Connecting Fairfax City's Past and Present to Build a More Equitable and Inclusive Future
On July 12, 2022, City Council voted to change the names of 14 streets as recommended by the Stakeholder Advisory Group. Watch the meeting.
UPDATE July 12, 2022: City Council voted to change 14 street names. Watch the meeting. If you would like to submit names for consideration, please complete the survey.
Connecting Fairfax City for All
The City of Fairfax recognizes there is strength in diversity and acknowledges the need for a broader community conversation around the issues of racial and social equity, systemic racism, symbolism, and identity.
Evolving views about who and what should be memorialized in public spaces and on public land present an opportunity for the City of Fairfax to examine its nomenclature. Confederate-related street and place names, historical markers and monuments, and elements in the city seal will be discussed in the context of how these symbols reflect the City Council’s goals of inclusivity and building community.
City residents are invited to participate in thought-provoking conversations that connect current realities with the city’s historical past. Ultimately, through a series of listening and learning opportunities, the goal is to connect the present to a more equitable and inclusive future for all city residents, businesses, and visitors.
“This initiative, endorsed by the City Council, holds great promise for our city residents to engage with each other with respect, compassion, and an openness to learning and gaining a greater understanding of each other,” said City of Fairfax Mayor David Meyer. “This is an opportunity for all of us to discern what actions we may take to create a preferred future that is inclusive and more just and equitable.”
Partnership with George Mason University
To accomplish this work, the city has partnered with the George Mason University Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Working with the Carter School, the city has outlined a process to listen to community voices, engage the community in learning sessions and structured, facilitated discussions, and will form a diverse working group to make recommendations on action items and identify areas for further community discussion. City Council will consider the recommendations in 2021 before making decisions regarding the city’s nomenclature.
Please explore this project site, drop a pin on the map, share your ideas, tell your story, or leave a comment. Click on the social media icons to share with others.
Videos
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The first Connecting Fairfax City for All listening and learning session was held February 4, 2021. City of Fairfax Historic Resources Director Susan Gray presented “Fairfax: Crossroads of Conflict in the American Civil War, 1861-65: How Those Events and Personalities Have Been Memorialized and Interpreted.”
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Historian Brent Tarter, author and editor of the Library of Virginia’s Discovering Virginia Biography, presented “The 1902 Virginia Constitution: White Supremacy and Disenfranchisement” on February 25. (Presentation begins at the eight-minute mark.)
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Jarrod Elwell and Michelle Juma from Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. presented “The History of Now: Racial Equity and Housing in the City of Fairfax."
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Mark C. Hopson, Ph.D., Director of African and African American Studies, and Associate Professor of Communications at George Mason University presented “Reimagining America: Why All the Protests? Having ‘The Talk’ about Race and Racism."
He is joined by Gina Castle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Saint John’s University and author of Talking Black and White: An Intercultural Exploration of 21st Century Racism, Prejudice and Perception.
This Fairfax County Public Library presentation was recorded June 17, 2020.
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Fairfax Schools: Racially-Separate to Desegregation to Diversity
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Fairfax City: Our Changing Demographics
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Neighbors Together for Equity and Inclusion
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Researching and Making Decisions on Confederate Symbols and Street Names
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Progress on the Connecting Fairfax City for All initiative was shared at an open house at the Sherwood Community Center on April 19, 2022. Residents interacted with city staff, the mayor, and city council members, sharing their thoughts about proposed changes to street names and historical monuments and markers, and the city seal.
Photos from Stakeholder Advisory Group Presentation to Mayor and Council 9-9-2021
Who's Listening
Supporting Documents
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Additional Resources for Connecting Fairfax City for All.pdf (676 KB) (pdf)
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City Council Work Session Presentation 10-6-2020 - Racial and Social Equity and Nomenclature in Fairfax City.pdf (528 KB) (pdf)
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City Seal Story in Cityscene February 2017 (930 KB) (jpg)
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City Council Work Session Presentation 10-27-2020 Working Group Selection Process.pdf (179 KB) (pdf)
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Stakeholder Group Members (131 KB) (pdf)
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Confederate Iconography Timeline - Southern Poverty Law Center 2018 (713 KB) (pdf)
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Q&A from First Listening and Learning Session 2-4-2021.pdf (132 KB) (pdf)
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Connecting Fairfax City for All timeline 4-19-2022.pdf (196 KB) (pdf)
Do you guys have nothing to do?
New street names should only be decided by residents on those streets and we should be reimbursed for any costs incurred by this mandatory name change.
Also, I am looking forward to further “engagement” and the much mentioned “healing process” that the mayor, city council and the non existent SAG have consistently mentioned. This has divided everyone and it has been done so poorly. Realistically only a certain HOA needed the change their name and three other streets, one of which no one lives on. This could have been done in a month. And those residents could have meet together in a meeting and selected a new name and then been given a rebate or discount on taxes.
But no, let’s take two years and spend literally hundreds of thousands to listen to a few selected people, most who do not live on any of these streets, while actively discounting the overwhelming opinion of residents who do not want to change anything at all.
On a side note, what is Ranger road park going to be named?
This is ridiculous. There was nothing wrong with the old names. By the way, Lee Highway was not even named after General Robert E. Lee. What a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.
Removed by moderator.
Some time ago I left a post saying that I thought the path of greatest acceptance (and least disruption) was to change the names of only three specific streets in Mosby Woods: Plantation Parkway, Confederate Lane and Reb Street. I suggested changing Plantation Parkway to Proclamation Parkway, Confederate Lane to Conciliation Lane, and replacing Reb Street with a one-syllable rhyming name. Given Nasa's latest achievement, I now believe Webb Street would be appropriate.
Given that an apparently irreversible decision has now been made to change five other street names, I offer the following suggestions. My thinking on each of them should be obvious so I will refrain from any attempt at explanation:
-Change Ranger Road to Texas Road
-Change Raider Road to Oakland Road
-Change Scarlet Circle to Crimson Circle
-Change Singleton Circle to Doubleday Circle
-Change Traveler Street to Secretariat Street
Voilà
Who will pay for all new documentation that requires home address; Council board members?
A total waste of taxpayer dollars
I asked where does this ridiculousness end? Just taking down a statue, removing art, and changing names needs to stop. If you are against these things or don't like then that is your opinion you are welcome to create a statue that represents your side and have it placed next to the statue in question. You're welcome to leave your comment on art so that others can see your view. You're welcome to get on city council to name new streets to the names you wish to see but going back and changing things just because your assumptions are that the statue, the artist, the person, or the name represents something you don't want to see...??? That right there is a start of exactly what you think your preventing. The moment you reduce the amount of free speech, free will, and openness about past events, past people, past history is the moment you invite divisiveness forgetfulness and silence for debate that will inevitably lead to labeling and non communication, and persocution of the innocent which inevitably produces the same results from our past.
I am certainly not saying keep the things the same way they are today but labeling things and putting them into a box to forget about them it's not the way to move into a bright inclusive future for all of mankind!
I suggest the following names.
Snowflake Street
Safe Space Avenue
Feelings Over Facts Blvd.
Easily Offended Road
Orwell Avenue
Wasted Tax Payer Money Circle
Hurt Fee Fees Terrace
Intersectional Avenue
NewSpeak Street
Wrong Think Road
Echo Chamber Court
Pandering Place
Really? Learn your history and stop the madness. Why are we so elitist that we hold people of history to our standards today. It’s ridiculous. If you erase history you are doomed to repeat it.
Removed by moderator.
Could we rename “Ranger Road” to “Ranger Street”?
I will be voting for Councilmember Yi at the next election. Enough said.
Orwell’s 1984:A fictional warning, not a handbook for implementation.
What about Robert E. Lee Drive in Hybla Valley?
As a pizza manager who has had to dispatch drivers to
" Plantation Parkway ", I applaud the effort to rename such streets. Fairfax has a lot to be proud of and many people who have lived here deserve to be honored, not enemy combatants who merely decamped or traipsed through the thickets that used to comprise our city.
I understand the concerns, but I'm not certain renaming ALL of these streets is necessary, abd might cause confusion.
Has anyone looked at how Fairfax received its name? At some point there has to be a place of reasonableness as you could follow tangents for awhile.
If you change the name of Plantation Pkwy, will you drill down and forbid the term Plantation Shutters to be used in architectural codes?
Neighboring GWU is working to change The Colonials.
I was born in Fairfax in 1961 and have lived here my entire life. I would like to point out that the majority of these streets and roads in question were built and named within the last 100 years, and mostly in the 1960's. These are not historical streets, but named in defiant response to the civil rights movement. Context matters.
Please name a street after our lord and savior, General William Tecumseh Sherman. He was a brave man who knew how to properly put the south in its place.