College educated, land owner, businesswoman, and highly regarded postmistress, Minnie Cox was doing everything right in her town of Indianola, Mississippi. However, some white residents were determined to do her wrong.
Cox lived comfortably on the white side of Indianola. But in 1902, her life changed when a depression hit the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta. Small farmers and workers struggled. Others thought that Black people were acquiring too much political power. Many white residents couldn't stand the thought of Black people like Cox doing well while their own lives were hard.
A newspaper editor called her “negro wench,” and accused her of being part of a “negro domination” that was a threat to white people. And instead of defending their respectable Black neighbor against those ridiculous claims, the white residents of Indianola bought into it.
The residents pushed to have Cox replaced by a white man and accused her of foolishness, like allowing Black people to loiter at her post office. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt tried to protect Cox by temporarily shutting the facility, but she was forced to flee the town when authorities discovered a plot to lynch her.
Cox could not be educated, successful, or respected enough to be safe from anti-Blackness. We must remember that we cannot earn our way out of hate. But we can fight our way to liberation.