A series of demonstrations took place in and around the City of Falls Church over the weekend to protest the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Saturday included a protest over George Mason High School’s name as well as one for Floyd. At the Mason protest, a small group gathered alongside Leesburg Pike to show their signs hinting at Mason’s personal history as a slave owner.
Off Arlington Boulevard, a second protest started in Loehmanns Plaza where the group caravaned to Fairfax City and marched through the city’s historic downtown before landing at Fairfax County’s Adult Detention.. There, the protesters took a knee and raised their fist before they did a “lie in” for roughly nine minutes — the amount of time the officer had his knee pinned to Floyd’s neck that caused his death.
Two Mason alumni, Tara Guido and Loreto Martinez, organized and led the protest at Cherry Hill Park on Sunday afternoon, where F.C. Mayor David Tarter and Edwin Henderson, former president of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, were among the speakers at the event that saw hundreds turn out to the park.
