This week marks 37 years since the death of Congressman George Thomas “Mickey” Leland, the Houston civil rights advocate and lawmaker whose work made the fight against hunger a national and international priority. Leland was born Nov. 27, 1944, in Lubbock, Texas, and grew up in Houston, where he graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School before earning his degree from Texas Southern University. His path from Houston’s Black community to the halls of Congress became a story of public service centered on health care, civil rights, poverty and food security.
Leland first won election to the Texas House of Representatives in 1972. In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas’ 18th Congressional District, succeeding the legendary Barbara Jordan. He served in Congress from January 1979 until his death in 1989 and became one of the nation’s most visible Black political leaders. According to the U.S. House of Representatives, Leland helped establish the House Select Committee on Hunger and served as its chairman, using the position to draw attention to hunger in American communities as well as famine and poverty around the world.
His humanitarian work was especially focused on Africa. Leland repeatedly traveled to areas affected by famine and conflict, pushing Congress and relief organizations to do more for people facing starvation. His advocacy helped build support for stronger U.S. responses to the devastating Ethiopian famine of the 1980s, while he also fought for programs addressing hunger at home. The Congressional Hunger Center notes that Leland’s bipartisan approach and firsthand humanitarian missions helped make hunger an issue lawmakers could no longer ignore.
On Aug. 7, 1989, Leland was traveling on another humanitarian mission when the plane carrying him and members of his delegation crashed in a mountainous area of Ethiopia while headed toward a refugee camp near the Sudan-Ethiopia border. Everyone aboard was killed. Leland was only 44 years old. The tragedy stunned Houston and the nation, but it also cemented his legacy as a public servant who died while carrying out the work he believed mattered most.
More than three decades later, Mickey Leland’s name remains deeply connected to Houston and the global fight against hunger. Houston’s international airport terminal bears his name, and institutions and fellowship programs continue his mission of developing leaders committed to fighting poverty and food insecurity. For Houston’s Black community, Leland’s life remains a powerful reminder of how local activism can grow into national leadership — and how public service can reach far beyond the borders of one district, one state or one country.
