Loudoun courthouse to be named in honor of civil rights attorney

On Monday, Sept. 9 the historic Loudoun County Courthouse building will be named in honor of Charles Hamilton Houston. Houston, born in Washington, D.C., was a lawyer credited with mapping out the legal strategy for the landmark Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education case, and was the first general counsel for the NAACP.

He also served in the U.S. Army as a First Lieutenant in World War I in France and at Ft. Meade, MD. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, Houston played a significant role in dismantling Jim Crow laws, especially attacking segregation in schools and racial housing covenants.

In 1933, when Houston was the dean of Howard University’s Law School and legal counsel to the NAACP, he led an all-black legal team assembled by the NAACP to defend George Crawford, who was accused of murdering two white women in Middleburg. The case brought national attention to the issue of integrating all-white juries, widespread recognition of the abilities of black lawyers and laid important groundwork in the NAACP’s work to use federal constitutional law to dismantle racial segregation.

Houston was also instrumental in securing funding for Douglass High School in Leesburg, though he did not live in Leesburg or Loudoun County. Parents hired Houston to persuade Loudoun County officials to allocate funds for a new school. The hope was to secure adequate facilities and teachers for black children in Loudoun County. The School Board eventually agreed to fund the high school if the parent group sold the land it had secured to the School Board for $1. In 1941, Douglass High School opened as the first public school for black students in Loudoun County.

Houston would not live long enough to see segregation declared unconstitutional in 1954, as he passed away in 1950 at age 54. The Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation was established in 2016.

The historic courthouse that will now bear Houston's name is used primarily for ceremonial purposes, such as the swearing in ceremonies for elected politicians. Circuit and District court business is handled within buildings constructed adjacent to the historic court house.

It cost taxpayers $13,491.88 to rename this courthouse, according to Mary Frances Forcier, public information officer for Loudoun County.

Renaming of courthouses, schools and roads

In the aftermath of the George Floyd Black Lives Matter movement, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors decided to start evaluating "roads, buildings, signs and other public infrastructure named after and honoring Confederate or segregationist figures, symbols and slogans in Loudoun County."

The Board of Supervisors decided to rename the courthouse based on a 2019 recommendation from the Heritage Commission, a group which advises the Board of Supervisors on issues regarding the County’s heritage resources and the implementation of the Countywide Heritage Preservation Plan. The Commission supports and encourages the identification, documentation, protection and preservation of the County’s natural and cultural heritage.

The Board had requested in 2017 that the Heritage Commission study the history of the courthouse with the purpose of adding a monument on the grounds in addition to the existing Confederate statue that had been there since 1908, known as "Silent Sentinel".

However in 2020, the Board of Supervisors also voted to remove the Confederate statue at the courthouse. It was removed overnight on July 21, 2020 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Activists from a group called Loudoun 350 covered the statue in 2018 for about 15 minutes while protesting its legacy with signs that said, "Confederate statue = hate." Last year, the group also urged the public to donate to Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall's re-election campaign. Randall is African American.

Similarly, in September 2020, the Board of Supervisors decided to inventory and review what it considered "Confederate and segregationist symbols in the County" and in November 2021 decided to rename a number of streets - Fort Johnston Road, Jeb Stuart Road, and streets adjacent to and within the Town of Round Hill.

In October 2023, the segment of Fort Johnston Road between Alysheba Drive and Leeland Orchard Road was renamed Leeland Orchard Road with the remaining segment renamed Fort Star Lane.

The Board also renamed Harry Byrd Highway/Route 7 to "Leesburg Pike" and John Mosby Highway/Route 50 to "Little River Turnpike." The cost estimate for these name changes was $621,000 - $3,204,000. The signs were put in place in September 2023.

Further, to accommodate businesses impacted by the road renaming project, the Board of Supervisors established an assistance program whereby commercial and home-based businesses could apply for grants to pay for new signage to reflect the new road names.

Businesses or nonprofits with an address on Route 7 or Route 50 were also eligible. Some of the grants offered were $5,000 each.

Public sentiment

Renaming the courthouse has brought a mix of public reaction. Some commented on online platforms that they welcome the change while others were critical of the Board of Supervisors decision.

"Mr. Houston had an impactful career. However, he never lived in Loudoun. Do you mean to tell me there's not one single accomplished Loudouner in all of our history that we had to name the courthouse after an outsider? Why does it even need to be named after a person at all? Haven't we learned our lesson about naming schools and roads and buildings after imperfect human beings?" said one resident.

Another said, "I wish they [Board of Supervisors] would spend less time on virtue signaling and more time on wisely spending the tax dollars that I am over paying them."

In June 2024, the Loudoun County School Board decided to follow on the heels of the Board of Supervisors and voted to change the name for nine public schools that were named after people or places it believes are associated with slavery. The School Board will form renaming committees for the 2024-2025 school year to consider the names. Frances Hazel Reid Elementary School in Leesburg and Mercer Middle School in Aldie will be considered first.

The School Board had already previously removed the mascot of Loudoun County High School in 2022 from the Raiders - a reference to John Mosby’s Confederate cavalry unit-to the Captains. That change cost the school system about $1.5 million dollars, according to the Director of Planning and GIS Services Beverly Tate.

This process began in June 2020, when the School Board initiated an action plan to combat systemic racism, including a review of all LCPS facility names and mascots. Loudoun County Public Schools contracted with a third party, History Matters, LLC, which specializes in historic resource documentation, to conduct a comprehensive review of school names.

The Loudoun County Republican Committee weighed in on the issue in August with an open letter to the School Board on its website stating, in part, that some of the names being considered for change are actually associated with abolitionists such as Frances Hazel Reid, Charles Fenton Mercer, and Col. John Mosby.

The GOP also admonished the School Board for paying $305,000 to History Matters for research that is largely available for free online. It considered that taxpayer abuse and asked why research could not have been done by students.

The GOP also states the School Board should focus its effort on maintaining safe grounds for students and earmarked maintenance projects in the pipelines for schools instead of focusing on name changes.

The courthouse is located at the intersection of King and Market Streets in downtown Leesburg on the grounds of the Loudoun County Courthouse Complex. The County is pursuing a National Historic Landmark designation for the historic courthouse, and a decision from the National Park Service is expected by the end of 2024.

A public ceremony will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday. Members of the Board of Supervisors and other dignitaries representing Houston’s life and work will speak prior to the unveiling of the courthouse sign featuring the new name.

The courthouse was first built in 1758, and rebuilt in 1895.