W. Montague Cobb (1904–1990): Physical Anthropologist, Anatomist, and Activist

Abstract

s lye and work rejlect a profound integration ofart, litmature, social activism, and science. This article presents some ofthe highlights ofhis academic development and professional contributions. We have considered his early czaakmic rlevelopment within the contexts of the f m a t i v e years of Amm'can physical anthrqbology, Howard University Medical School, and the social issues in Amm'can society that influtlnced Cobb. His awoaches to teaching, anatomical and anthrapologzctil research, and medicine are unique, and yet ure closely reasoned and creative rejlections of the mujor cuwents of academe and the broadersociety with which he dealt. Imbued with a sense ofsocial responsibility, Cobb's applied anthropology involved the accumulation ofextensive data on the one hand, and the f m a t i o n o j organizations for social activism on the other. It 'IUCLS directed toward solving problems of health care and racism. His work thereb served to balance the widespread distortion and neglect of medical and racial problems f m i n g Afio-Amm'crL between 1930 and the present day. He was alro a principal builder o j bhck medical and scientzjic institutions, and he preserved the record ojhis cozi~orkm ' contributions through itis many biographies. This work rqbresents no more than a sketch of his rich und prolzjic career (during which he produced more than 1,lOOpublications); the emphasis ofthis biographical study has been to ascertain the circumstances and attitudes that helped mold the first Afrc-American Ph.D. in physical anthropology.

History and demographic composition of the Robert J. Terry anatomical collection

“…After Cobb was appointed professor of anatomy at Howard University in 1932, he established a skeletal collection through the Anatomy Department. This collection now numbers over 700 documented individuals, and is located at the Cobb Laboratory at Howard University (Rankin-Hill and Blakey, 1994).…”

The Persistent Power of "Race" in the Cultural and Political Economy of Racism

“…However, before the intensification of antiracism during the war effort, Boasians were not the only anthropologists to criticize racial determi nism. Todd challenged Hrdlicka by demonstrating the absence of racial differ ences in the development of black and white brains (212). This antiracist project was further advanced by one of Todd's students, Cobb, an African American anatomist (212).…”

“…Todd challenged Hrdlicka by demonstrating the absence of racial differ ences in the development of black and white brains (212). This antiracist project was further advanced by one of Todd's students, Cobb, an African American anatomist (212). Even earlier, another African-American physical anthropologist, Day, had gone against her training under Hooton to refute ideas concerning the degenerative effects of racial crossing (60, 220).…”

Striving to Be in the Profession andofIt

“…From the immediate post-Civil War period through the latter stages of the 1960s, the AMA refused to take a stand against AMA-affiliated southern state and regional medical associations that excluded African American doctors from membership. Because of this long standing racially exclusionary policy, in 1895 African American doctors founded their own separate National Medical Association (NMA), an organization that still exists and represents approximately 30,000 physicians (Cobb, 1957;Davis, 2008;Kenney, 1933;Rankin-Hill & Blakey, 1996;Reitzes, 1958;Salzman et al, 1996).…”