Renaming Confederate Streets: Fairfax City Council Seeks Public Input

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax City Council is hosting a public hearing on Tuesday to solicit public input on the recommended names submitted by the community for 14 city streets. The council voted in July to change the names due to their association with slavery, the Confederacy, and the myth of the " Lost Cause."

Following that vote, the city initiated a public engagement period to solicit new names for the streets. The city will continue to accept suggestions from the public through Nov. 28. The public can provide input on the city's Engage page.

On Nov. 29, the council is scheduled to consider the following names, as well as those received through Nov. 28.

In the months leading up to the city council's decision to rename the 14 streets, the city held a number of public engagement sessions and many residents voiced their support or opposition to the name changes at a public hearing in June.

"They do nothing whatsoever to help anyone in our society who needs us. They do not educate a child. They do not put a roof over anyone's head. They do not address actual injustices that cry out for our attention," said Francis Dietz, at the June public hearing. "Instead, they have the illusion of helping people without us having to do anything constructive at all. But what they do do is needlessly cost citizens time and money and of course, pit neighbor against neighbor."

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

"While I know that changing street names is not going to eliminate systemic racism, it's one small thing that we can do now to show that racism is not OK," said Patricia McMurray, at the June public hearing. "I do not believe that we would be erasing history. To those who believe that, I would say that we are having a long overdue reckoning with that part of our history."

Both McMurray and Dietz are property owners in Mosby Woods, where the majority of streets that are being renamed are located.

The decision to rename the streets stems from recommendations made in September 2021 by the 16-member Stakeholder Advisory Group based on the findings of the "Connecting Fairfax City For All" initiative, which the city council started the previous January.

The city council kicked off the process in 2020, when many jurisdictions began to examine racial equity in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. The city council's aim was to revaluate the way the Civil War was represented in the city.

In its final report and recommendations, the Stakeholder Advisory Group recommended the 14 names the council voted to change in July.

The Stakeholder Advisory Group also recommended that the city update its seal, since the old seal contained depictions of a Confederate soldier and Lord Fairfax.

City staff presented a series of alternate designs for the city seal during several council work sessions last spring. At its June 28 meeting. the city council voted to adopt a new city seal.

Also see ...

• Fairfax City Adopts New Seal Minus Confederate Soldier, British Lord
• Confederate Street Renaming Vote In Fairfax City Deferred To July 12
• Confederate Street Renaming Receives Input From Fairfax City Residents