Fairfax County forced Black families to vacate land for Justice Park

Edwin Henderson (right) at Justice Park. On the left is Spanish translator Fernando Ferrufino.

Long before Justice High School and Justice Park were built on Peace Valley Lane in Seven Corners, the land was owned by a handful of Black families.

The community learned about that “hidden history” at an event at Justice Park Sept. 18 hosted by the Fairfax County NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Committee.

Edwin Henderson, founder of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, has done extensive research on the Black families who lived near Peace Valley Lane. He described how the Fairfax County government used eminent domain to secure the rights to that land.

There has been renewed interest in the history of Justice Park since neighborhood residents began fighting an attempt by Fairfax County Public Schools and the Park Authority to carve out a parking lot in the park. That project would further diminish green space in a diverse community.

Related story: When Justice Park was created, Black families were displaced

Charles and Carrie Hunter and Caswell Stallings were displaced when Justice High School (then called JEB Stuart High School) was built in 1959, Henderson said. The school was named for a Confederate general as part of the massive resistance against school integration.

When their properties were transferred to the Fairfax County school system, “there is no record of coercion, but I suspect there was,” Henderson said. “In those days, you basically had no resources. You had to pick up and leave.”

Mark Doehnert with charts he created documenting the extensive history of land ownership on what is now Justice Park.

Three years later, when the Park Authority announced plans to develop Justice Park (then called JEB Stuart Park) across the street from the school, it pressured the three Black families who lived there to sell their land.

For Susie Powell, it wasn’t a problem because her house had burned down. But the other two landowners – Mamie Murray and Roland Richard Denny – didn’t want to relocate. Legal documents show Denny’s land was taken by eminent domain.

What happened on Peace Valley Lane was part of a larger trend by the Fairfax County government to displace African American landowners to make way for suburban development, Henderson said.

After World War II, Fairfax County promoted itself as a desirable community for federal government workers and encouraged developers to build housing subdivisions.

Four developers built large housing tracts in the area around Justice Park in the early 1950s, Henderson noted. Blacks who lived in the area found their land changing from farming, to residential, to commercial zoning. As a result, “their taxes grew astronomically, causing economic hardship.”

Related story: Public officials failed to inform public on Justice Park land negotiations

Something similar happened with the Frederick Foote property across from Leesburg Pike where the Seven Corners Shopping Center was later developed. Foote, a former slave, bought the land after the Civil War. When he left it to his heirs, there was a deed stating it could never be sold or leased.

The land had been taxed at $385 a year, then ballooned to over $3,000 following a reassessment. When the owners sought relief from a court, a judge ordered the land to be sold in 1954, setting the price at $400,000. The land was rezoned for commercial development and was bought by an investment company for $750,000.

“The family was effectively taxed out of their land,” Henderson said. “Rezoning and eminent domain were used to displace African American communities so shopping centers and neighborhoods could be built.”

In 1966, he said, federal racketing charges were brought against five Fairfax County supervisors who were accused of accepting bribes from developers, four developers, other county officials, and a state senator. Two supervisors and all four developers served jail time.

Those charges are from incidents in 1961-63 regarding a trail along Route 1 in Alexandria, he said, but “this illustrates how supervisors were too cozy with developers.”

“Justice Park needs its own justice,” Henderson said. He called for “recognition of those forced to sell their land” to create the park and reparations for their heirs.