Mason District not likely to be renamed

The Fairfax County Redistricting Advisory Committee is not expected to recommend that the name “Mason District” be changed.

According to the RAC’s draft report, the Mason and Mount Vernon Subcommittee agreed neither district be renamed.

The RAC is scheduled to present its recommendations to the Board of Supervisors by March 1. The BoS will make the final decision on district name changes.

The RAC had previously announced that it would consider whether the names of six of the nine Fairfax County supervisory districts should be changed: Mason, Lee, Mount Vernon, Springfield, and Sully.

The discussion centered around several criteria, such as whether the names relate to the Confederacy, are associated with racism, violate the spirit of the One Fairfax policy, or are no longer geographically relevant.

When Mason District was established in 1953, it was named for Founding Father George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, the precursor to the Bill of Rights. At Mason’s urging, the Bill of Rights protects freedom of the press and the right to a trial by jury in civil cases.

On the other hand, Mason was said to have owned 90 slaves at his plantation estate, Gunston Hall.

Related story: Should Mason District be renamed?

According to the draft report “there was no appetite whatsoever” from RAC members or the public to rename Mason District or Mount Vernon District.

The subcommittee stressed the importance of George Washington to the development of the nation and his home, Mount Vernon, as a major attraction and World Heritage Site.

Members of the RAC Subcommittee for those two districts “drew a clear distinction between those who had helped found our nation and those who tore it apart.”

The RAC included Springfield on the list for possible renaming because the redistricting process moved much of West Springfield to another district, so the name Springfield could be confusing and no longer relevant.

Springfield Supervisor Pat Herrity urged the RAC to retain the name Springfield. He said no Springfield residents have called for a name change, Also the Springfield Government Center, police station, fire and rescue station, and post office are still in the district, as is West Springfield High School.

Another subcommittee recommended that the names of the Lee and Sully Districts and several precincts, including the Ravensworth Precinct in the Braddock District, should be renamed. The subcommittee noted those places were named in honor of Confederates by proponents of the Lost Cause in an attempt to deny the centrality of slavery during the Civil War.

Lee District was named for General Robert E. Lee or the Lee family; historical records are inconclusive. Sully District was named for the Sully Historic Site, where there had been a plantation owned by members of the Lee family.
Ravensworth is presumably named for the Ravensworth Tract. Before and during the Civil War, slaves worked on a plantation on the site.