The Prince Edward County Branch NAACP will honor civil rights pioneer the Rev. L. Francis Griffin with a wreath-laying ceremony next month.

The event will take place 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, at Griffin’s gravesite in Odd Fellows Cemetery, across from the R.R. Moton Museum.

Griffin, known as the “fighting preacher,” led desegregation efforts in Prince Edward County during the 1950s and 1960s. He served as pastor of First Baptist Church and president of both the local and state NAACP branches.

“We are laying this wreath now to show our love and respect for our fearless leader and to make sure he is never forgotten,” said James Ghee, current president of the Prince Edward NAACP. The group plans to make this an annual event near Griffin’s Sept. 15 birthday.

Griffin played a key role in the 1951 student walkout at Robert Russa Moton High School, protesting segregated and inferior schools for African American children. When Prince Edward County closed its schools in 1959 to resist desegregation, Griffin filed a lawsuit that led to their reopening in 1964.

Since his death in 1980, Griffin has been honored with a street named after him and a statue on Richmond’s Capitol Square as part of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial.

A gymnasium at Prince Edward County Middle School also bears his name.