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.

Watch the following video to learn more about Civil Rights in Texas. This video was produced for inclusion in the African Americans in Texas mobile tour found in our Texas Time Travel Tours mobile app. For more information about the mobile tour and African American cultural heritage in Texas, visit the African American Heritage theme page at the following link: http://texastimetravel.com/travel-themes/main-african-american-heritage