A CRS Giant Passes On

Colleagues we are sorry to report that Roscoe Nix former CRS mediator passed away on January 2, 2012 at a hospital in Riverdale, Georgia. Roscoe was 90 when he died of parkinson disease and complications of pnemonia. He served as a civil rights activist for over a half century since his roots of growing up in segregated schools in Alabama to staging demonstrations after experiencing the refusal of service at a restaurant in Silver Springs, Md. Following this activism, Roscoe worked in serveral federal positions including as a CRS Conciliator. In 1974, he was elected to the Board of Education of Montgomery County in Md. where he advocated for de facto desegregation and fought for the equity of resources and the rights of African American students. Roscoe retired from CRS in 1984. In 2001, He was named to the Montgomery County Human Rights Hall of Fame, and in 2006, a school in Silver Springs was named the Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in homor of his contributions to justice. For more information see: Washington Post January 6, 2012 article written by Michael Alison Chandler. Thanks to Leo Cardenas for sending in information.