Board of Supervisors appoints task force to consider renaming roads that honor Confederates
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on July 13 appointed a 30-member task force to examine renaming Lee Highway (Route 29) and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway (Route 50).
The Confederate Names Task Force, chaired by Evelyn Spain, includes residents and representatives of civic organizations, homeowner associations, faith groups, historical groups, and the business community. The sole task force member from Mason District is Bryant Bunyan.
The task force will meet monthly to discuss whether the highway names should change and come up with a list of potential new names to present to the Board of Supervisors. The group will coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions considering name changes to the same highways.
The Confederate Names Task Force meetings will be open to the public. The task force will make a recommendation to the BoS, and the board will make the final decision about changing the names of Lee Highway and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway after extensive community engagement.
Changing the names of those roads is tied to the One Fairfax policy, adopted in 2017, which calls for the county to consider equity when making new policies and delivering programs and services.
Related story: History Commission documents Confederate place names in Fairfax County
“In Fairfax County, our diversity is our greatest strength and it’s important that we honor and celebrate that diversity,” said Fairfax County Board Chair Jeffrey McKay. “We cannot ignore what the Lee and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway names represent in our community and especially to our African American neighbors.”
“The Confederate Names Task Force, which includes a diverse group, will examine and make recommendations on how both roadways can better reflect our values as we chart a positive path together for the future,” McKay said.
Last year, the BoS asked the History Commission to create an inventory report of Confederate monuments, street names, and places in Fairfax County. That report, completed in December 2020, explains why some county locations have Confederate-associated names and lists 157 locations within the county where they exist.
In addition to Lee Highway and Lee Jackson Memorial Highway, the History Commission documented many streets named for Confederate leaders in the Broyhill Crest neighborhood in Annandale and Ravensworth Farms in North Springfield. They also concluded that John Marr Drive was named for a Confederate soldier.
13 responses to “Board of Supervisors appoints task force to consider renaming roads that honor Confederates”
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It is only the confused and guilt consumed society we live in today that are able to see and define a human being by a single side of their personality,
and judge their morals not by standards of their own time but by today's distorted and skewed ones.
It is such ignorant acts that makes me happy i can contribute to the education of the younger generation, providing them with normal and rational views rather than thee distorted ones.
Also – to this poor blog, this has nothing to do with equity nor history, but more with bigotry and desire to rewrite history.
If "a single side of their personality" is fighting for slavery, I don't care what the rest of your personality is. I'm saddened that someone that can turn a blind eye towards slavery is educating children.
Also please don't equate celebrating slavers with rewriting history. Nobody is complaining that we should ignore that part of our history. Quite the contrary. It should be studied greatly to understand the impacts it still has today. To claim otherwise is intellectually dishonest.
It is a common misconception that abhorrence to these names and people and their acts is unique to our times. I, too, was warned in grad school of falling prey to "presentism," seeing the world through today's perspective. The reality is, however, that these actions were considered abhorrent in their own time as well – it is well documented. When we decry these changes because of a purported changing ethic we are merely reflecting that those who opposed these actions in the past have been conveniently overlooked and forgotten – for the sake of our current consciences.
Is it possible that if Robert E. Lee could have known how things would turn out 155 years later he would have kept fighting?
Are you saying you wish they would bring back slavery?
No
He wishes that the more sensible, honorable and respectable to history and tradition side would win.
Had anyone knew what a bunch of loonies the far left would become and what would turn out from the progressive movement to turn in into a hate movement…
Hell i bet even the North would have not fight for such crap.
This commenter is correct in depicting that many of the Far Left espouse a lot of hate. Many of them think that their hate is justified. They do not see that they are doing the very thing that they are rallying against. It needs to stop. People on all sides need to have introspect and be willing to work these issues out and need to stop pointing fingers.
I think that what some people are trying to convey is that to some people, certain symbols of the Confederacy signify southern pride not support for slavery. Never once while watching the Dukes of Hazzard did I ever detect a hidden agenda in support of slavery, despite their car being named the General Lee and sporting a Confederate flag. Now that show is taboo, however many who support the show's ban are still wearing their Redskins gear. This is because to them it symbolizes something different, not ridicule or insensitivity towards Native Americans.
So I guess the question is, when you fly a flag or slap a sticker on your car, what's more important? What it means to you or what it means to others?
Because, despite people claiming it doesn't signify the dispicable and indeed shameful history of the south to them, what they are really saying is that it shouldn't signify that to me. And that I shouldn't judge them in kind.
But I can assure you they are wrong. And that no amount of revisionist history or feigned ignorance will change my opinion of anyone who flies a certain flag or supports keeping Rte 29 named after a Confederate general who waged war against the United States.
Joe M, you should never judge anyone, before you talk to them about what you perceive to be wrong/bad, etc. We need to have discourse about this. I am not saying that these symbols should continue, I am saying that they were ignorantly used by some as symbols of southern pride. There are many who definitely use them as symbols of hate (the fact that JEB Stuart school was named during segregation, for instance), but there are some who are ignorant of their actions. We need to have discussions first and not jump to conclusions about everyone's intent. Also, the hypocrisy needs to stop. I am puzzled why no one is challenging those who still sport and display the Redskins logo.
This whole time I thought Lee highway was in reference to Joseph Lee (1849–1905): African American inventor.
What a useless BoS, they cant get the grass cut or keep our roads clean but they have the tax dollars to change all these names. Get the basics done damnit and perhaps there would be less complaining over what is a long overdo change.
Thomas Fairfax, who Fairfax County is named for owned slaves. Before they change anymore road names, the hypocrites on the BoS need to change the name of the county.