Edgar Daniel Nixon was a union and civil rights leader who played a crucial role in launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which decried bigotry and segregation. He also played a role in the planning of Rosa Parks’s action on Dec. 1, 1955, to not give up her seat in the white section of a bus. Nixon organized the Montgomery Improvement Association, which was the catalyst for the demonstration. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described Nixon as “one of the chief voices of the Negro community in the area of civil rights.” and “a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the long-oppressed people of the State of Alabama.” He was eventually promoted from a train baggage station worker to Pullman Porter. In 1928, he joined the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized his Montgomery branch and served as its president.
Pre-eminent filmmaker and photojournalist Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was self-taught. While working as a Pullman Porter on the North Coast Limited, he became infatuated with photographs in magazines left behind on the trains by passengers. While on a trip to Seattle, he saw his first camera in a pawnshop window. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, he wrote memoirs, novels, poems and screenplays, which led him to directing films. He was the first African American to work as a staff photographer for Life magazine and the first black artist to produce and direct a major Hollywood film, The Learning Tree, in 1969. He directed the cult films Shaft and Shaft’s Big Score! In 1970, he helped found Essence magazine and was its editorial director from 1970 to 1973.
Malcolm X was a Muslim minister and human rights activist. For about a year, ending in 1943, Malcolm worked as a Pullman Porter for the New Haven Railroad. An incredibly dynamic speaker, Malcolm X was appointed national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He’s credited with increasing their membership from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963. The legacy of Malcolm X is the subject of a host of documentaries, movies and books. Actor Denzel Washington received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Malcolm X in the Spike Lee-directed biopic.
For more stories in celebration of Black History Month, please visit myblackjourney.com.
