Alice Simmons Cox

Alice G. Simmons Cox (1902-1993) was born and raised in Illinois. She graduated summa cum laude at Lombard College in 1924, which later merged with Knox College, and she married Levi C. Cox. The couple moved to Peoria and by 1931 Alice was visible publishing poetry in Star of the West magazine. Alice coproduced the first widely circulated compilation on the issue of race in the American Bahá’í community with Maye Harvey Gift eventually entitled Race and Man and, in addition to numerous other articles on other themes, produced newspaper article series published in a number of African American newspapers on the Faith and race issues. Cox was visible amidst several national and regional events on race and began to be known as an editor of various Bahá’í publications and review committees. In her later years Cox was a delegate to the National Bahá’í Convention several times and continued to serve on various committees - sources become scant but Knox College awarded her a posthumous award in 1985. The details of her last years, death and burial remain unknown to date.

Born and raised

Alice G. Simmons was white, born of Woodhull, Illinois, 8 July 1902 to H. F. Simmons, - Horace and Elizabeth - living on Church Street with relatives in Rock Island. The 1920 Census has mention of the Cox family apparently all unemployed. She graduated from the local high school in 1921 and Alice attended the Universalist founded Lombard College, which later merged with Knox College. She graduated summa cum laude and joined Phi Kappa Phi in 1924. She, the eldest daughter of her family, married Levi Cox of Woodhull the year of her graduation and they moved to Peoria, Illinois, where he had a job; The couple had a child that lived only a few months in 1927, but was visible in alumni functions of the college in 1929. The 1930 US Census has the Cox family on West Fifth Avenue in Peoria. Alice was then a newspaper reporter and Levi was a foreman at a local store.

Bahá'í, poetry, research and writing

Alice Simmons Cox first appears in Bahá'í publications in 1934 in Star of the West with a poem. In 1935 Cox co-produced a compilation of Bahá'í references to race issues with Maye Harvey Gift. The index list of references was published in World Order in 1942. which was revised and republished in expanded form in 1943.

Meanwhile Cox contributed a series of articles to World Order at least from Oct 1937 to Feb 1938 (and probably back a few months earlier in 1937.) In 1938 she became a contributing editor to World Order and on the national Study Guide Committee. In 1939 she received a letter from the Guardian about difficult health concerns, whether her’s or another’s, and contributed a poem to Bahá'í World volume 7 about the mystery of sacrifice. In 1940 Cox participated in a Race Unity event in Peoria organized by the Assembly - speakers were Dorothy Backer, Louis Gregory, and Cox. The US Census for 1940 has the Cox family still on West Fifth Avenue and she was unemployed and not looking for work though most recently had worked as a "salad girl" at a tea room and her husband was employed as a general laborer.

In 1941 Cox chaired the Ridvan Feast in Chicago during the national Convention, wrote the committee reports for the Study Outline Committee 1941 and 1942 and was promoted to be part of the editorial staff of World Order in 1941. Staring later in 1938 and on through early 1942 Cox wrote 10 more articles that were published in addition to the general editorial work. In the summer of 1941 Cox produced an Outline of Muhammad for Baha’i Study Lessons, and then an article on world peace in spring 1942. That spring Cox joined the national Race Unity Committee and she attended Louhelen. And in 1942 it was decided to expand the race issues compilation she and Gift had made in 1935. The work was done in 1943 and sent to the publishers in September. Meanwhile Cox wrote a series of articles from November 1942 to April 1943 usually in the African-American The New York Age but also in the Pittsburg Courier and other newspapers about Bahá'í views of the race issue and later in 1943 she is listed on the World Order editorial staff still but not the Race Unity committee. The revised compilation, Race and Man, was noted in newspapers for several months late in 1943.

Race and Man was published in 134 pages with two parts - one by educators and scientists and part two as excerpts from Bahá'í literature. In 1944 the Race Unity committee included the compilation in their list of major achievements of the year. Late in 1944 Cox is visible contributing a poem to a World Order issue. The Race and Man compilation was republished in 1946, and Cox joined the editorial staff of Baha’i News that year and the next.

Cox joined the Public Relations Committee for 1949 and 1950. Cox was also visible in a Bahá'í Press committee. The text of Race and Man was revised in 1953 adding a new source as well as quotes form the Bible and the Qur’an. In 1954 Cox served on the Bahá'í World volume 13 editorial staff, and in the Illinois state Bahá'í convention, and again in 1955. She was also visible in the PEO Sisterhood of Peoria that year. The text Race and Man was reprinted in 1956 and she contributed an article profiling the religion to a magazine. Race and Men gained much appreciation however it was allowed to go out of print in 1957 and instead a pamphlet based on excerpts was published from then but an edition of Race and Man was later identified in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's personal library.

Regional leadership, research and writing

Cox was elected as a delegate to the national convention during the 1958 Illinois Bahá'í state convention, 1959, 1960, and 1961. There is then a break in coverage until 1963 when she is mentioned chairing or a member of the review committee in 1966. During this time she also prepared an index for The Advent of Divine Justice and was interviewed on WMBD radio, from noting she was then living in Washington, IL. Cox also did much of the research, writing and editing of a Baha’i children’s series of books.

Last years

After 1966 there is again a degree of uncertainly. Alice wrote a letter read at an alumni meeting in 1977. And in Oct 1980 an Alice participated in a “Baha’i Week” initiative in St. Petersburg, FL. Knox College lost track of her and gave her a posthumous honor in 1985 though it doesn't say what the award was given for. She died 4 November 1993 per her gravemarker. She is buried in a shared plot with her husband, Levi C. Cox who died a year before in 1992 in Fairview Cemetery, Cambridge, Furnas County, Nebraska, USA.

External links

• Publications by Alice Simmons Cox on Bahai.works