El Paso in 1910 (DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist Univeristy)
Dr. Lawrence Nixon (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
Class of Douglass School in 1912. (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
McCall Nursery, ca. 1940s. (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
One of the early African American barbershops in El Paso, date unknown. (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
Charter member of the Col. Louis A. Carter Post No. 58A of the American Legion Club, ca. 1940s. (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
African American and white soldiers are posing together. The desegregation of the U.S. Army began in 1948. (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
This community center honors the memory of Dr. Lawrence Nixon, an African American physician whose legal battles helped secure voting rights for blacks in Texas. He moved to El Paso in 1909 where, in addition to building a medical practice, he helped organize a Methodist congregation, and helped to organize the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The McCall Neighborhood Center began as home to Marshall and Olalee McCall. Olalee was an English teacher at Douglass School, the only school for blacks in El Paso until 1956. In 1937, she became the first female high-school principal in the El Paso Independent School District. A small collection of artifacts within the building pays tribute to this important civil rights leader, while historical markers outside the center commemorate Nixon and noted African American soldier Henry O. Flipper.
McCall Neighborhood Center
- Hours: Monday - Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and weekends by appointment.
- Admission: none
- 3231 Wyoming Avenue, El Paso, TX
- 915-566-2407
- Visit Website
