E.D. Nixon: Trailblazer of civil rights movement
1987May May Gong 1987-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 13 →
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E.D. Nixon, a major leader of the civil rights movement, died in Montgomery, Ala., on Feb. 25. He was 87 years old.
A 20-year field organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Nixon was the driving force behind the anti-segregation movement in Montgomery when the bus boycott began in December 1955. The bus boycott was the first major protest to follow the Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that outlawed segregated schools and set the stage for the Black protests that led to the civil rights laws of the 1960s.
On Dec. 2, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the Montgomery NAACP, refused to relinquish her city bus seat to a white man and was arrested for disturbing the peace and violating. a city bus segregation ordinance. Nixon went to bail her out. "When they did arrest her, it was on one of those old Jim Crow segregationist laws," he said. "I knew then that something could be done.
Nixon and Parks began to mobilize support for a Black boycott of the Montgomery city bus system. Nixon called on many of his fellow activists for help. One of them was the then 26-year old Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
By November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court had declared the segregation ordinance of Montgomery unconstitutional. And on Dec. 21, 1956, Nixon and King boarded a city bus to symbolize the end of this victorious struggle.
Friends and admirers filled the small chapel in the Phillips-Riley Funeral Home in Montgomery to pay tribute to E.D. Nixon. His contributions to the civil rights movement will never be forgotten. At a time of increased racist attacks nationwide, Nixon's example is an inspiration to all those who are continuing the struggle "I can't believe that after 45 years as a working person, they can fire me for acting like a union man. If that's the truth, the unions are in damn sorry shape in the country.
"They told me I was fired for leafleting and for boycotting. In reality, all we were trying to do was get back what was rightfully ours. I feel better about myself now than when the strike started. I feel we are fighting for a just cause."
Floyd died at 62 years of age. He was a loyal fighter to the end.