Norman W. Cox Award
The Norman W. Cox Award is for the Best Article Published in Baptist History & Heritage Journal.
Norman W. Cox served as the first executive secretary-treasurer of the Historical Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1951 to 1959. In his honor, the Historical Commission established the Norman W. Cox Award in April 1975. The endowment for the award was transferred to the Southern Baptist Historical Society® prior to the dissolution of the Historical Commission in June 1997. The purpose of the award is to encourage the writing of high-quality articles in Baptist history. Presented by the editor during the annual meeting of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, the award goes to the person judged to have written the best article published in Baptist History and Heritage in the preceding calendar year.
Previous Recipients and Their Winning Articles
2024 David W. Music, “Isaac Watts, Baptists, and the Song of the Church,” Fall Issue 2022
2023 Gregory Tomlin, “The False Bed of Worship: Roger Williams’ Metaphors of Marital Infidelity and Sexual Violence in the Struggle for Liberty of Conscience,” Spring Issue 2022
2022 Mikeal C. Parsons, “Rufus Burleson and the ‘Brazilian Girl’: The Story of Antonia Teixeira,” Spring Issue 2021
2021 Christopher C. Moore, “Dividing the Mind of the White South: Carlton McCarthy and the Bifurcation of Confederate Memory,” Fall Issue 2020
2020 J. David Holcomb, “Baptists and the Johnson Amendment,” Spring Issue 2019
2019 Joel Gregory, “Spurgeon’s Resignation from the British Baptist Union:
A Microhistory of First Responders,” Fall Issue 2018
2019 Mandy McMichael, “Many Voices: The Complexity of Baptist Women’s History,” Summer Issue 2018
2018 Bill R. Douglas, “‘The Serious Nature of the Division’: Calvary Baptist Church of Des Moines and the Fundamentalist Challenge of the 1920s,” Summer Issue 2017
2017 David Lytle, “‘The Beast of England’: Apocalypticism in Seventeenth-Century British Baptist Literature”
2016 David Cameron, “‘With Their Own People’: Mexican-American, African-American, and Anglo Baptists of Texas, 1900-1965”
2015 Bracy V. Hill, “Suffering for Their Consciences: The Depiction of Anabaptists and Baptists in Eighteenth-Century Histories of Daniel Neal”
2014 Christopher C. Moore, “Northern Fingers Have Played our Pianos’—Baptists and Reconciliation in Postwar North Carolina, 1865-1877”
2013 Carol Crawford Holcomb, “Building a Publishing Empire: The Annie Armstrong Era of WMU, SBC”
2012 Loretta Rivers, “Baptist Centers: Influence and Education”
2011 Dwight Moody, “The Conversion of J. Frank Norris: A Fresh Look at the Revival of 1910”
2010 Bill Pitts, ““Arguing Regenerate Church Membership: Baptist Identity during Its First Decade, 1610-1620”
2009 Doug Weaver, “The Risk of Majority Faith”
2008 Pamela A. Smoot, “African American Baptist Women: Making a Way Out of No Way,” BH&H, Summer/Fall 2007
2007 Bonnie Oliver, “The Life and Times of Barbara Jordan: A Twentieth-Century Baptist and Political Pioneer,” BH&H, Summer/Fall 2006
2006 Bruce Gourley, “John Leland: Evolving Views of Slavery, 1789-1839,” BH&H, Winter 2005
2005 Richard Pierard, “Baptist Historiography in a New Century: What Themes Should We Be Addressing” BH&H, Summer/Fall 2004
2004 William H. Brackney, “The Frontier of Free Exchange of Ideas: The Baptist Congress as a Forum for Baptist Concerns, 1881-1913,” BH&H, Summer/Fall 2003
2003 Glenn Jonas, “Albert Henry Newman,” BH&H, Winter 2002
2002 Alan Neely, “Religious Pluralism in the United States and Other Lands: A Challenge for Baptists and Other Christians in the 21st Century,” BH&H, Winter/Spring 2001
2001 Carol Crawford Holcomb, “The Kingdom at Hand: The Social Gospel and the Personal Service Department of Woman’s Missionary Union, Auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention,” BH&H, Spring 2000
2000 Jerry L. Faught II, “The Ralph Elliott Controversy: Competing Philosophies of Southern Baptist Seminary Education,” BH&H, Summer/Fall 1999
1999 Glen Harold Stassen, “Revisioning Baptist Identity by Naming Our Origin and Character Rightly,” BH&H, Spring 1998
1998 Daniel Stowell, “The Ways of Providence: Baptist Nationalism and Dissent in the Civil War,” BH&H, July/October 1997
1997 Karen O’Dell Bullock, “Southern Baptist Identity: Shaped by Convention Action,” BH&H, October 1996
1996 Marty G. Bell, “The Beginnings of the Southern Baptist Convention,” BH&H, July 1995
1995 Rosalie Beck, “Community of Visible Saints: A Historical Overview of Lay Ministries,” BH&H, July 1994
1994 Carolyn D. Blevins, “Baptist State Papers: Shapers or Reflectors of Southern Baptist Thought?” BH&H, July 1993
1993 Robert Parham, “A. C. Miller: The Bible Speaks on Race,” BH&H, January 1992
1992 Bryan Thomas Ross, “Rouse! Stand! And Take the Alarm! Baptist Justifications for the American Revolution,” BH&H, October 1991
1991 Bill J. Leonard, “Varieties of Freedom in the Baptist Experience,” BH&H, January 1990
1990 Myron D. Dillow, “James Smith: Baptist Trailblazer in Illinois,” BH&H, April 1989
1989 Slayden A. Yarbrough, “The Origins of Baptist Associations Among the English Particular Baptists,” BH&H, April 1988
1988 G. Hugh Wamble, “History of Messengers to Baptist Denominational Bodies,” BH&H, April 1987
1987 Ronald B. Poythress, “Lemuel Burkitt: Calvinistic Baptist Leader in Eastern North Carolina,” BH&H, October 1986
1986 Albert McClellan, “The Southern Baptist Convention, 1965-1985,” BH&H, October 1985
1985 John E. Steely, “Biblical Authority and Baptists in Historical Perspective,” BH&H, July 1984
1984 Bill Sumners, “Southern Baptists and the Liquor Question, 1910-1920,” QR, April 1983
1983 Doyle L. Young, “Andrew Fuller and the Modern Mission Movement,” BH&H, October 1982
1982 J. Wayne Flynt, “Southern Baptists: Rural to Urban Transition,” BH&H, January 1981
1981 Bobbie Sorrill, “The History of the Week of Prayer for Foreign Missions,” BH&H, October 1980
1980 David W. Music, “The Introduction of Musical Instruments into Baptist Churches in America,” QR, October 1979
1979 Claude L. Howe, Jr., “The Charismatic Movement in Southern Baptist Life,” BH&H, July 1978
1978 H. Leon McBeth, “The Role of Women in Southern Baptist History,” BH&H, January 1977
1977 Thomas R. McKibbens, Jr., “The Life, Writings, and Influence of Morgan Edwards,” QR, January 1976
1976 James E. Tull, “The Landmark Movement: An Historical and Theological Appraisal,” BH&H, January 1975
1975 Ira V. (Jack) Birdwhistell, “The Continental Anabaptists and the Early English Baptists: A Review and Analysis of Research,” QR, January 1974
Award presented by the SBC Historical Commission in 1975-1977, by the Southern Baptist Historical Society® in 1978-2000, and by the Baptist History and Heritage Society in 2001-present. Publications in which articles appeared: BH&H =Baptist History and Heritage; QR=The Quarterly Review