Actions taken in Tinner Hill helped shape our community into a powerful symbol of justice and local pride.
Meet the People of Tinner Hill
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In 1915, a son, Joseph Tinner, joined with neighbor Dr. E. B. Henderson and others to protest a proposed city segregation ordinance that would have forced Black residents to sell their homes and move to one part of town, much like Nazis would do just a few years later in Europe. They formed a group they called the Colored Citizens Protective League, which in 1918 became the first rural branch of the NAACP.
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Before civil rights became a popular movement, Dr. Henderson was the voice for change for African-Americans in the entire metropolitan region. His letters were published in newspapers throughout the eastern United States. To honor his work and achievements in this area and to inspire youth to follow this same path, the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, along with the Washington Post and Diener and Associates, CPAs, sponsors the annual E. B. Henderson, "Dear Editor" Contest for high school students in Northern Virginia.
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Ms. Henderson is recognized for her many outstanding accomplishments. To honor this great woman, the school board for the City of Falls Church decided to name its new middle school for Mary Ellen Henderson. The school opened this Fall and is a fitting tribute to her impact on the students of yesterday as well as today. Her poignant story demonstrates how one person can make a difference in the lives of young people.
This was important because earlier, in 1890, the town had already changed its borders unfairly to remove many Black families. The new rule the CCPL fought against could have pushed out the remaining Black landowners.
The CCPL won their fight and stopped the unfair rule. Because of this success in protecting Black property owners from unfair laws, their group became the first countryside chapter of the NAACP (a large organization fighting for Black rights).
However, later on, the building of Lee Highway and the new buildings around it cut through the area. This divided important properties and broke up the community.
Thinking about Tinner Hill today reminds people of that struggle to keep their property and their community together. The place might look ordinary now, but important history happened there. That normal look is actually part of why it's historically important.
We often remember big moments in the Civil Rights movement, like Rosa Parks on the bus or Martin Luther King Jr.'s march in Selma. But the Tinner Hill story shows how the fight for Black Americans' rights also happened in local towns. It was about everyday people fighting to protect their land, families, and neighborhood.
Tinner Hill has become a quiet symbol of an African American community that fought to maintain its identity and its place within the city, despite institutional efforts at separation and segregation.
In 1914, two men in Falls Church, Joseph B. Tinner and Edwin Bancroft Henderson, got their neighbors together. They formed a group called the Colored Citizens Protective League (CCPL). They did this to fight a new town rule that would have stopped Black people from buying any more property in Falls Church.
100 Years of Black Falls Church
Video Credit: Robert Burnett of GVI Productions in Washington, DC.
100 Years of Black Falls Church is an online collaborative project produced by the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation and the George Mason University African and African American Studies program.
Since it gained township status in 1875, the town of Falls Church has maintained a deeply rooted African American history. 100 Years of Black Falls Church provides access to primary source materials relating to the African American community of Falls Church, Virginia and is complimented by a sidewalk virtual tour of African American homes, churches and landmarks. The site introduces users to people and places within Falls Church, and shares the hidden history of a remarkable, vibrant and thriving African American community that maintained families, purchased land, built homes, and established churches, while living, working, socializing and worshipping under bondage, segregation, and Jim Crow. We chronicle 100 years of Black Falls Church from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era.
The descendants of African Americans who thrived in Falls Church, still live, work and worship in the vicinity. Their ancestors were part of the social and economic fabric of the community and their history has been hidden through gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, marginalization, and most recently by urban growth and development. This website gives voice to a brave and triumphant community throughout a period when society was separate and unequal.
100 Years of Black Falls Church allows users to visit the Northern Virginia town via a geo-location map imbedded into our website using Google Earth’s Street View™. Teachers, parents, and homeschoolers are encouraged to take a 360-degree street level tour of African American churches, homes, and landmarks in Falls Church without leaving the classroom. Visitors can begin their tour at the Tinner Hill Monument, then head over to Charles Tinner’s home, take a stroll past the Galloway Methodist Episcopal Church, and end the adventure in front of the old Odd Fellows building. Other selected locations appear on a navigable map and users can also browse the site by interviewee, theme, or document. We trust the site will allow students, life-long learners, and those interested in Falls Church history to learn about the essential role African Americans have played in Falls Church’s rich and dynamic history.
All images and texts featured on the site are provided for educational and research purposes only. Permission to reproduce these images for other purposes or to republish them in any form must be granted in writing to the Tinner Hill Foundation.
The Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation has gathered and shared a number of primary resources (photographs, letters, documents, audio and video tapes, and oral histories) from their archives, historic church archives and the descendants of a proud community families that still thrive in Falls Church today. The project has also been made possible, in part, by selected materials generously provided by Readex America’s Historical Newspapers collection, African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.
A collaborative project between: African and African American Studies, George Mason University, and the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. Funding was provided in part by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.