White House Historical Association

Elbert B. Nixon

Ask a Historian Download as PDF
Cite this Page
"Elbert B. Nixon," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/740.
Position
Doorkeeper
Years in President's House
1924 – 1957
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Presidencies
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Biography
Elbert B. Nixon was born on July 4, 1898, in Washington, D.C.1 His father William D. Nixon was a civil rights activist, architect, and a leader in D.C.’s Black community.2 Nixon worked for different government offices before being hired as a doorkeeper at the White House in 1924.3 He seems to have worked there up to his passing in 1957. Nixon is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington, D.C.4
  1. “Elbert Burrell Nixon,” Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.
  2. The Nixon home is on the D.C. historic site register. “Nixon-Mounsey House,” DC Preservation League, https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/1142.
  3. “Elbert B. Nixon, Message Runner at White House,” Evening Star, September 18, 1957, pg. B-27, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-09-18/ed-1/seq-71/.
  4. “Elbert B. Nixon,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58914710/elbert-b-nixon?_gl=1*1kaobsx*_gcl_au*MTk5ODc4NjY0LjE3MzQ2NDE3Njg.
Birthplace
Washington, D.C., USA
Woodlawn Cemetery