Funeral service set for civil rights activist Helena Hicks, leader of 1955 'Read's Drugstore' sit-in

Funeral services have been set for Helena Hicks, a student organizer at Morgan State University who led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in 1955.

Hicks died of pneumonia and complications of Lewy body dementia at age 88 on April 18, according to our media partner at The Baltimore Banner.

Hicks' demonstrations at "Reads drugstores" were the forerunners of later sit-ins at lunch counters across the South during the Civil Rights movement.

She grew up in Sandtown-Winchester and was a graduate of Baltimore's Frederick Douglass High School and Morgan State where she received her bachelor's in sociology.

A public viewing will held at Joseph H. Brown Funeral Home, located at 2140 N. Fulton Ave., on Monday, May 6, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The funeral is Tuesday, May 7 at 10:30 a.m., at the same location.