236:, and the redefinition of political parties put Cox at risk. White mobs began several attacks on Black professionals in Indianola. A black porter was accused of being rude to a white employee at the Brooklyn Bridge Store, resulting in a white mob's decision to close all Black businesses. Dr. J.C. Fulton, a prosperous doctor in town who ran in similar circles with Minnie Cox was threatened and run out of town. Roosevelt finally agreed to her resignation, but allowed her to keep her $ 1,100 salary through the end of her term and effectively closed the Indianola post office, writing to Cox that, "This was all I could do and the least I could do." The post office remained closed for most of 1903 while Roosevelt waited for Indianola to agree to keep Cox in office without any issue. Instead, the town sent a representative to nearby
161:. Cox was part of one of the largest cohorts at the time, with 100 graduates completing studies at the normal school to earn teaching degrees in 1888. A year later, she married Wellington Cox. Her husband was also a teacher and was principal of the Indianola Colored Public School until 1890, when he started a position with the United Railway Postal Service. Mr. Cox was able to save enough money to purchase 160 acres of land a few years before their marriage, and continuously bought and sold land thereafter. Through these ventures, the Coxes entered into the small community of wealthy Black Mississippians at the time, and lived in the white section of town. Mr. Cox served as chairman for the
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pocket. Her leadership earned much praise from
President Roosevelt, but the town of Indianola began to divide over her role, not because of her work but because she was a Black woman. A.B. Weeks, a white man, wanted the position and frequently sent letters to the White House detailing his qualifications to take the position from her. Roosevelt declined to respond. Weeks was the brother-in-law of city mayor J.L. Davis. A campaign to remove her from the position, started by Weeks and Davis, was circulated by many other white citizens in Sunflower County, including future governor
188:. When Cox's appointment expired in 1904, the Indianola post office reopened with a different postmaster. Cox and her husband returned to Indianola, where they opened the Delta Penny Savings Bank, one of the earliest black-owned banks in the state. They also founded one of the first black-owned insurance companies in the United States to offer whole life insurance, the Mississippi Life Insurance Company. They were strong supporters of black businesses in the state.
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reported that the town generally believed, "she was polite and obliging, and had, and still has, the good will of practically the entire citizenship...there was never friction between the office and its patrons...She was regarded here simply like any other negro who attends strictly to business and
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to pickup and distribute the mail. In 1904, Roosevelt was forced to reopen the post office without Minnie Cox, as federal law required all county seats to have a running post office. He required that no one related to the mob that forced Minnie out could succeed her. By then, Minnie and her family
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and remained in the role under
President Teddy Roosevelt. Though she was praised for her work in streamlining the mail system for the community, she took her position much further, installing a telephone for patrons' convenience and paying delinquent rent throughout the community out of her own
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Roosevelt initially rejected her resignation, aware of the rising racial tension in the South and the reports of happenings in
Sunflower County. He hoped to find a more peaceful solution that would allow Cox to safely remain in the role. However, Vardaman's gubernatorial rhetoric of the "negro
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displays the proper respect for the impassable link between the two races." In
Mississippi, Cox's skin color was enough to force her out of the office, whether the replacement was qualified—or even truly interested—to run the post office.
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appointed her in 1891, her prominence in the community and support of the
Republican Party secured her first term, though the lack of a qualified white candidate may have played a role. Cox again assumed the position under President
133:, Cox was dedicated to equal rights in Mississippi. Responding to the disparities in resources available to Black citizens for banking and insurance, she opened her own bank and insurance companies to protect their assets.
292:"To Do a Work that Would Be Very Far Reaching: Minnie Geddings Cox, the Mississippi Life Insurance Company, and the Challenges of Black Women's Business Leadership in the Early Twentieth-Century United States"
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In 2008, a post office building in
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When Minnie Cox served as postmistress, the position could only be appointed by the president. When
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After her husband died in 1925, Cox remarried. She and her second husband, George Key
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Cox Street and Wayne and Minnie Cox Park in
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435:"Everything that is Mean, Damnable and Cursed: Minnie Geddings Cox and the Indianola Affair"
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Minnie M. Geddings was born in 1869 to Mary
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113:(1869–1933) was an American teacher who was appointed the first Black
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626:, June 15, 2009. Joelderfner.com. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
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as her parents owned a restaurant and she was able to attend
515:"19 Feb 2004, 15 - The Enterprise-Tocsin at Newspapers.com"
352:"26 Oct 2000, 14 - The Enterprise-Tocsin at Newspapers.com"
556:"10 Jan 1903, Page 6 - Clarion-Ledger at Newspapers.com"
336:. African American Registry. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
544:. U.S. Government Printing Office. February 23, 2024.
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