Oral History: Robert Frye

Robert Frye moved to Fairfax in 1967. Three times a member of the Fairfax County School Board--both appointed and elected--Bob Frye worked for equal opportunity in the county as the area emerged from the era of segregation to diversity. He was the first minority member-at-large on the School Board.

Oral History: Jack Burkholder

Jack Burkholder moved to Fairfax County in 1956. He served as a teacher and in various administrative roles before becoming Superintendent of Schools for Fairfax County. Growth marked his tenure in the school system. He remembers how the school system changed, including the role of teachers' unions, desegregation, and curriculum change.

Oral History: Dale Adler

Dale Adler grew up on a ten-acre farm just off Braddock Road. Despite her father's lengthy absences as a photographer, the family raised their own produce as well as beef cattle. She recalls her school experiences and the beginning of subdivision growth.

A Look Back at Braddock Oral History Project

Little Zion Baptist Church

In 1891, the Little Zion Baptist Church was built for $25 by freed slaves on land donated by Jack Pearson, a former slave of the Fitzhugh family.

The founding congregation was known as the Old School Baptist Group of Blacks and Whites. Reverend Lewis Henry Bailey, a former slave, was their first hired minister. Reverend Bailey was sold from a slave pen in Alexandria, Virginia to a Texas slave master, freed at the age of 21, and returned to Alexandria where he found his mother. Bailey learned to read and attended seminary with the help of a philanthropist in touch with the American Baptist Publishing Society. Lewis mortgaged his home for $25.00 to finance the new church. Today, in 2007, a Korean Presbyterian congretation meets in the original church building on Burke Lake Road.

Photo by Gilbert Donahue

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner, Gilbert Donahue