Encyclopedia article about E. D. Nixon (1899-1987), a long-time leader of the civil rights movement in Alabama. He worked tirelessly to increase the number of registered blacks voters in Montgomery and was one of the key organizers of the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He also helped bail Rosa Parks out of jail after she was arrested for violating segregation laws. Heavily influenced by his membership in the largely African American Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), Nixon became an outspoken activist for African American voting rights and employment opportunities in the years between World War II and the early years of the civil rights movement in the mid-1950s. Nixon also was the first black candidate in the twentieth century to run for a seat on Montgomery County's Democratic Executive Committee in 1954. He lost his bid but was allowed to question candidates for the city commission, which functioned as Montgomery's central government, about issues of race the following year.

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Forms part of the Encyclopedia of Alabama.