February 2021 Community Conversations
Connecting Fairfax For All
Connecting Fairfax City's Past and Present to Build a More Equitable and Inclusive Future
Melanie Crowder, Chief of Staff/City Clerk, City of Fairfax
The City of Fairfax, Va., recognizes there is strength in diversity and acknowledges the need for a broader community conversation around the issues of racial and social equity. During a City Council work session on Tuesday, October 6, the Mayor and Councilmembers voiced their support for a broad plan to begin a candid and open community dialogue around these issues.
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.
The Mayor and Council appointed a diverse 16-member Stakeholder group to make recommendations on action items and identify areas for further community discussion. This 16 member group encompassed the priorities of needing at least one person from each voting precinct (there are six), balancing, where possible, voices that are for, neutral, and against removing confederate memorials, and balancing across gender, and age where possible and representation of racial and ethnic groups that reflect the cities diversity. City Council will consider the recommendations of the Stakeholder group in fall 2021 before making decisions regarding the city’s nomenclature.
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.
The city plans to hold six Community Listening and Learning sessions, which will televised on the city’s government television station. The first three sessions are scheduled as follows:
February 04, 2021 Kim Holien, retired military historian for the Department of the Army, presents “Fairfax Court House: Crossroads of Conflict” at 7 p.m.
February 11, 2021 Dr. Karen L. Cox, professor of history at the University of North Carolina, presents “The Lost Cause and Confederate Monuments and Memory” at 7 p.m. Facilitated discussion will follow her presentation.
February 25, 2021 J. Brent Tarter, historian and author and editor of the Library of Virginia’s Discovering Virginia Biography, presents “The 1902 Virginia Constitution: White Supremacy and Disenfranchisement” at 7 p.m.
The remaining three conversations will be determined based on historical information needed by the Stakeholder group to help them in the development of recommendations regarding nomenclature that they will present to the Mayor and Council in the fall of 2021.
Check out the Connecting Fairfax City for All engagement page at https://engage.fairfaxva.gov for additional information on this project – and where Fairfax community residents may contribute comments, share stories, and read what others have contributed.
To discuss this concept further or ask questions contact Melanie (Melanie.Crowder@fairfaxva.gov)
Have a topic for a future Community Conversations article to suggest?; please contact Cindy Mester (cmester@fallschurchva.gov)