Ousting Confederate Street Names A Step Toward Inclusion: Council

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax City Council's vote Tuesday night to change 14 street names associated with the Confederacy and the myth of the "Lost Cause" was the culmination of a very deliberate two-year effort to alter the way the Civil War was represented in the city.

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, communities around the country began to address issues of racial equity and diversity. For many Virginians, the focus of this scrutiny centered around the representation of the Confederacy in public places.

Locally, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to remove the monument dedicated to the memory of Confederate Captain John Quincy Marr on the grounds the Historic Fairfax Court House at the intersection of Main Street and Chain Bridge Road in Fairfax City.

Related: 14 Confederate Street Names Changed With Fairfax City Council Vote

In February 2021, the Fairfax County School Board voted to change the name of Mosby Woods Elementary on the city's northern border to Mosaic Elementary.

"Mosaics are not perfect," Providence District School Board Member Karl Frisch said, at the time. "But the irregular pieces of stone, glass, and ceramic that create mosaics, result in something special. That is my hope for the Mosby Woods community — that this change results in something special. Not only for them, but for future generations of students who walk the halls of Mosaic Elementary School."

Not only does the county's high school in Springfield now bear the name of John Lewis, the late congressman and civil rights leader, rather than the commanding general of the Confederacy, the board of supervisors recently approved the renaming of the Lee District. Supervisor Rodney Lusk, the first Black man elected to the county board, now represents the Franconia District.

Prior to Tuesday night's vote, the city had already taken a number of steps to reconcile its past in response to contemporary concerns regarding racial and social equity:

• An historical marker on Main Street dedicated to the "Birthplace of the Confederate Battle Flag" was removed.
• The Fairfax High School principal changed the name of the street the school was located on from Rebel Run to Lion Run.
• The City of Fairfax School Board renamed Lanier Middle School to Katherine Johnson Middle School. Sidney Lanier was a Confederate soldier who, in the decades after his death, was embraced as the "poet of the Confederacy."
• In 2020, representatives of the United Daughters of the Confederacy removed "The First Soldier of the South to Shed His Blood for the Confederacy," from an alcove on Fairfax Boulevard. The group had dedicated the monument in 1927 to honor the memory of the first Southern soldier killed in the Civil War.

At the end of June, the city council voted to update the city seal, which included depictions of a Confederate soldier and Lord Fairfax. The idea for this change originated from the "Connecting Fairfax City For All" initiative, which started in January 2021. This resulted in the Stakeholder Advisory Group's final report, identifying the 14 street names the city council voted to change Tuesday night.

That vote followed months of public outreach that included surveys, informational meetings, and public hearings. The process, which was sometimes emotional and acrimonious, led to the June 15 public hearing at city hall, when more than 145 city residents had signed up to share their opinions with the council.

After all the votes were recorded on Tuesday night and the city council had made its final decision, each member took the opportunity to share their thoughts on what had just occurred. Here is some of what they said:

"There are a couple of reasons why I made the decision to to rename all the streets. First of all, it is very unusual to have a neighborhood and all of its streets named after a war. I would bet we're probably one of the few cities in the country, if not in the world, that has a neighborhood that's named after a war, a war that is a real stain on the United States of America. It doesn't matter whether those streets and that neighborhood was named in the 1950s or in 2022, it still is highly, highly unusual. The second thing is that this neighborhood is named Mosby Woods. It's not named General Grant. It's not named Abe Lincoln. It's named Mosby Woods. So, all of the names relating to the Confederacy, streets such as Plantation, Confederate, Raider, Ranger, Traveler, or Scarlet, all of these names relate to John Singleton Mosby, who was a Confederate soldier." — Councilmember Janice Miller

"Let me talk about moving forward. Over the next 60 days and beyond, we have the opportunity as a community to redefine who we are, with 14 different streets as a meaningful opportunity for the future. I'm energized about that. I'm excited to hear what the community wants to be called as we move forward. I stand with Councilmember Miller and all my colleagues to assist in whatever way we can as we take these steps to change the street names. This is an important step, but it's not the final step." — Councilmember Jon. R. Stehle Jr.

"When you look at why we did this, why this whole conversation came up, we didn't do this because we just wanted to change street names. I hope not. ... We think that there's racial inequities here that need to be addressed? Let's do it. Don't just change street names, pat yourself on the back, and move on. I think that really will be the saddest part here. I know people are going to be upset tonight, in Mosby Woods especially, when they feel like that their voices weren't heard because their street name was changed. ... What are the actions that we're going to do to actually help people? What are the actions we're going to do to bring people together?"— Councilmember Sang H. Yi

"The neighbor should have a say as to what a road name should be. The only exception to this, in my mind, is the naming of a street for the Confederacy itself. ... I think we're all in agreement. They were traitors to the Union. Therefore, the neighborhood roads that I voted 'yes' for at the meeting tonight, the road was either directly named for the Confederacy, had no one living on the road in which to offer an opinion, or intersected an arterial street, or the majority of the neighbors who lived there wanted the name to be changed. This reasoning of categories and taking them into consideration is what informed my decision tonight. It is my belief that Fairfax City is a welcoming and inclusive place. As such, we now have a policy that will provide for any majority of neighbors to petition the council to have their neighborhood road renamed." — Councilmember Joseph D. Harmon

"Fifty years ago, in 1970, as I was finishing college, believe it or not, the City of Fairfax was 98 percent white composition. Our high school mascot was a character named Johnny Reb, dressed in a Confederate outfit and schools only a few years before had been segregated in Virginia. Today, we are a community in a very different place with a population that has grown to over 24,000 and is now 54 percent white — 54 from 98 in 50 years. Think about that. A very diverse population. The school mascot is a lion and the city school named after an esteemed American hero, Katherine Johnson, instead of a former Confederate officer. Our community has changed too, from a sleepy southern town to a growing small city, composed of many ethnic groups and diverse ages, part of a growing dynamic region that provides promise and opportunities for many. Tonight I voted for that kind of future that holds the promise and opportunities for all of our citizens. I understand that change can be difficult, and I acknowledge that we're asking our citizens affected to deal with that change directly. I know it will not always be easy, but we are in a far different place than we were a short 50 years ago, when our nation and our community reflected other values and beliefs." — Councilmember D. Thomas Ross

"My family emigrated when I was 11 from South Korea. As you know, Korea had their own civil war between north and south 72 years ago. My parents, who are in their late 80s, suffered and experienced in person how horrible it is to lose freedom. To this day, they cannot forget the atrocities. My mom still has family members in the north who could not flee in time. Whenever she thinks about them, she cries at the thought of her family dealing with no rights, no freedom, forced to work in the labor camps with conditions approaching slavery. So then I started to think if there were any community in South Korea named after North Korea communist leaders like Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-un today, what kind of message would that send to visitors or their community or city? ... What we're doing today is for the future of our city and for the next generation. I believe it's time to change the message of our city, that we are truly diverse and welcoming to all people, regardless of their race." — Councilmember So P. Lim

"I also want to take this as an opportunity for all of us to renew our commitment to this city, to embrace and affirm the values that we all share, especially the actions that we take in every shape and form, within our neighborhoods and here on this Dias. For our future, for the children, and grandchildren that will someday be the leaders of the city, so that we are not bequeathing to them vestiges of issues that have lingered for decades here. I commend my colleagues for reaching closure on this part of the process and then we will look upon the opportunity to consider the new names for streets as an opportunity to do a reset and to lay the foundations for very affirming references to our community for our future." — Mayor David L. Meyer