[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 76 (Thursday, June 5, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S5375]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO THE TINNER HILL HERITAGE FOUNDATION

 Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. This Saturday, just across the Potomac 
River in Falls Church, VA, a street festival will celebrate the birth 
of the modern civil rights movement in Virginia.
  In the late 1800's, Charles and Mary Tinner bought the top of a hill 
in Falls Church and it has been known as Tinner Hill ever since. 
Currently, the seventh generation of Tinners now live on the hill that 
bears the family name. While the longevity of the Tinner family in and 
of itself is impressive, what transpired in June 1915 is what will be 
celebrated this weekend. That year, the Falls Church Town Council 
adopted an ordinance to segregate the residences of the town. This 
would mean that many families of African ancestry would have to give up 
the homes they owned. Dr. E.B. Henderson, a resident of Tinner Hill, 
organized the Colored Citizens Protective League and filed a suit to 
prevent enforcement of the ordinance. Dr. Henderson then called a 
meeting to form the first rural branch of the NAACP in the Nation. 
Joseph Tinner, son of Charles, became its first president. As a result, 
the town council reversed the ordinance. Over the next 50 years, the 
Hendersons, Tinners, and others organized civil rights activities that 
set a precedent and a model for the rural South.
  Today, the Tinners and the Hendersons share the hill with a diverse 
mix of businesses that represent many cultural backgrounds. We all owe 
a great debt to the brave former inhabitants of Tinner Hill who risked 
there lives and livelihoods to defend the Bill of Rights and to start a 
movement that has had far reaching consequences.

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