When was elbert frank cox born and died

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  Elbert Frank Cox

  American mathematician (1895–1969)

  Elbert Frank Cox (5 December 1895 – 28 November 1969) was an American mathematician. He was the first African American to receive a PhD in mathematics, which he earned at Cornell University in 1925.

  Early life

  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 1900, 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.^[1]

  Education

  Indiana University

  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. There were thre

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  Throughout IU’s history, there have been countless examples of greatness and outstanding achievement by its African American students. It is important to remember those students who, despite being faced with overwhelming social challenges due to their race, made ripples through academia that have lasted for years. For this year’s Black History Month, we remember one of those students whose accomplishments made it possible for others to strive towards the same goal: Elbert F. Cox. Cox was the first African American in the country, and thought to be the first Black person in the entire world, to receive his PhD in mathematics, but not before receiving his undergraduate degree from IU.

  Racial Tensions in Evansville

  Cox was born on December 5^th, 1895 in Evansville, Indiana. Evansville, like a majority of the towns at the time, had a segregated school system that saw African American students receiving an inadequate, underfunded education. But Evansville may have been even more racially divided than ma