'Symbols Of Treason, White Supremacy' Don't Belong In Diverse Community: Islamic Group

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — The largest Islamic-American civil rights and advocacy group in the U.S. announced Monday that it supported efforts in the City of Fairfax to rename its Confederate-themed streets.

“We support calls for Fairfax City Council to drop all Confederate-related street names and urge towns and cities nationwide to take similar action to repudiate the racist legacy of the Confederacy,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a release. “Symbols of treason, white supremacy and systemic anti-Black racism do not belong in a diverse community.”

This is not the first time CAIR has supported efforts to remove Confederate-related names from public buildings and spaces. Last week, it urged Virginia’s Shenandoah County School Board not to revert two school names to previously Confederate-themed names that had been changed in 2020. It also voiced its support for efforts to remove a monument to a Confederate officer and white supremacist in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests, many jurisdictions, including Fairfax City and Fairfax County took a number of steps to examine how the legacy of the Confederacy in their communities.

For example, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted in 2020 to remove the Confederate Memorial on the grounds of the Old Fairfax Court House, which is located on county property within the city.

In January 2021, the "Connecting Fairfax City For All" initiative, which was launched by the City Council, hosted listening sessions and public discussions to examine the way the Civil War was represented in Fairfax. The Stakeholder Advisory Group published its final report last September, recommending Civil War imagery be removed from the city seal and the following streets with Confederate-related names changed:

• Mosby Woods Community: Confederate Lane, Mosby Woods Drive, Plantation Parkway, Raider Lane, Ranger Road, Reb Street, Scarlet Circle, Singleton Circle, and Traveler Street
• Major Arterial Roads: Lee Highway, Old Lee Highway
• Additional Roads in the City: Lee Street, Mosby Road, Stonewall Avenue

At its April 12 meeting, the City Council voted 5-1 to adopt a new street naming and renaming policy, with Councilmember Sang Yi voting in opposition. The approval gave the council the ability to rename streets based on city initiatives.

City Council will conduct targeted public outreach in June for the streets approved to be changed. The city is soliciting public input on new street names through July 11. The public can submit their feedback by sending an email to streetnames@fairfaxva.gov or by visiting www.engage.fairfaxva.gov.

On July 26, the City Council will hold a public hearing and take action on the new proposed street names.

The City Council originally budgeted $100,000 to facilitate the process of changing the city seal and removing or updating the language of historic monuments or markers, as well as addressing the changing of street signs, according to City Clerk Melanie Crowder. She added that the city spent $45,000 to hire a consultant to help facilitate its public engagement efforts regarding diversity, equality and inclusion.

Since the city can fabricate and install street signs in-house, the actual cost of changing a sign is about $35 for materials.

Three full-time members of the city staff have worked on the project since its inception: Susan Gray, the city's historic resources director; Lesley Abashian, its human services director, and Crowder. Since these three hold executive positions, they are not eligible for overtime. Also, none of them is working full-time on the project. It is just part of their other daily duties.

Crowder did say that the help of other staff members was used when their expertise was needed, where expertise was, such as Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Vita, who is now helping with the street renaming process.