December 28, 2023 January 3, 2024
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • V o l . X X X III N o . 46
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
F.C. Announces DRAGGING US ALONG New Police Chief Shahram Fard, Starts Jan. 14 As Chief Gavin Sets to Leave After 16 Years by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields announced yesterday the hiring of Shahram Fard as the new City of Falls Church Police Chief and Director of Public Safety. Fard will join the City in this leadership position on January 22, 2024. “I am pleased to welcome Mr. Fard to the City of Falls Church,” Shields said in a written City Hall statement. “Throughout the interview process it was clear that with Mr. Fard’s record as a senior leader in Northern Virginia’s law enforcement community that he is a perfect fit for our community. I look forward to working with him and continuing the high standards for community-based public safety for which our police department is known.” Fard’s career includes service with the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office where he currently serves as Chief Deputy, leading the Judicial and Field Operations Bureau. Fard is a 25-year veteran of the City of Alexandria Police Department, where he rose through the ranks to
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See Pages 10 and 11
ANOTHER FIRST for the City of Falls Church came last week at the Creative Cauldron theater in the form of an official drag show benefit for a near sell-out crowd. The entertainers who focused on holiday favorites were Tula, Cara Linda, Evita Peroxide and Regina Jozet. (Photo: Brian Reach, News-Press)
1st Person to Integrate F.C. Schools Speaks Out
by Brian Reach
Falls Church News-Press
In a poignant moment that captivated the full house audience at the Meridian High School Winter Band Concert earlier this month, Marian Costner Selby offered a glimpse back in time to 1961, when she began her sophomore year at the school (then known as George Mason High School) as its first Black student. It was then that Falls Church City Public Schools finally took its turn in ending America’s policy of school segregation follow-
ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown Vs. Board of Education ruling of 1954. In the fall of 1957, the eyes of the nation were fixated on Little Rock, Arkansas, where nine brave students, widely known as “The Nine,” stepped up to integrate Little Rock Central High School. That year, on September 4, the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, called in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent these Black students from entering, justifying the move by claiming he was attempting to “preserve
the peace” in face of threats of violence. Just under three weeks later, on September 23, President Eisenhower issued an Executive Order federalizing the Arkansas Guard, ordering them to escort the students into the school instead of keeping them out. Community opponents of integration demonstrated viciously outside the school, with displays of intimidation, threats, and hostility that underscored the prevalent deep-seated racism of the time. It was all reported on the national news. In Virginia — home to one
of the five cases involved in the Brown vs. Board decision (the others were Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, and Washington D.C.) — the desegregation mandate was met with extreme defiance. In 1955 a plan to repeal compulsory school attendance was nearly implemented, and in 1956 a policy of “massive resistance” was adopted. In 1959, the school systems in Charlottesville, Front Royal and Norfolk were shut down. For years that followed, and in
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