NIX, Robert Nelson Cornelius, Sr.

NIX, Robert Nelson Cornelius, Sr., a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Orangeburg, S.C., August 9, 1898; graduated from Townsend Harris Hall High School, New York, N.Y.; B.A., Lincoln University, Oxford, Pa., 1921; graduated from University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pa., 1924; lawyer, private practice; special deputy attorney general of the Pennsylvania State Department of Revenue and special assistant deputy attorney general of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1934-1938; delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 1956; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Earl Chudoff; and reelected to the ten succeeding Congresses (May 20, 1958-January 3, 1979); chairman, Committee on the Post Office and Civil Service (Ninety-fifth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for renomination to the Ninety-sixth Congress in 1978; died on June 22, 1987, in Philadelphia, Pa.; interment at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

In 1958, longtime Philadelphia Democratic powerbroker and state official Robert N.C. Nix Sr. won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Black lawmaker from Pennsylvania to serve in Congress. During his two decades in Congress, Nix also became only the fourth Black Member to chair a standing committee in the House. From his seat in Washington, Nix maintained influence back home in Philadelphia and also addressed a wider agenda, advocating for civil rights legislation. Nix called on his House colleagues to recognize the national crisis that resulted in the violent repression and disenfranchisement facing Black Americans in states like Mississippi, warning that “these crimes cry out for positive and courageous action, not tomorrow, but now.”¹

Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix Sr. was born on August 9, 1898, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the third of four children of Nelson C. Nix and Sylvia Nix. His father was born enslaved and later became the dean of South Carolina State College. Nelson Nix was a longtime friend of former Black Representative Thomas E. Miller of South Carolina and spoke at his funeral in 1938.²

Robert Nix later moved to New York City to live with relatives. He graduated from Townsend Harris High School in New York City before enrolling in Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania. After earning a bachelor’s degree in 1921, Nix continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, from which he graduated three years later. In 1925, Nix began practicing law in Philadelphia. He first became active in politics when he was elected a Democratic committeeman from the forty-fourth ward in 1932. He retained this position for 26 years, serving as chairman for the final eight. From 1934 to 1938, Nix worked for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a special deputy attorney general in the revenue department and as a special assistant deputy attorney general. Nix married Ethel Lanier, and they had one son, Robert N.C. Nix Jr., who became the chief justice of the Pennsylvania state supreme court in 1984.³

When five-term Democratic Representative Earl Chudoff resigned in 1958 to become a Philadelphia judge, Nix entered the special election to fill the vacant congressional seat encompassing sections of Philadelphia on both sides of the Schuylkill River. With solid backing from the local Democratic machine, Nix won the unexpired term, defeating Republican Cecil B. Moore, an African-American attorney, with 64 percent of the vote. House colleagues applauded as Nix was sworn in to the 85th Congress (1957–1959) on May 20, 1958, joining Black Representatives William L. Dawson of Illinois, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York, and Charles C. Diggs Jr. of Michigan. That same year, Nix was chosen unanimously as chair of Philadelphia’s thirty-second ward, a position he held until his death in 1987.⁴

During his first two terms in the House, Nix served on two committees: Merchant Marine and Fisheries; and Veterans’ Affairs. In the 87th Congress (1961–1963), Nix relinquished his initial assignments for a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he remained for the rest of his tenure in the House and where he eventually chaired the Foreign Economic Policy and Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittees. In the 88th Congress (1963–1965), Nix joined the Committee on the Post Office and Civil Service. After 14 years, Nix was named chair of the committee in the 95th Congress (1977–1979), his final term in office. Nix also served brief tenures on the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct during the 89th Congress (1965–1967) and the Select Committee on Crime during the 91st Congress (1969–1971).

In his first Floor speech, Nix participated in debate on a pending bill to limit the power of the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decisions of state courts. In effect, the bill would empower the state courts to interpret the law without the possibility of Supreme Court review. Nix spoke forcefully against the bill and called for the structure of appeals to remain in place. Nix argued that if this law passed, “state courts then could and would interpret [new laws] in a manner that would deny to minority groups the basic decencies.”⁵

Throughout his House career, Nix remained closely connected to the political machine back home that helped him earn a spot in Congress. In line with the practices of the machine organization that prioritized constituent services, Nix held regular Saturday hours in his district office to listen to the concerns of his constituents. He also promoted urban development measures for his Philadelphia district. He sponsored a bill to appropriate funding to equip the Philadelphia Navy Yard for production of nuclear-powered ships. He also backed bills to set guidelines for urban renewal proposals and provide funding for projects and mass transportation.⁶

Nix also searched for ways the federal government might alleviate unemployment. In 1959, he introduced an early version of what would eventually become the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961, which focused federal funding on job training and loans to spur employment in the private sector. In 1966, Nix proposed a bill to establish a “senior service corps” to employ workers older than 60 who otherwise struggled to find work.⁷

As one of the few Black Members in the House during the 1950s and 1960s, Nix worked to transform the goals of the civil rights movement into federal legislation. In 1959, Nix introduced a measure to prohibit racial discrimination in public places against anyone wearing a U.S. military uniform. “To treat a man who wears that uniform with contumely merely because of the color of his skin is an insult to America and to everything for which our country stands,” Nix said on the House Floor.⁸

In April 1963, Nix provided a timeline of violence in Mississippi against civil rights activists. He called for immediate, decisive action by the House to protect individual rights in the South. Seeking to enforce the second section of the Fourteenth Amendment, Nix authored a bill to reduce a state’s representation in Congress when the rights of its voters were violated—echoing previous measures introduced unsuccessfully in the House for six decades.⁹

A week before the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Nix spoke on the House Floor in support of the goals of the demonstration. The march, Nix said, was part of “the struggle for freedom which dates from the time Negro slavery was first introduced in the American Colonies, in 1619.” He provided a quick survey of the many times popular demonstrations had occurred in American history, linking the 1963 march to earlier protests which sought to leverage the power of the federal government to correct injustice. In the century since emancipation, Nix said, Black Americans had been “teased with mere tastes of freedom.” But the March on Washington would demand the government extend and protect the civil and political rights articulated in the Constitution. “The promised land is here,” he proclaimed, “now, awaiting only the complete and immediate removal, by our fellow Americans, of the racial fence which has surrounded it and kept Negroes out for 300 years.”¹⁰

During the House debate on the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Nix countered critics who maintained that African Americans from his native state of South Carolina had ample opportunity to register to vote. He urged passage of the bill and highlighted the many levels of intimidation and the barriers that hindered significant Black representation in the state and throughout the South.¹¹

For most of the 1960s, Nix followed the Democratic Party line by supporting the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. Although some of his Democratic colleagues criticized America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, Nix, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, consistently backed executive foreign policy initiatives. He introduced an amendment to the Foreign Military Sales Act requiring the executive branch to provide Congress with information on the identities of and fees received by agents who negotiated arms sales for American firms. Nix was able to make use of his foreign policy experience in 1973 when he was named a delegate to represent the United States at the fall session of the United Nations General Assembly. As chair of the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, Nix led an investigation into the use of funds by defense contractors and other American multinational corporations to pay foreign consultants, agents, governmental officials, and political parties.¹²

Nix had the reputation as an institutionalist in Congress, but in 1965, he introduced a measure to lengthen the constitutional term of service in the House from two years to four so that Members could improve their legislative expertise and dispense with the constant campaigns for re-election. In 1967, he sought to prevent the House from denying Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. his seat in the 90th Congress (1967–1969). Nix argued that Powell “did not receive the fair and impartial trial guaranteed to every American citizen.” Nix also made a legal argument against the process the House established for investigating and determining the fate of Powell. “The Congress of the United States is honor bound to admit its error, and to correct its wrong,” he declared. In June 1969, the Supreme Court vindicated Nix’s argument when it ruled that the House had acted unconstitutionally in refusing to seat Powell.¹³

Nix remained loyal to the local Democratic machine that helped begin his career on Capitol Hill, and Black critics in his district in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Cecil B. Moore, Nix’s one-time opponent and president of the Philadelphia NAACP, accused him of not doing enough for the national interests of Black Americans. Others expressed concern that his behind-the-scenes efforts would not produce significant legislative gains. Nix, in response, took issue with the more confrontational methods of some of his Black House colleagues. “I’ve seen people come into this Congress feeling it was incumbent upon them to give everybody hell, talking about all the wrongs and fancied wrongs that happen everyday,” he said. “They didn’t correct a damn thing. . . . The legislation they sought to present to the House later on received little interest from any source.” For Nix, building a rapport with his colleagues—even those who disagreed with him—was the starting point for constructive action. “In voicing your disapproval, you don’t make your fellow member of Congress responsible for what you’re condemning unless he is responsible. Nor do you condemn the whole white race.”¹⁴

In 1971, Nix joined other Black Representatives in a boycott of President Richard M. Nixon’s State of the Union Address after the President refused to meet a group of Black lawmakers to discuss the administration’s policies. He was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). By 1974, Nix was the second-most-senior Black Representative, behind Charles Diggs, but he typically deferred to less senior Members of the House within the CBC.¹⁵

In 1977, Nix’s appointment as chair of the Post Office and Civil Service Committee provoked opposition from a group of younger Representatives who contended that he was not a good fit for the gavel. They contended that Nix had a “record of inactivity” and his age disqualified him from party leadership. The CBC thwarted the move to block his appointment, promising that Nix would be a skilled and committed chair. As chair, Nix introduced a bill to “require congressional approval of major policy changes” by the U.S. Postal Service in an effort to improve service. The measure passed the House with bipartisan support, 371 to 6, but faltered in the Senate. He also backed an initiative by President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter to restructure the civil service system. Portrayed as a plan to improve the efficiency of the federal government, the proposed reform was criticized by many veterans’ groups and federal unions that feared the legislation would undermine the rights of civil service workers. President Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act into law on October 13, 1978.¹⁶

Although his constituency remained overwhelmingly Democratic, Nix often faced primary challenges from African-American candidates who criticized his close relationship with the Philadelphia Democratic machine. In 1976, he barely survived a primary challenge from a young African-American minister, William H. Gray III, capturing only 48 percent of the vote. Gray accused Nix of being “invisible and unresponsive” to his constituents and drew attention to the district’s high unemployment rate.¹⁷

Two years later, Nix and Gray squared off in a Democratic primary rematch. The incumbent emphasized his congressional experience, contending that his chairmanship of a House standing committee was “the best weapon for helping this district.” But Nix performed poorly at the polls, winning only 40 percent of the vote versus Gray’s 58 percent.¹⁸

After leaving the House in January 1979, Nix remained active in politics as the leader of Philadelphia’s thirty-second ward. In 1985, a federal building was named after him in Philadelphia. Nix remained a ward politician until his death in Philadelphia on June 22, 1987.¹⁹

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