Nelson E. Greene Sr., an Alexandria funeral home owner and civil rights advocate who served on the city council and held other community leadership roles, died Nov. 13 at a hospital in Alexandria. He was 100.
He was the first black member of the Board of Commissioners of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, serving from 1966 to 1969.
A decade later, he became the second African American since the Reconstruction to serve on Alexandria’s City Council. He also served on the board of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce for nearly a decade in the 1970s and 1980s.
In his various offices, he worked toward expanding educational and job opportunities to underserved populations in Alexandria.
“No blacks worked at City Hall except for janitors. I talked with stores and businesses, starting with the bus company and most ended up hiring blacks,” he told the Alexandria Gazette in 2010.
He left the City Council in 1982 after one term, citing his frustration with the council’s inability to pass measures that would benefit Alexandria’s black community.
He remained active in local politics, advising or mentoring community leaders, including Lionel Hope, Alexandria’s first black vice-mayor, and Ferdinand T. Day, the first African American chairman of a public school board in Virginia.
Nelson Enoch Greene was born May 20, 1914, in Danville, Va., where his father was a brick mason.
In 1940, he received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Shaw University, a historically black college in Raleigh, N.C.
He was an Army veteran and served overseas in World War II and the Korean War.
He received a degree in mortuary science before starting his business, from which he officially retired in 2009. The funeral home is managed by his son, former Alexandria School Board member Nelson E. Greene Jr.
His wife of 72 years, Gloria Kay Greene, died in February. Survivors include two sons, Nelson E. Greene Jr. of Alexandria and Terry Greene of Clinton, Md.; and three grandchildren.
Nelson Greene Sr. was named one of Alexandria's Living Legends in 2011.
He was a founder of the Senior Services of Alexandria and a senior warden at Meade Memorial Episcopal Church in Alexandria.
Reflecting on his stint in elective office, Mr. Greene once told the Alexandria Gazette, “I don’t like politics, but I wanted to make the community better.”
