "The Black Bourgeoisie School" headed by E. Franklin Frazier. The title of Caste, Class and Race referred to the vigorous criticism of W. Lloyd Warner's caste conception of race in the USA.

Caste, Class and Race (1948)

Cox Published his most profound and influential book, Caste, Class and Race in 1948, just ten years after earning his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. Composed of over 600 pages of scholarship, the book remains a landmark of sociological analysis. Caste, Class and Race provided an alternative to the liberal pluralist view of race by attempting to integrate race and class in order to critique capitalism. Cox believed that the racialized system in the US was a result of the intersection of class and democracy. Understanding race, and race relations in the United States requires an understanding of the context and history of capitalism in America.

Awards

The Racial and Ethnic Minorities' Oliver Cromwell Cox Article Award (for Anti-Racist Scholarship) is given out annually and also The Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities' Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award (for Anti-Racist Scholarship). Cox was the first ever recipient of the DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award by the American Sociological Association.

Selected works

Archival Papers

Cox's manuscript for "Capitalism as a System" is available for research in the Oliver Cromwell Cox Papers at the Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit. http://reuther.wayne.edu/node/14325

Citations

Sources