"Dr. William Montague Cobb"(October 12,1904-November 20,1990)

Was a pioneering 20th-century physical anthropologist.As the first African American to earn a P.h.D in anthropology,and the only until after Korean War,his main focus in the anthropological dispcipline was studying the concept of race and the negative impact it has on communities of color.William was born on October 12,1904 in Washington DC.His mother,Alexize Montague Cobb grew up in Massachusetts and is partly of Native American descent.His father,William Elmer Cobb grew up in Selma,Alabama.They met in Washington DC when William father started his own printing business for the Black community.The tipping point for William initial interest in Anthropology came from a book of the animal kingdom that his grandfather owned.In this book,there was illustrations of human beings separated by race,but were illustrated with what William  called "equal dignity."This instigated a pondering on the concept of race,as the same time of "equal dignity" was not granted in the society that sourrounded his life.William graduated from Dubar High School,which was considered to be one of the best of African American high schools and continued on to earn his Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College in 1925.He continued his research embryology at woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory,where he earned the Blodgett Scholarship for proficiency in Biology.He would later earn his MD (Doctor of Medicine)from Howard University medical achool in 1929.Numan PG Adams was the Dean of Howard University at the time,was assigned the task of organizing a new faculty of African American physicians to help advance the school in the medical field.he,in turn had the aspirations of creating a laboratory of anatomy and physical anthropology at Howard University that would have the resources for African American scholars to contribute instead of just defend debates in racial bilogy.He would then spend a few years at Case Western Reserve University,studying under T.Wingate Todd,where he would contribute to the Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection,and eventually earn his P h.D in Anthropology.He was a representation of the pursuit of social responsibility in the field of anthropology,as well as scholarly activism.In his studies and publications,he maintained the pursuit of disproving and dissolving misinformation,racially and socially biased studies in the field of anatomy and anthropology.He believed that scholars of the academy must take responsibility "not for their own thoughts and actions but also for their own society"because he believed that the values are expressed,whether subtly or overtly through studies are key in the shaping of culture and society.He had the aspirations to be the first anthropologist to undertake a demographic analysis that would expose take the toll racism was taking on the African American population,and he wanted to create the resources so he would no be the last.His work illustrated the consequences of the human condition as result of segregation and racism on both sides of the spectrum,and used his work to comfront these issues.He also was the President of the NAACP from 1976 to 1982.