Influenced by eugenics’ preoccupation with separating the fit from the unfit, Cox began to push for the repatriation of black Americans to Africa, arguing that the only biologically sound nation was the one in which the races were geographically separate. Spearheaded by Cox, the campaign garnered the support of Marcus Garvey, leader of the United Negro Improvement Association. Garvey, Powell, and Cox corresponded frequently throughout the 1920s, the three men sharing a strong commitment to racial separatism. Cox expanded upon the theme of repatriation and the superiority of white civilization in his anti-miscegenation treatise White America. This 1923 publication offered an overview of civilizations Cox believed to have perished because of miscegenation. In writing White America, Cox aimed chiefly to advocate for a strong eugenics program that would preserve the biological fitness of native-born white Americans. The “ideal of eugenics,” according to Cox, was the absolute maintenance of white purity. The book received the endorsement of many notable eugenicists, including Madison Grant and Harry Laughlin, and even became part of the University of Virginia’s biology
Influenced by eugenics’ preoccupation with separating the fit from the unfit, Cox began to push for the repatriation of black Americans to Africa, arguing that the only biologically sound nation was the one in which the races were geographically separate. Spearheaded by Cox, the campaign garnered the support of Marcus Garvey, leader of the United Negro Improvement Association. Garvey, Powell, and Cox corresponded frequently throughout the 1920s, the three men sharing a strong commitment to racial separatism. Cox expanded upon the theme of repatriation and the superiority of white civilization in his anti-miscegenation treatise White America. This 1923 publication offered an overview of civilizations Cox believed to have perished because of miscegenation. In writing White America, Cox aimed chiefly to advocate for a strong eugenics program that would preserve the biological fitness of native-born white Americans. The “ideal of eugenics,” according to Cox, was the absolute maintenance of white purity. The book received the endorsement of many notable eugenicists, including Madison Grant and Harry Laughlin, and even became part of the University of Virginia’s biology