Born a slave, he became a dental assistant and Underground Railroad conductor in Norfolk, Virginia, before escaping to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he changed his name to Thomas Bayne.
Dr Martin appreciated his intelligence and trained him as his assistant, eventually allowing him to keep the practice's books as well as make house calls to clients.
He received shelter from Quaker conductor Abigail Goodwin, who wrote to her Philadelphia contacts that Nixon was bright but also a braggart.
On February 3, 1866, Bayne testified before a subcommittee of the Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction about the harsh conditions in postwar Virginia.
On January 7, 1867, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the District of Columbia Negro suffrage bill, prompting Radical Republicans including James M. Ashley of Ohio to begin impeachment investigations.
Three months later, on April 17, 1867, Union Republicans met in Richmond and elected Bayne as their convention's vice president, as they planned for the upcoming Virginia Constitutional Convention, since Congress had conditioned readmission of Virginia and other Confederate states upon adopting new constitutions which did not permit slavery and which did permit African Americans to vote.
On October 22, 1867, Norfolk voters elected Bayne and Unionist Democrat Henry M. Bowden (1819-1871)[6] to represent their city in the upcoming state constitutional convention.
Conservative Virginians had begun meeting in Richmond on December 11, led by Alexander H. H. Stuart of Staunton to select candidates opposed to whatever the convention would produce; some were particularly offended by the presence of African-American delegates, though their numbers were small, and some white voters had deliberately not voted in the October elections to elect constitutional convention delegates.
However, he lost a debate with Joseph T. Wilson, another African American and who had been running for customs officer and inspector, and whom the Norfolk Virginian considered the community's new negro leader.
[1] On July 7, the Norfolk Public Ledger published a postcard from the asylum's superintendent, indicating the dentist "Dr." Thomas Bayne, formerly politically prominent "with his race", had died two days before.