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Title
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Letter written to the Falls Church Town Council on behalf of the colored citizens protesting the establishment of "Segregation Districts," January 8, 1915.
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Repository
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Mary Riley Styles Public Library - Falls Church History Room 3038
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Date Created
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1/8/1915
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Creator
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Edwin Bancroft (E.B.) Henderson
The Colored Citizens' Committee (also know as the Colored Citizens Protection Association, or the Council of the Nine)
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Recipient
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The Town Council of Falls Church
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Description
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Letter written to the Falls Church Town Council on behalf of the Colored Citizens' Committee (later the CCPL) protesting the establishment of "Segregation Districts." This letter was both a brave and transgressive act and an outcome of the organizing by the Black Falls Church and Tinner Hill community in response to the segregation ordinance.
Read before the Town Council on January 8, the letter marks the Black community's protest against the action to create segregated districts in the town. The letter notes the harmful nature of the law, and states that laws enacted like this would be dangerous for others who may be seen as undesirable (such as Irish, Italians or Jews) in other locations, as well as the white citizens due to the outcomes of what the law would bring.
The letter ends with their plea that they are just as good of residents as those who are white, that they share the same god, and the same goals.
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Index/Partial Transcript
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"This ordinance will affect us and injure you in many ways."
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Research Themes
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Tinner Hill
Falls Church
Falls Church Town Council
CCPL
E.B. Henderson
Segregation Ordinance of 1915
Black Organizing
Displacement
Slow Violence
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Bibliographic Citation
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Henderson, Edwin Bancroft (E.B.) and The Colored Citizens’ Committee. “Letter Written to the Falls Church Town Council on Behalf of the Colored Citizens Protesting the Establishment of ‘Segregation Districts.,’” January 8, 1915. Falls Church History Room. Mary Riley Styles Public Library.
