"Ellis 'Oneal Knox"(July 6,1900-1975)

Was born in Lakeport California he was one of five children;the son of a Latin teacher Prince Albert Knox (Al for short)and homemaker,Addie Knox.Ellis, was the only African-American student in his classroom, excelled.In 1913, the Knoxes moved Oakland,California.In 1922,Ellis graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and soon accepted a teaching position at Phoenix Union High School in Arizona.After four years on staff at Union,Ellis and his soon-to-be wife,Lois Wynne,moved to Los Angeles,where he worked on the faculty at Los Angeles High School and began the effort for his master's degree at the University of Southern California.During this time,he had completed both a Master's and Doctoral Degree in the History and Philosophy of Education,becoming the first African-American on the American Pacific Coast to receive a doctorate.From there, Ellis was offered a position at Howard University and moved east with his wife and three-year-old daughter,Elena.By 1934,he was made full professor and from 1937-1945,while still on faculty at Howard,served as the Assistant Director for the office of Vocational Education in Washington.Close friends with Ralph Bunche and many others intellectual scholars and social advocates,Ellis began working to improve the conditions for education for minorities.In 1941,he obtained the adjunct professorship at American University and in 1945 was appointed as an adjunct lecturer at Yale,pushing for improvement on minority education.Ellis was also the National Chairman of the Education Division of the NAACP from 1940-1962.During this time,he worked with Charles H.Houston and Thurgood Marshall in preparation for the Brown v. The Board of Education case.In 1955, Ellis accepted a position as a member of the President's White House Conference on Education.Seven years later,he became consultant to both the Peace Corps and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.In 1967,Ellis and Lois returned Los Angeles,where he served as professor emeritus in the graduate education divisions of the UCLA and USC.Throughout his lifetime,Ellis published several studies on the philosophy of education,including five books;they are:The Decline of Denomination Colleges in the United States (1935),The Minority Group Education Programs in the United States (1947),Democracy and the District of Columbia Public Schools (1957),and Land Grant College Education in the United States (1963),and the History of Nursery School Programs in America (1966).