LaWanda Fenlason Cox (1909–2005) was a pioneering historian of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

and the period of

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

. Cox was born on September 24, 1909, in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Washington. She attended Washington High School in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. Later, she received her Bachelors at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

in 1931, her masters from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

(1934) and her Ph.D. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1941. Cox studied at Smith College with Merle Curti a social historian, and at Berkeley with John Schuster Taylor an economist. She was a member of the history faculty at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

and the

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's Graduate Center (and briefly, at

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) from 1940, until her retirement from teaching in 1971. She remained an active historian until the loss of her sight, in 1989; she died on February 2, 2005, in

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Career

She was the author of several major works including, ''Politics, Principle, and Prejudice 1865-1866: Dilemma of Reconstruction America'' (1963) which she wrote with her husband, John H. Cox; both shared the 1964 Dunning Prize for this work. She also wrote on her own: ''Reconstruction: The Negro, and the New South'' (1973), and also ''Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study of Presidential Leadership'' (1981).

Bibliography

* Cox, LaWanda. ''Lincoln and Black Freedom: A Study in Presidential Leadership.'' Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1981. * Cox, LaWanda, and John H. ''Politics, Principle, and Prejudice'' ''1865-1866: Dilemma of Reconstruction America.'' New York: Free Press, 1963. * Cox, LaWanda. ''Reconstruction: The Negro, and the New South.'' Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1973.

References

1909 births 2005 deaths American women academics Historians of the Reconstruction Era Hunter College faculty Smith College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Oregon alumni American women historians Writers from Aberdeen, Washington Writers from New York (state) Biographers of Abraham Lincoln {{US-historian-stub