Post office named for Leland

A U.S. post office in the Third Ward area will be named after former U.S. Representative Mickey Leland.

The bill to name the Southmore post office building in the 4100 block of Almeda after the civil rights pioneer was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee announced Tuesday.

The building was the site of a 1960 civil rights demonstration that became Houston's first sit-in, she said.

"This post office had a very unique history and story. That is why I am pleased (it) will be named after a civil rights and human rights activist," Jackson Lee said.

Mickey Leland was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1979 after earlier serving in the Texas legislature. He died in a 1989 plane crash while on an anti-poverty mission in Ethiopia.

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Post office named for Leland