Bishop Richard Earl Cox dedicated his life to speaking out against what he believed to be social injustice oppressing a community’s marginalized citizens. On May 2, he died after a lengthy illness. He was 77.
Cox was president of the Clergy Community Coalition, commonly called the CCC. It’s most recent campaign was to create a public hospital in West Dayton, after the closing of Good Samaritan Hospital in 2018 and its demolition.
On June 9, 2020, Cox enthusiastically spoke to a crowd in Dayton's downtown Courthouse Square.
"They took Good Samaritan Hospital out of our community. Babies cannot be born on the west side, we have no hospital, but we have the highest infant mortality rate. They shut down our mental health services. We have no healthcare. When you kill a community, what can we do but protest, and raise hell, and fight back?"
He and other members of the CCC were promoting their singular objective, to get a new, multi-service public hospital built in West Dayton.
Father Benjamin Speare-Hardy II stood side-by side with Bishop Cox on the front lines.
"He felt he had a responsibility to be out there and fighting and struggling for others," Speare-Hardy said. "I have a black bullhorn. And we were out with some of the retired nurses from Good Sam and some of the members of the West End Caravan of churches.
Winter, spring, summer, fall, we were down there protesting."
The CCC is affiliated with the West Dayton Caravan of Churches. Speare-Hardy is president of the caravan.
Decades of spiritual leadership
Cox was born Oct. 4, 1948, in Middletown, Ohio, to the late Eugene and Amanda Cox. He had three sisters and six brothers. When he was 12, he felt a spiritual calling to ministry under the guidance of Rev. James Holloman at United Missionary Baptist Church. In 1966, Holloman tapped Cox to lead the church youth. Rev. Rockney Carter was one of Cox's students.
"I was six years old, and we were called the 'Buds of Promise', and there were about 15 to 20 of us kids that were in the church," Carter recalled upon meeting Cox. "There was such a zeal in his face and in his eyes, we adored it. Cox was 20-years-old at the time, a Wilberforce University student and a youth pastor. "
Carter warmly smiled as he reminisced how Cox used songs, stories and activities to help his class understand complex scriptures. Then, Carter said Cox mentored the youngsters through a life-changing experience in 1968. "There were 15 of us that got baptized, young kids, on Easter Sunday, 1968, in the aftermath of the brutal assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., led by Richard Cox," Carter said. "I'll never forget it. He led me to Christ."
For decades, Cox led congregations in Ohio, West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania and in Northwest Florida. In 1999, he and his wife, Apostle Gloria Wright Cox, opened the doors to Parenthood Ministries in Dayton. In 2000, he was consecrated as bishop. He's also ministered overseas in Japan, the Bahamas, Korea, Lebanon, and in England.
Joining the Civil Rights Movement
Cox also lent his voice to the Civil Rights Movement, seeking voting, education and economic rights for African Americans. Serving as president of the Dayton Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and on the national board. He fought alongside international Civil Rights icons like Martin Luther King, Jr. In March 1965, Cox joined hundreds of protesters in Selma, Alabama, led by the Honorable John Lewis as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
State troops attacked the protestors and in the chaos, Cox scrambled to help his fellow foot soldiers on that Bloody Sunday.
Last March, the bishop spoke about his close friend, Rev. Jesse Jackson, during a special service at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Trotwood. Cox said Jackson showed us "how to stand."
"He encouraged us in the face of disappointment and discouragement and chaos to remember that the morning comes. And when the morning come, your faith increases. When your faith increase, you love each other. When your face increases, you have the courage to stand up. When your faith increases, you have the courage to trust God," Cox said.
"He was on a mission."
Recently, health complications required Cox to use a walker or a wheelchair, yet Speare-Hardy said this didn't slow him down.
"Even though he couldn't make it up the stairs, he would get help to get up there, to get to City Hall and be in the streets or whatever it is," Speare-Hardy said. "It didn't hold him back. He was on a mission."
After years of strategizing, protesting, seeking legal counsel and imploring community support, in November 2025, more than 9,400 registered Dayton voters approved a one mil tax levy toward a public hospital. As Cox reflected on this victory, he recognized the one person who tirelessly supported him, his wife of 19 years, Gloria.
"Who really put up with me campaigning from 7:30 in the morning sometimes to 7:30 at night. And I did that for 22 days straight going all over the city speaking. I got ill," Cox said. "I had to go to bed for four days and she nurtured me back to health."
Rev. Rockney Carter said "He revered his wife. He was so respectful to his wife, sometimes he would just put me to shame. I'd hear Bishop on the phone talking with his wife and I'm like, 'I don't talk to my wife on the phone like that. I guess I better call—'Baby, guess what? I love you.'"
Last December, Dayton United for Human Rights presented the CCC and Bishop Cox with the Mary E. Tyler Beacon for Humanity Award. Co-founder and president Tara Campbell said Cox's leadership skills demonstrated what a small number of dedicated and determined people can accomplish.
"It really gives me the courage and the understanding that anyone could lead a moment and really come out on the other end to see some impactful change in their lives and in their family and neighbors," Campbell said.
Some called Cox controversial because he openly criticized public officials and business leaders, especially when he felt their actions further disenfranchised others.
During one of his last conversations with WYSO, he was thinking ahead to the November 2026 midterm elections. He believed when all citizens blend their voices into one united chorus, greater progress is achieved in the continuing fight for social equality.
"Democracy starts with you. And if people get together who are registered voters, unite with politicians, change can happen," Cox said.
