FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday to move a step closer to changing some of its road names with Confederate ties by establishing a task force.
The task force would review the names of Lee Highway (US Route 29) and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway (U.S. Route 50) and make recommendations to the board on whether to change the road names and if so to what.
The board started this process in June 2020 by having the History Commission gather street names, monuments and public places with confederate names.
Shirley Ginwright, the chair of Fairfax County Communities of Trust, is one of the recommended task force members. She said she’s grateful to be a part of the task force but said she doesn’t understand why the county needs a task force to make the changes.
“I think we could just look around at other jurisdictions and what we already know about the confederacy, the schools that we've already changed,” Ginwright said. “I think the same thing would go for the roads. So personally, I don't think we really need a task force to do this. I think we should just do it.”
The recommended and proposed task force is comprised of everyday residents, community advocates, and historians. County documents show they will make a recommendation to the board on whether road names should be changed, and if so what to.
“Whatever that's associated with the confederacy should be changed, and you know the history commission was tasked with looking at all of the street names in Fairfax County, that were associated with the confederacy," Ginwright said. "And I think there's, like, 1,700 or close. That's a lot."
Following the task force recommendations, county documents state if the board advances the recommendations a public hearing would be held in early 2022.
Ginwright said in her experience there has been pushback to the renaming process, but said they need to start moving toward making everyone comfortable.
“Because here we are in the 21st century, 2021, and as a Black person, you know, you read the history and we're saying well this is okay," she said. "When it's not okay for me as a Black citizen, to see that this person is being honored that way. And the name needs to change, even for those of us who are living now, and for the kids in the future."