Attorney John P. Fishwick, Jr. holds a news conference today at 2pm outside his office on Franklin Road; he’s requesting Congressional legislation to rename the Poff Federal Building in downtown Roanoke, quote, “to honor one of Roanoke’s undeservedly forgotten legal, “civil rights attorney Reuben E. Lawson.” Fishwick says Lawson was an African American attorney who played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement in Virginia. Reuben Lawson practiced law in Roanoke from an office building he had built for himself. Fishwick also says Richard H. Poff, a longtime Congressman, quote, “publicly opposed integration and repeatedly voted against the Civil Rights Act.”
