TSU, Hidalgo's office unveil marker in memory of late lawmaker Leland

The staff of the office of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo helped unveil a historical marker dedicated to the late Mickey Leland on the campus of Texas Southern University (TSU) on Aug. 18.

“Mickey Leland was a dedicated public servant and lifelong champion of food security and health care rights for people,” the office’s X account said. The account posted images and videos from the ceremony.

Hidalgo herself was absent, as she is on medical leave to address her clinical depression. Houston NPR affiliate KUHF 88.7 reports that Leland, who was born in Lubbock in 1944 and later moved with his family to Houston’s Fifth Ward neighborhood, earned a degree in pharmacy in 1970 from the public university in the Third Ward district, which it shares with the University of Houston (UH). "[The] tribute is symbolic and illustrates to each of us that the works and good deeds of the honorable Mickey Leland are not forgotten for those of us here at Texas Southern University; this is his home," interim TSU President Dr. Mary Evans-Sias said, KUHF reports. "This will become a place where many young scholars will come to walk in the path he walked and hopefully do as good in their walk as he did."

According to the station, Leland entered politics by first serving six years in the Texas House of Representatives before serving Texas’ 18th Congressional District on Capitol Hill for six terms. The lawmaker was known for addressing healthcare and hunger, having been instrumental in the establishment of the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality in 1986, KUHF reported.

Leland was in Africa on a humanitarian mission in 1989 when he perished in a plane crash.

"We still benefit from the remnants of what Mickey was all about," Cleo Glenn-Johnson McLaughlin, a former Leland staff member, said, KUHF reports. "He had done much for many all over this world, and we're still reaping from the fact that there was a man who was born and raised in Fifth Ward who decided to go forward and become an instrument of our peace."

Leland’s district is represented by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Houston).