WASHINGTON — Last night, Thurraya and I had the honor of attending the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

For the past decade, this extraordinary museum has preserved, shared, and celebrated the stories, struggles, achievements, and enduring contributions of African Americans to our nation's history. Since opening in 2016, it has welcomed millions of visitors from around the world, becoming a place of education, reflection, inspiration, and hope.

The evening brought together guests to commemorate this important milestone with opening remarks, a special anniversary program, and an opportunity to celebrate the museum's remarkable first ten years. Walking through the museum and sharing in this celebration was a powerful reminder that history is not only something we study—it is something we preserve, honor, and pass on to future generations.

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FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Before 1954, African American students in Fairfax County who wanted to attend high school had to travel outside the county—either to Manassas or to schools in Washington, D.C. That changed when Luther P. Jackson High School opened in September 1954 as the county's first—and only—high school built to serve African-American students. Named for historian, educator, and voting-rights advocate Luther Porter Jackson, the school became a source of pride and opportunity for generations of students.

Ironically, the school opened the same year the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregated public schools unconstitutional. Despite the ruling, Luther Jackson opened as a segregated school and remained the county's only school for Black students in grades 7–12 until integration began in 1965.

Today, the building continues to serve the community as Luther Jackson Middle School, while a Fairfax County historical marker commemorates the school's important role in the county's educational and civil rights history.

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LORTON, Va. — The center of a major Fairfax County tobacco plantation, Mount Air was worked by several generations of enslaved families under the McCarty family and their Chichester descendants. An 1811 inventory documented 76 enslaved people spanning three generations of the same families—one of the most thoroughly documented enslaved communities in the county.

Slavery on the property appears to have ended in 1860 with the sale of the estate outside the family. Remnants of outbuildings and archaeological evidence document the property's transition from tobacco monoculture to diversified and dairy agriculture during the 19th century.

Oral histories relate the existence of a cemetery for enslaved people on the grounds, along with cabins that housed the enslaved community.

Today, Mount Air is part of the Fairfax County Park Authority's historic sites system, with ongoing efforts to recover and share the stories of the people who lived and worked there.

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