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Legislator and activist Mickey Leland fought passionately for the rights of the poor and disadvantaged. Born George Thomas Leland III on November 27, 1944, in Lubbock, Mickey was raised in Houston’s Fifth Ward, where he attended segregated schools. He graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School in 1963 and the Texas Southern University (TSU) School of Pharmacy in 1970. Influenced by his Catholic faith and 1960s activism, Leland was committed to helping those less fortunate, a principle that permeated his life and career.
Elected to the Texas House of Representatives at age 27, Leland represented Houston for six years, focusing on civil rights, voting rights, generic drugs and affordable health care. A trip to Tanzania in 1973, his first outside the U.S., changed his life forever. After seeing the widespread devastation of famine, Leland focused his political influence to alleviate hunger on a global scale. In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. Congress from the 18th district, the seat vacated by Barbara Jordan. In 1984, he helped create the house select committee on world hunger to address social and economic issues. He later secured an aid package of $784 million for famine relief. Leland also fought against apartheid in South Africa through sanctions and protests.
On august 7, 1989, Congressman Leland and 15 others died in a plane crash in bad weather, while on a relief mission to Sudanese refugee camps in Ethiopia. A son, brother, husband, and father of three sons, he is remembered on TSU’s campus with the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and Mickey Leland Center on Hunger, Poverty and World Peace. Other Houston sites named for him include the international airport terminal, the federal building, a prep school and a community park. He led by example in fighting for justice, and his influence reached around the world. (2021)
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