The Tinner Hill Historic Site

The Tinner Hill Historic Site. Birth Place of the first rural branch of the NAACP in the Nation, 1918. , This historic site is a testament to the long African American struggle to gain equality and civil rights. It also honors a moment of triumph for the human spirit., African American life in Falls Church predates the 1700s. Enslaved and free African Americans lived, worked (too often as enslaved labor), struggled, and prospered for generations before the Civil War. The Tinner Hill community began right after the Civil War when Charles and Elizabeth Tinner purchased land and divided it among their ten children. The Tinners, outstanding craftsmen and highly skilled stonemasons in the 19th century, created a solid and thriving community which, remarkably, continues today. The Tinner Hill neighborhood is a noteworthy array of vernacular homes dating from the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, still owend and occupied primarily by Tinner descendents., The persistent survival of the Tinner Hill community is cause enough to revere this place. But one event provides an even greater reason. In 1915, on this site and in the home of Joseph and Mary Tinner, nine African American men met to plan how they could defeat a proposed ordinance that would segregate Falls Church, forcing all African American families to live in a small designated area of town. These men, joined by other male and female members of the black community, pooled their resources, hired lawyers, and filed a law suit. They petitioned the National Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), newly founded in 1909, to become a chapter. Calling themselves the Colored Citizens Protective League, they blocked the town from enacting the legislation. In 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that residential segregation or such ordinances were unconstitutional., By 1918 the Falls Church group was a full-fledged chapter of the NAACP and continued to fight successfully for equality in education, equal access to public services, and voter participation in the Northern Virginia area. These local leaders and those who joined them went on to fight against segregation laws in Virginia and for equal rights and opportunities for all people., 1915 Original Members , . Mr. Joseph Tinner , (hosted the meeting and was elected president), , . Rev. John Colbert , (elected vice president) , . Dr. Edwin B. Henderson , (called the meeting and was elected secretary) , . Rev. George Powell , (elected treasurer) , . Mr. Melvin Tinner , . Mr. Robert J. Evans , . Mr. George W. Simmons , . Mr. William Carpenter , . Mr. Louis Summerall