After months of debating whether to change the name of the Sully District in Fairfax County, Virginia, the county’s board of supervisors decided not to move forward with a change.
The name “Sully” comes from the name of a plantation site that was located in the area in the late 1700s. According to the county, four generations were enslaved and trafficked on the Sully Plantation.
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“I received emails and had conversations with community members,” said Supervisor Kathy Smith, who represents the district. “As you can imagine, I heard differing viewpoints on changing the name.”
A redistricting advisory committee recommended to the supervisors that the name be changed.
Ultimately, Smith said “the best step forward at this time is to retain the name of the Sully District.”
A name change would have impacted the 139,000 county residents who live in the district.
Smith said a better idea would be to educate residents and visitors about the area’s complicated history and about the actual plantation itself, which is in Chantilly.
“This site has a 225-year-old house, 128 acres of park, gardens, outbuildings and slave quarters,” Smith said.
In June, the county board voted to change the name of the Lee District, which was named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Supervisors said the district should instead be known as the Franconia District.
The board also voted in September to change the names of Lee and Lee-Jackson highways to Route 29 and Route 50, respectively.
Board Chairman Jeff McKay said that changing the highway names would “remove these divisive relics of the past, names that were assigned to these roads not to honor history or individuals but to celebrate parts of our history that have inflicted much pain on members of our community.”
More than 200 signs with those Confederate names will need to be replaced, and county staff estimated that the cost of doing so would be around $1.4 million.
The decision impacts businesses and residences located along the highways, and the board needs more time “to develop and implement a program that would provide financial assistance for those directly impacted,” according to the county.
