When Teddy Roosevelt entered the White House, he didn’t expect to be pulled into one of the most explosive civil rights battles of his presidency—but that’s exactly what happened in the winter of 1902, when a woman named Minnie Cox refused to be erased. Minnie Cox was the first Black female postmaster in Mississippi, appointed originally by Benjamin Harrison and reappointed by presidents from both parties. She was respected, efficient, and widely regarded as one of the best postmasters in the st