Dr. William Ferguson “Fergie” Reid, a Richmond surgeon and activist for voting rights, made history in 1967 when he won election to the House of Delegates. He was the first Black person to break through the legislature’s whites-only ranks in more than 76 years.

Now a row of state offices at Capitol Square will bear Dr. Reid’s name as a tribute to his service to state betterment, Gov. Ralph S. Northam has announced,.

The renaming ceremony honoring Dr. Reid and other Black Virginians is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7, at 223 Governor St., in front of the buildings that will bear Dr. Reid’s name. The event, originally scheduled for earlier in the week, was postponed because of the winter storm.

“I’m honored that they are thinking of me,” Dr. Reid said Wednesday from his Los Angeles home. Now 96, he said he would be unable to attend in person.

Reid’s Row will replace the current name, Morson’s Row, for James M. Morson, who developed the three, bow- front Italianate houses in 1853 that were long used as rental property before being acquired by the state.

One of the buildings in Reid’s Row will bear the name of the Townes family, which has served in the Executive Mansion for decades, the governor stated.

Gov. Northam also stated he is renaming the remodeled Ferguson Building on Old 14th Street for Medal of Honor recipient 1st Lt. Ruppert L. Sargent, a Hampton native who died in March 1967 protecting his troops by throwing himself on two enemy hand grenades during the Vietnam War.

The building, a former warehouse, has been remodeled for use as the Capitol Police’s K9 training facility.

Two buildings in Capitol Square have been named for Black historical figures, Richmond civil rights lawyer Oliver White Hill Sr. and Farmville student protest leader Barbara Johns.

A Richmond native, Dr. Reid got involved in voting rights work in 1956 when he helped launch the Richmond Crusade for Voters to increase Black voter registration and participation.

Dr. Reid was motivated, he said, by the results of a 1955 referendum in which Virginia’s mostly white voters overwhelm- ingly supported closing public schools to avoid integration as the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered in its two Brown v. Board of Education decisions.

“We realized we needed more voters to make progress,” Dr. Reid said.

The real benefit of the Crusade’s work showed up following the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 that ended literacy tests and poll taxes and spurred voter registration. Newly empowered voters elected Dr. Reid two years later to a Richmond-Henrico seat in the House of Delegates.

Dr. Reid served two terms in the General Assembly before being defeated. He said he backed progressive legislation and recalls proudly being a sponsor of the state’s first law to end endemic racial discrimination in the sale and rental of homes.

He later would spend much of his medical career traveling the world as a U.S. State Department physician treating people at embassies in Asia, Africa and South America.

Dr. Reid, who keeps up with current events, said he is concerned that the progress in voting rights is being rolled back in multiple Republican-led states that are making it harder to vote.

He worries now that GOP victories in Virginia in last fall’s elections could lead to fresh attempts to end General Assembly initiatives of recent years that have allowed early voting and broke down other barriers to casting ballots.

He also is worried about Republicans winning the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 federal elections. “What happens in 2022 could determine whether we have a dictatorship or remain a democracy,” he said.