Calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass SB 71 renaming the Pennsylvania Judicial Center the "Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix, Jr. Judicial Center."

Calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass SB 71 renaming the Pennsylvania Judicial Center the “Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix, Jr. Judicial Center.” WHEREAS, Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix, Jr. was born July 13, 1928 in Philadelphia. He was the son of Robert N.C. Nix, Pennsylvania’s first African American member of the U.S. Congress; and WHEREAS, Nix graduated from Central High School in 1946 with high honors, and later valedictorian from Villanova University in 1950. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania three years later; and WHEREAS, After graduating from law school, Nix spent 2 years serving in the United States Army before becoming a Deputy Attorney General in 1956; and WHEREAS, After two years in the Attorney General's Office he joined his father’s law firm, Nix, Rhodes and Nix, as a partner, where he gained a reputation as a civil rights advocate. He represented United Neighbors, a citizens’ group advocating improvements in a blighted section of West Philadelphia, and served as a member of the mayor's advisory committee on civil rights in 1963, where he raised questions about racial discrimination in City government hiring, and pushed for action against slumlords; and WHEREAS, A ward leader, in 1967 Nix was elected as a judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. He was appointed an associate justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by Governor Milton Shapp in 1971, and was elected the following year, the first African America…