Fred Lyon of Port Haywood, will give a public presentation, “John Warren Cooke, A Publisher and Politician Responds to Brown v. Board of Education,” on Thursday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. at Mathews Memorial Library, 251 Main Street, Mathews.

Cooke was a lifelong Mathews County resident who served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 38 years, from 1942 to 1980. During his last 12 years, he was speaker of the house. He was president of Tidewater Newspapers Inc. and publisher of the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal. He died in 2009 at the age of 94.

Lyon is a native Virginian and a historian with a BA degree in history from Duke University, a JD from the University of Virginia, an MLS degree from Rollins College and a master’s in history from the University of Edinburgh. He has practiced law in Virginia for 45 years. His research focuses on civil rights in Virginia and specifically massive resistance and Brown v. Board of Education. Lyon is chairperson of the Mathews County VA250 Co...