Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon

On July 26, 1924, Nixon took his poll-tax receipt to a Democratic primary polling place in El Paso and was refused a ballot. With the NAACP behind him and El Paso attorney Fred C. Knollenberg beside him, he went twice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the first ruling for him, and Justice Benjamin Cardozo the second. After Smith v. Allwright ended the white primary, he and his wife voted at the same polling place on July 22, 1944.

What the plaque says

Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon (1883-1966) Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon was a pivotal figure in Texas civil rights. Born in Marshall, Harrison County, Texas, he attended Wiley College and Meharry Medical College and became a physician. He began his medical practice in Cameron, Milam County. In January 1910, after witnessing violent racial strife in the community, Dr. Nixon moved to El Paso. His first wife, Esther (Calvin), and their infant son subsequently joined him here. Dr. Nixon became a charter member of the El Paso chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As a political activist and registered Democrat, Dr. Nixon challenged state laws that barred African Americans from participation in that party's electoral primaries. In litigation that ultimately went before the U.S. Supreme Court in Nixon v. Herndon (1924) and Nixon v. Condon (1927), he won two landmark victories that would help secure voting rights for U.S. citizens regardless of race. The State of Texas circumvented the rulings for almost two decades, but the precedent set by Dr. Nixon was ultimately affirmed in 1944, and that year he and his second wife, Drusilla (Tandy), voted in the primaries. The couple continued to work toward the development of civil rights throughout their lifetimes. Well-loved and respected, Dr. Nixon was considered a visionary as he sought to establish an El Paso hospital for African American tubercular patients and a cultural center for people of color. After 53 years of dedicated, distinguished medical practice, Dr. Nixon retired in 1963 and lived his remaining years in El Paso. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chamizal National Memorial — 0.9 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 1.8 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 9.8 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 11 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• Henry O. Flipper — steps away
• John Wesley Hardin — 0.5 mi
• James H. White — 0.6 mi
• Memorial Park — 0.7 mi