Oliver Cox

Oliver Cromwell Cox (24 August 1901 – 4 September 1974) was a Trinidadian-American sociologist. He was born into a middle-class family in Port of Spain, Trinidad and emigrated to the United States in 1919.

Cox was a founder of the world-systems perspective, which posits a socioeconomic system that encompasses part or all of the globe. Additionally, he 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.

Family Cox's parents were William Raphael Cox and Virginia Blake Cox. William was fairly prosperous by Trinidadian standards of the time. He worked as the captain of a revenue schooner, and later as a customs and excise officer. 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. In 1943, Reginald transitioned from the position of teacher to Inspector of Schools. He later became a city councilman, an alderman, and then mayor of Port Spain.

Education

Early Education While in Trinidad, Cox attended St. Thomas Boys' School, where he studied the usual range of primary school subjects. After his family emigrated to the United States, he attended Central YMCA High School and Crane Junior College in Chicago. Growing up in Trinidad, Cox was removed from the racial discrimination and hostilities present in the U.S. His youthful perspective was shaped by being a member of the majority group in Trinidad's predominantly black world, where white Europeans were considered outsiders. This perspective influenced his later research and sociological exploration. In 1929, he had poliomyelitis (polio), causing both legs to be permanently disabled. He used a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. In 1949, he moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he taught at Lincoln University until retiring in 1970. Upon encouragement by his colleague, Alvin W. Rose, a sociology professor at Detroit's Wayne State University, Cox accepted a position there as visiting professor in the early 1970s. in his critiques of capitalism and race in Caste, Class and Race (1948), Foundations of Capitalism (1959), Capitalism and American Leadership (1962), Capitalism as a System (1964), and his last, Jewish Self-Interest and Black Pluralism (1974). 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, which he called "The Black Bourgeoisie School" headed by E. Franklin Frazier.

Caste, Class and Race (1948) In 1948, Cox published his most profound and influential book, Caste, Class and Race, just ten years after obtaining his Ph.D. in sociology. The book provided an alternative to the liberal pluralist view of race by attempting to integrate race and class. Cox believed that the racialized system in the U.S. 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 American Sociological Association (ASA) hands out two annual awards in honor of Cox: "The Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities' Oliver Cromwell Cox Article Award (for Anti-Racist Scholarship)" and "The Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities' Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award (for Anti-Racist Scholarship)". In 1971, he was the first ever recipient of ASA's DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award (later renamed the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award). In 1968, he received the W. E. B. DuBois Award, given by the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists.

Selected works Thesis "Factors Affecting the Marital Status of Negroes in the United States," University of Chicago (PhD, Sociology), 1938

Books Caste, Class, and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics, 1948 Foundations of Capitalism, 1959 Capitalism as a System, 1964 Race Relations: Elements and Social Dynamics, 1976

Book Chapters "Leadership Among Negroes in the United States," in Studies in Leadership, by A. W. Gouldner (ed.), 1950 "Introduction," in The Black Anglo Saxons, by Nathan Hare, 1965.

Journal Articles "Marital Status and Employment of Women," Sociology and Social Research, 25, 1940 "Employment, Education, and Marriage of Young Negro Adults," Journal of Negro Education, 10, 1941 "Lynching and Status Quo," Journal of Negro Education, 14, 1945 "Jewish Self-Interest in 'Black Pluralism'", The Sociological Quarterly, 15(2), 1974

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. https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/14325