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Hi guys! Tonight the SB discusses renaming of Mosby Woods. Because none of us were ever taught our history, I thought I would share a few history notes! Did you know that Mosby Woods was named for John Mosby, a Confederate who captured a Union General at the Fairfax Courthouse?
Here's a quick link describing the Mosby Raiders and their impact on terroristic activity against newly freed Black people in Northern Virginia. It's interesting we had a school named for this guy for so long, isn't it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43rd_Battalion,_Virginia_Cavalry
In June 1961, the Mosby Woods home development was officially dedicated in a kickoff ceremony led by Virgil Carrington Jones, a prolific John Mosby biographer, who placed a bronze plaque that read, "To the Gallant Gray Ghost - John Singleton Mosby."
Mind you, if you don't read the Wiki, you won't have read the way that the Mosby Raiders literally terrorized Black children trying to go to their Freedman's Schools, burning, lynching, and keeping children from going to school. That is the legacy of Mosby in this community.
But I digress.
The idea to name the neighborhood after John Mosby came to the developer after seeing a plaque dedicated to Mosby's Midnight Raid in Fairfax. One brochure for the neighborhood read: "Our pattern for Mosby Woods is to make it a model of good taste in community planning."
You see the danger of not learning the real history of a place and a time? It's a problem. Oh, @FairfaxNAACP, I should tag us so you can retweet this thread. It's Black History Month, this is relevant. But there's more!
In September 1962, the FCPS board developed a school in the Mosby Woods community (named for the Confederate terrorist John Mosby), and all during VA's period of Massive Resistance which shut many school systems down rather than integrate
And years pass, FCPS has a lot of Confederate School names, in 2015 the Board passes guidance allowing us to rename "where some compelling need exists" and so begins the renaming crisis in Fairfax County. First goes JEB Stewart which was renamed Justice, but not without a fight.
Then after 3 more long miserable years (Justice was 2017), we finally renamed Lee for @repjohnlewis but not without a fight. And then we did Lanier. And tonight the Board is supposed to vote on a new name for Mosby Woods. And there are some people who think we have enough
Black folk represented in the renaming...I count 1 in FCPS. 2 if you count Katherine Johnson in Fairfax City (Lanier) but I want to make a case that with Mosby Woods, the name was particularly pernicious. And the renaming should account for that, there is a debt to be paid
We do not know how many Black families in Fairfax live with lower education, less wealth, less stability, because their ancestors were terrorized by Mosby Raiders on their way to school. There is a reparation that should therefore be considered there.
No one thinks every FCPS should be "named for Black people." But not every community in Fairfax has suffered the same harm. The case of Mosby Woods is singularly egregious on this point. And I just wanted to put that down here as the SB considers the new name for Mosby Woods.
I also want to credit my friend Eliza, a Mosby mom, who did a lot of this research when she was building the Mosby Woods PTA DEI page. @Keys_Gamarra @AbrarOmeish @KarlFrisch I wrote this thread for you all and for all of us.
Oh, and also, when you read the wiki, click all the links. There’s a lot we don’t know. There is a debt to be paid and that debt is real. @KarlFrisch I know you liked Mae Jemison. I love that name. @maejemison we’re talking about you!!
