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E. D. Nixon

Nixon, Edgar Daniel ("E. D.") (July 12, 1899-February 25, 1987), was one of the most influential African American leaders in Alabama in the 20th century and was a key organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56. As a Pullman car railroad porter from 1923 to 1964, he was influenced by and became a staunch supporter of union leader A. Philip Randolph. Nixon had little formal education, but he was a large, powerful man with a booming voice and a charismatic, fearless personality.

In the 1940s, Nixon organized the Alabama Voters League and led a march of 750 men to the Montgomery county courthouse to attempt to register to vote. In 1945 he was elected president of the Montgomery NAACP, and in 1947 he became president of the Alabama NAACP. In 1954, he became the first black candidate in the 20th century to seek elected office in Montgomery when he qualified to represent his precinct on the county Democratic executive committee. He was defeated but his candidacy raised the political aspirations of African Americans across Alabama.

In 1955, a forum organized by his Progressive Democratic Association questioned white candidates for the Montgomery City Commission on current issues, including hiring and seating practices on the city bus line. This black political activity angered some local whites, but a candidate supported by Nixon was elected and, for the first time, a few black policemen were hired. A few months later, Nixon interviewed Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old black woman, who had been arrested for violating the city's segregated bus seating ordinance, but, believing she was not mature enough to withstand the pressure, decided against using Colvin for a test challenge.

When Montgomery NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, in a similar incident, Nixon rushed to the city jail to post her bond, putting up his home as security. Over the next few days, Nixon and other local leaders conferred with Parks and decided to use her as a test case. Nixon was an organizer of and became the treasurer of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the organization formed to run the Bus Boycott; Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected its president.

Meanwhile, tensions in Montgomery were high, racially--Nixon's was one of several homes bombed during the boycott--and internally among the boycott organizers. Nixon angrily resigned as treasurer of the MIA, writing to King that he felt as if he were being "treated as a child". This was an example of Nixon's conflict with Montgomery's middle-class African American community, centered around Alabama State College (now University), and represented in his rivalry with football coach Rufus A. Lewis.

This rivalry outlasted the boycott. As late as 1968, Nixon and Lewis ran on alternate slates of presidential electors pledged to Hubert Humphrey. Nixon's slate lost, effectively marking the end of his leadership role. Afterwards he slipped into an increasingly bitter obscurity before dying in 1987. In recent years, the value of his early contributions has been realized and he is again revered for his courage and principles.--Horace Randall Williams

Bibliography for E. D. Nixon

Gray, Fred.  Bus Ride to Justice. 1995.
Sikora, Frank.  The Judge. 1992.
Williams, Randall, ed.  The Children Coming On. 1998.
Burns, Stewart, ed.  Daybreak of Freedom. 1997.
Raines, Howell.  My Soul Is Rested. 1977.
Branch, Taylor.  Parting the Waters. 1988.
E. D. Nixon collection, Special Collections, Levi Watkins Learning Center and Library, Alabama State University, Montgomery.
E. D. Nixon interviews, Civil Rights Radio Documentary Series, Southern Regional Council, Atlanta.