In 1931, Dr. Ellis O'neal Knox was the first African-American to be awarded a Ph.D. on the West Coast. He was granted his Doctorate of Philosophy in the field of Education (the history and philosophy of) from the University of Southern California. In 1928, the Los Angeles public school teacher earned his Master of Arts from the same institution. His Bachelor of Arts degree was received in 1922 from the University of California at Berkeley.

Ellis O. Knox was born in Northern California on July 6, 1900. The son of a Latin teacher, Prince Albert Knox, and homemaker, Addie Knox, Ellis found a love of education in his early years. As a young boy in the public schools of Lake County, California, Ellis was the only black student in his classroom.

In 1923, shortly after graduation from UC Berkeley, Knox accepted a position on the staff of Phoenix Union High School. Soon after, he met his wife Lois Wynne. The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1926, where Knox began his studies at USC.

With doctorate in hand, Knox moved to the District of Columbia to accept a position on the staff of Howard University in 1931. (In the 1940s and 50s, Dr. Knox served as an adjunct professor at the American University, an adjunct lecturer at Yale University, and as a member of the Evaluation Committee of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, while retaining full professor status at Howard.)

Knox was also a leader in the campaign that led to the desegregation of the schools in the District of Columbia and was the Chairman of Education for the NAACP from 1945 to 1962.

In the late 1960s, Knox and his wife retired to Los Angeles, where he served as Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California and the University of California Los Angeles until his death in 1975.

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During his lifetime, Knox published several studies on the philosophy of education. His Ph.D. disseration dealt with the trend of philosophical doctrines in their relation to African-American youth in the United States.

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Dr. Ellis O. Knox's contemporaries, colleagues, and close friends included nobel prize winner, Ralph Bunche, Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, as well as famed California architect, Paul Williams, and civil rights leader, H. Claude Hudson.