Both houses shared the same street number, and one day "a courtly man with a Van Dyke beard" appeared at the Reid family's door, mistaking it for the Walker residence.
[7][8] In 1941 Reid graduated from Armstrong High School[citation needed], and in 1946 he received his bachelor's degree from Virginia Union University.
[10] Reid served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy during the Korean War, with the 1st Marine Division, and later at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.
According to Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "This was an era of poll taxes, literacy tests and other mechanisms to weaken black political clout.
"[9] Reid, John Mitchell Brooks and Dr. William S. Thornton began meeting daily at the old Slaughter's Hotel, a popular segregation-era gathering place for black Richmonders in Jackson Ward.
The Crusade had been formed in 1955 to register more voters to combat the racist politics driven by the era of "massive resistance," part of a Southern strategy to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings that public schools be desegregated.
"[15] Reid co-founded the Richmond Crusade for Voters with Dr. William Thornton, John M. Brooks, Ethel T. Overby and Lola Hamilton.
Senator Harry F. Byrd died of a brain tumor, and two of his prominent lieutenants, conservative Democrats Rep. Howard W. Smith of the 8th congressional district and U.S.
[16] But Reid won election to the House of Delegates in 1967, unseating prominent segregationist T. Coleman Andrews Jr., who would co-found the American Independent Party to support the 1968 presidential candidacy of George C. Wallace of Alabama.
[17] The first African American elected to the Virginia General Assembly since 1891, Reid took his seat in the lower chamber in January 1968, alongside Eleanor P. Sheppard, who had opposed school closings and became Richmond's first female mayor.
[20][21] After his final term as delegate ended, Reid accepted a position as regional medical officer with the U.S. State Department, which caused him to maintain a home in Washington, D.C.'s Maryland suburbs, as well as travel abroad.
[23] In honor of Reid's 90th birthday, in 2015 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the 90 for 90 voter registration goal based on door-to-door volunteer canvassing began.