Edgar Nixon

Edgar Daniel Nixon (July 12, 1899 – February 25, 1987) was an American civil rights leader and union organizer who played a crucial role in organizing the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Nixon also led the Montgomery branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union, known as the Pullman Porters Union. Nixon also served as president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Montgomery Welfare League, and the Montgomery Voters League.

Early activism

Nixon was born on July 12, 1899 in Montgomery. As a boy, Nixon received about one year of formal education. After working in a train station baggage room, he finally became a Pullman car porter. Years before the bus boycott, Nixon had started campaigning for voting rights and civil rights for African-Americans in Montgomery. He served as an unelected advocate for the African-American community, helping individuals deal with uncooperative white office holders, policemen, and civil servants. In 1940, Nixon organized 750 African-American men to march to the Montgomery County courthouse and attempt to register to vote. In 1954, he ran for a seat on the county Democratic Executive Committee. The next year, he questioned Democratic candidates to the Montgomery City Commission on their positions on civil rights issues

Finding a plaintiff

In the early 1950's, Nixon and Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council decided to mount a court challenge to the discriminatory seating practices on Montgomery's municipal buses along with a boycott of the bus company. A Montgomery ordinance reserved the front seats on these buses for white passengers only, forcing African-American riders to sit in the back. Before the activists could mount the court challenge, they needed someone to voluntarily break this bus seating law and be arrested for it. Nixon carefully searched for a suitable plaintiff. He rejected one candidate because he didn't believe she had the fortitude to see the case through. Nixon rejected a second candidate because she was an unwed mother and a third candidate because her father was an alcoholic.

The final choice was Rosa Parks, the elected secretary of the Montgomery NAACP. After years working with Parks, Nixon was certain that she was the ideal candidate to challenge the discriminatory seating policy. Even so, Nixon had to persuade Parks to lead the fight. After consulting with her mother and husband, Parks accepted the challenge. On December 1, 1955, Parks entered a Montgomery bus, refused to give up her seat for a white passenger, and was then arrested. After being called about Park's arrest, Nixon went to bail her out of jail. He arranged for Park's friend Clifford Durr, a sympathetic white lawyer, to represent her.

Organizing the boycott

After Parks' arrest, Nixon called a number of local ministers to organize support for the boycott; the third one he called was a young minister who was newly arrived from Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr.. King said he would think about it and call back. When King called back, he told Nixon that he would participate in the boycott and had already arranged a meeting at his church. Nixon couldn't attend because of an out-of-town business trip; he therefore took precautions to see that no one was elected to lead the boycott campaign until he returned.

When Nixon returned to Montgomery, he met with Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and Rev. E.N. French to plan the program for the next boycott meeting. They came up with a list of demands for the bus company, named the new organization the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), and discussed candidates for president of the association. Nixon recommended King to Abernathy and French because Nixon believed that King had not been compromised by dealing with the local white power structure.

Nixon now met with a larger group of ministers to plan the boycott. However, the meeting did not proceed as Nixon had envisioned. The ministers wanted to organize a low key boycott that would not upset the white power structure in Montgomery. This was completely opposite what Nixon and the other activists wanted to achieve; an exasperated Nixon threatened to publicly denounce the ministers as cowards. That spurred King to stand and state that he was no coward. By the end of this meeting, King had accepted the MIA presidency and Nixon had become the treasurer. That evening, King delivered the keynote address to the full meeting.

uccessful boycott

What was expected to be a short boycott lasted 381 days. Despite fierce political opposition, police coercion, and personal threats, the boycott held. Bus ridership plummeted and the bus company was on the verge of financial ruin. On February 1, 1956, a bomb exploded in front of Nixon's home. In the meantime, the court challenge worked its way through the court system until it reached the United States Supreme Court. The boycott finally ended following the Supreme Court decision holding that Montgomery's segregation policy was unlawful. Nixon later described the Montgomery Bus Boycott to an audience of supporters in New York City's Madison Square Garden:

"I'm from Montgomery, Alabama, a city that's known as the "Cradle of the Confederacy", that had stood still for more than ninety-three years until Rosa L. Parks was arrested and thrown in jail like a common criminal. Fifty thousand people rose up and caught hold to the Cradle of the Confederacy and began to rock it till the "Jim Crow" rockers began to reel and the segregated slats began to fall out."

After the boycott

Nixon's relationship with the MIA was contentious. He frequently had sharp disagreements with others in the MIA. He also expressed resentment that King and Abernathy had received most of the credit for the boycott as opposed to the local activists, including himself, who had spent years struggling against racism. Nixon ultimately resigned his post as MIA treasurer with a bitter letter to King complaining that he had been treated as a child. Nixon continued to feud with Montgomery's Black middle class community for the next decade. However, by the late 1960's a series of political defeats eliminated his leadership role in the MIA. After retiring from the railroad, Nixon worked as the recreation director of a public housing project.

Edgar Nixon died at age 87 on February 25, 1987.

External links

* E.D. Nixon: organizer of Montgomery bus boycott [http://www.themilitant.com/2005/6946/694661.html]
* Rosa Parks: a working-class militant [http://www.themilitant.com/2005/6946/694660.html]
* [http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/nixon_e_d.htm King Encyclopedia, Nixon, Edgar Daniel (1899-1987)]

Further reading

*"My Soul Is Rested, The Story Of The Civil Rights Movement In The Deep South", by Howell Raines, ISBN 0-14-006753-1
*"Parting The Waters; America In The King Years 1954-63", by Taylor Branch, ISBN 0-671-46097-8
*"Stride Toward Freedom", by Martin Luther King Jr., ISBN 0-06-250490-8
*"The Origins Of The Civil Rights Movement, Black Communities Organizing For Change", by Aldon D. Morris, ISBN 0-02-922130-7