Juneteenth Celebration at the Tinner Hill Historic Site
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Past Events
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The festival is about the blues, it’s about music, it’s about culture, it’s about history and I think that by having the festival it helps to expose people to that culture and to that history, but also to the significant role that African-Americans have played in Falls Church.
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“Our collective action will create the change we need.”
2025 — Gathering at the Tinner Hill Civil Rights Monument to come together to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. The January 18 event featured a march for unity and freedom, followed by a program honoring Dr. King's contributions to the civil rights movement and support for equality and justice for all.
2024 — The legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of a struggle unfinished — a struggle that thousands of everyday people put their lives on the line for. Just like Dr. King didn’t do his work alone, it’s going to take all of us to make a more inclusive democracy a reality.
2023 — Dr. King said, “So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote, I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others.”
2022 — “The greatest witness that you can give is to remember who you are, and by remembering who you are, you will awaken a challenge within others to remember who [they] are,” Dr. King concluded his sermon. “And this old world will be transformed into a new world.”
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The Tinner Hill Social Justice Committee of Falls Church and Vicinity hosted a series of five free workshops discussing race, social justice, and anti-racism. The first free workshop focused on developing conversation skills — active listening, compassionate confrontation, and clarifying complex terms — to help people understand how to have difficult conversations about race and be anti-racist in their communities.
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The mural titled "Hope for Tomorrow" is located on the side of The Blacksmith Shop, a landmark on the grounds of Falls Church Episcopal, at E. Fairfax and Douglass Streets. The mural received funding from the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, the Community Foundation of Northern Virginia, and individual donors. The mural artist is David Barr.
The mural centers around blacksmith Henry Simms and The Blacksmith Shop Robert Harmon. According to the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation's 100 Years Black Falls Church project, Simms ran the shop for Harmon. The two men are centered inside a horseshoe, which represents an icon of blacksmiths.
"Having it pointed upwards suggests luck, good fortune, and a positive outlook," the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation shared in a Facebook post. "Hence, Mr. Harmon and Mr. [Simms] inside the horseshoe showcase their relationship as positive."
To the right and left of the two men are two other symbolic parts of the mural. On the left, flames are pictured, representing struggle and "opportunity to ignite change," according to the foundation. To the right is a Black Lives Matter protester, representing the struggle that still exists.
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Juneteenth refers to the date in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas, heard about the Emancipation Proclamation. That was the last place in the U.S. to learn slaves had been freed, marking the end of slavery. Today, the holiday commemorates the freedom of African Americans with various celebrations, according to Juneteenth.com.
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For eight minutes and forty-six seconds, an officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck. For over two minutes after Mr. Floyd was motionless.
The use of deadly force on unarmed African Americans too often is allowed, too often resulting in death. This has to stop, because enough is enough! “Black Lives Matter” is more than a catchy slogan.