Historic marker project engages students
The Historical Marker Project, launched by the Fairfax County School Board and Board of Supervisors earlier this month, is aimed at encouraging students to bring attention to the accomplishments of lesser-known people and communities.
The project will initially focus on the county’s Black/African American communities and will expand to other underrepresented stories in the coming years.
Fairfax County Public Schools is providing resources online for students in grades 4-12 to help them research topics for new historic markers.
Students can submit suggested topics for a new marker featuring a person, place, or event through March 31. It’s an optional, not required, activity. And it’s open to any student in the county, not just those in public schools.
The Historical Marker Project is part of Fairfax County’s broader Black/African American Experience Project, a collaboration involving the Board of Supervisors, History Commission, and Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.
Related story: New historic marker commemorates James Lee Elementary School
This is not the first time FCPS students have worked together to secure historic markers for the community. In 2020, students from Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax successfully petitioned for a marker dedicated to Ona Judge, a woman born into slavery at Mount Vernon. Judge escaped while President George Washington was in Philadelphia and resisted his attempts to capture her. The marker was installed last June close to Mount Vernon.
Students in the History Hunters and History Makers Club at Kings Glen Elementary School in Springfield successfully proposed historic markers for three Black Virginians.
The state of Virginia installed a marker in Falls Church in November commemorating Dr. Edwin B. Henderson, known as the “father of Black basketball” and the founder of the first rural NAACP chapter. The state also approved a marker in Richmond recognizing Mary Bowser, a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War.
The third marker suggested by Kings Glen students is for Dangerfield and Harriet Newby and will be placed in Culpeper County. Dangerfield joined John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry where he was killed on the first day of fighting. Love letters from Harriet, begging him to buy her and their children before they were sold further South, were found on his body.