[1] Though she made national headlines after President Theodore Roosevelt refused to release her from her position after threats of violence from whites in Indianola, Cox was dedicated to equal rights in Mississippi.

[3] 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.

[1] 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.

When President Benjamin Harrison 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.

[7] 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 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 James K.

"[9] The Clarion-Ledger 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 displays the proper respect for the impassable link between the two races.

However, Vardaman's gubernatorial rhetoric of the "negro menace", a rise in the violence perpetuated by the Ku Klux Klan, and the redefinition of political parties put Cox at risk.

[7] 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.

By then, Minnie and her family had fled to Birmingham, but eventually returned to Mississippi and began two successful businesses to meet the needs of Black Mississippians in the era of Jim Crow.