Loudoun County breaks from the past with street name ban

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted on September 10 to prohibit streets named after segregationists and Confederate leaders. Here’s what you need to know about the ban.

During a regularly scheduled meeting on September 10, Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance prohibiting streets from being named after segregationists and Confederate leaders. The official change comes after several roadways and schools in the county named for Confederates and segregations were renamed in recent years.

Speaking about the board’s decision, Supervisor Juli Briskman told WUSA9 that, “Our board strongly believes that nobody should have to go to school or drive on a road or walk past a statue honoring somebody that would rather see them disenfranchised or that would have rather see them enslaved.” Briskman, along with Sterling Supervisor Koran T. Saines, spearheaded the initiative, which previously led to Confederate statues being removed throughout various Virginia jurisdictions.

During a conversation with the Loudoun Times-Mirror, Saines said that this ban “has been a long time coming.” He added, “We knew that we were going to get some pushback, but it was the right thing to do … there should be no remembrance of folks who, simply put, if they had their way, a few of us sitting up here would not be sitting here. A few of us would not be attending the schools that we did, our children would not be attending a school with your children, and other things.”

What does the ban entail?

According to a report from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, the unanimous decision from Sept. 10’s meeting “prohibits streets named for Confederate leaders, the Confederate cause, or for individuals or movements that promote or implement racial segregation.” Any street within the county that is now in violation of this amendment must be changed, though it’s unclear as to how swiftly these changes will need to be made.

The Loudoun Times-Mirror noted that many of the streets named for Confederate leaders or segregationists have already been changed prior to this official decision.

Loudoun Supervisors and community members expressed positive sentiments about the ban

Michelle Thomas, who’s the pastor of Loudoun’s NAACP Branch, told WUSA9 that she’s “extremely excited about this because codification is the only way to ensure that your intentions will carry forth in the future.” Thomas added, “We should never be in the practice to celebrate our oppressors.” With the ban in effect, she’d like to see Kephart Drive renamed in the near future.

Supervisor Juli Briskman is encouraging members of the community to contact the board if they’ve missed something, or if they have suggestions for streets that should be renamed in the county. And Supervisor Koran T. Saines has a clear message for anyone who is opposed to the new ban. “If you don’t agree with that, then I just say, I’ll pray for you. We talk about equality for all and justice for all. That was the spirit of why we brought this motion forward, to fix that injustice,” he told the Loudoun Times-Mirror.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Related: Goodbye, Confederate Past: Virginia Military Base Renamed Camp Barfoot to Honor War Hero