Removing Discriminatory Racial Covenants From Your Property

Join me and Delegate Paul Krizek at our upcoming workshop to receive free legal assistance with removing historically discriminatory racial covenants from your property records. In Fairfax County, racial covenants in land deeds were one of the primary tools used to segregate neighborhoods during the 1900s until they were invalidated by the Fair Housing Act in 1968. 

• Hybla Valley Farms: “No part of the said land shall be granted, leased, sold or conveyed to a person or persons of African descent, nor for the use and/or occupancy of a person or persons of African descent; and if any attempt to grant, lease, sell or convey any part of said land to a person or persons of African descent, the deed of said land shall revert to the grantor as though said deed or lease had not been made; and adjoining property owners may eject such person or persons of African descent from said property; or cause them to be so ejected by the proper action of the courts of Virginia."

• Hollindale:  "That said property shall never be used or occupied by, or sold, demised, transferred, conveyed unto or in trust for, leased or rented, or given to negroes or any person or persons of negro blood or extraction, or to any person of the Semitic race, blood or origin, or Jews, Armenians, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians, except that this paragraph shall not be held to exclude partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants of any owners of the said property."

• Lund Washington Estates: “That not [no] lot That not [no] lot or any interest therein shall be sold, rented, leased or in any manner conveyed to or acquired by any person not of the Caucasian Race and of Christian Faith."or any interest therein shall be sold, rented, leased or in any manner conveyed to or acquired by any person not of the Caucasian Race and of Christian Faith."   

Ongoing efforts are underway to find these covenants and document where they can be found in property deeds in order to educate residents and take steps to remove discriminatory language where it still exists. 

Read more about the history here: New study exposes racial restrictions in historical Fairfax property deeds | FFXnow

In the Mount Vernon Area, land records racial covenants have been identified in over 30 neighborhoods including: 

• Hybla Valley Farms

• Hollindale

• Wellington

• Hollin Hall

• Groveton

• Belle Haven

• Jefferson Manor

• Huntington

Map of neighborhoods with identified racial covenants. Credit: documentingexclusion.org/map

Check if your home likely has a racial covenant using the interactive map at: documentingexclusion.org/map

Join us on at the workshop on October 26 to:

• Learn about the history of racially exclusive covenants in Northern Virginia

• Confirm whether your home and property has racially exclusive covenant language

• Receive help from onsite paralegals to facilitate removal of covenants from your home and property

Event Details:

Removing Racial Covenants Workshop

Saturday, October 26, 2024

1 p.m. – 3 p.m.

WISH Center

7950 Audubon Avenue

Alexandria, VA, 22306

RSVP at scottsurovell.org/Oct26

If you can attend, please sign up at scottsurovell.org/Oct26.

Tropical Storm Debby Impacts Likely Today Through Friday Evening

UPDATED 2:30 PM THURSDAY

• The bulk of the rainfall will be this afternoon through Friday afternoon and should taper off by Friday evening. 

• Tornadoes are possible across much of central and eastern Virginia this afternoon through Friday afternoon.

• Strong wind gusts are possible as convective rain bands move across the state. 

• The combination of saturated grounds and gusty winds could bring down trees.

• Within and around the 34th District, rainfall is forecast to amount to 1.5 to 2 inches, with wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour.

• Minor to moderate river flooding is expected. 

Through Friday evening, Debby is likely to produce the following threats across Virginia: 

• Flash Flooding

• Minor to Moderate River Flooding

• Tornadoes

• Gusty Winds

• Minor to Moderate Tidal Flooding

UPDATED 2:30PM THURSDAY

Weekly Column: General Assembly’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Air Quality

The following is my column that will appear in this week's Mt. Vernon Gazette in the week of July 20, 2024.  

General Assembly’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Air Quality

By Senator Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon)

Protecting Virginia’s air quality by reducing greenhouse gases has been a priority of mine since I was first elected to the General Assembly in 2009. This year, both the House and the Senate took steps to address this issue.

However, Governor Youngkin exercised his power to veto some of our actions. Does that mean that Virginia will be stymied in reducing greenhouse gases for the next two years?

No. The General Assembly has considerable power to continue to move policy initiatives. Here’s a description of how that played out in the back-and-forth of the 2024 legislative session.

Letter to Specialty Bars Regarding Open Court of Appeals Seats

On December 11, the incoming chairs of Senate Judiciary Committee and House Courts of Justice Committee sent this letter to Virginia's specialty bar associations regarding the open Court of Appeals seats.

Severe Weather Likely This Afternoon And Evening

This afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch until 9 p.m. in our region. I will update this post with more information as the weather impacts Northern Virginia.

Fixing Old Colchester Road Bridge Over Giles Run

I sent the attached letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation to request grant funding to study improvements to the Old Colchester Road bridge over Giles Run Creek. 

Weekly Column: Examining and Correcting School Funding Formulas

The following is my column that will appear in this week's Mt. Vernon Gazette in the week of July 25, 2023.  

 Examining and Correcting School Funding Formulas

            The underfunding of Virginia’s public schools recently made headlines, when a new study concluded that Virginia’s K-12 education system receives 14 percent less funding that the average system in America even though Virginia has the 10^th highest median family income.  This independent analysis collides with Governor Youngkin’s persistent call for more tax cuts.

            This year, the state legislature should be adopting budget amendments to reflect adjusted revenues, but we have been unable to agree because of the Governor’s insistence on more tax cuts. Cutting taxes means less revenue for state responsibilities like education and mental health.   

             As someone whose 20 years of education were subsidized by Virginia taxpayers from kindergarten through law school, I fully appreciate the importance of robust investments in public education. 

1984 Attorney General Opinion Regarding Bulkhead Repairs

 Over the last year, I have heard confusion regarding the interplay of Virginia's Living Shorelines Law and repairs or replacement of existing shoreline treatment.  

Below is an 1984 Attorney General's Opinion explaining what constitutes repairs and maintenance versus construction of new facilities.

1984 Virginia Attorney Gene... by

My Endorsement For Mount Vernon School Board Representative 2023

In the last four years, Northern Virginia's teachers and students have become a political punching bag for Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares.  The Fairfax County School Board has been under siege with politically-motivated lawsuits and political investigations for the last four years.  As a result, only four incumbents are running for re-election and our Mt. Vernon School Board Member Karen Corbett Sanders is not running for re-election.

Karen has done an amazing job fighting to ensure that students in our part of the county get the attention and share of resources that they deserve.  I am exceptionally proud of her efforts to reform the admissions process at Thomas Jefferson H.S.S.T. which previously rarely admitted students from Carl Sandburg Middle School, Walt Whitman Middle School, Hayfield Secondary School, or Mark Twain Middle School. Before the reforms she led, two middle schools made up 20% of every class.  She led the charge to obtain funds to renovate our schools.   You can read more about her accomplishments in the Commending Resolution I passed this session:

Senate Joint Resolution 409 Commending Karen Corbett Sanders 

I joined with Mt. Vernon District School Board Member Karen Corbett Sanders in endorsing Mateo Dunne to serve as the Democratic endorsed candidate for the Mt. Vernon District seat on the Fairfax County School Board. I join in my endorsement along with Delegate Mark Sickles, Former Delegate and Fairfax County School Board Chair and Mt. Vernon Member Kristen Amundson, Fairfax County Board Chair Jeff McKay, and Former Fairfax County Board Chair Sharon Bulova.

   

www.mateodunne.com/

The Medicaid Unwinding and What It Means for Virginia

The Medicaid Unwinding is one of the biggest challenges that many of our constituents will face in the coming year and community engagement is going to be crucial to make it go smoothly. This isn't just a problem for people who will lose coverage. When people are uninsured, they don't go to the doctor for preventative medicine which can result in long-term worse health outcomes, and higher costs when they eventually have an emergency. Health insurance premiums may rise for everyone to pay for that emergency care.

Weekly Column: $100 Million for Undergrounding U.S. 1 Utilities; General Assembly Session Ends

The following is my column that will appear in this week's Mt. Vernon Gazette in the week of February 27, 2023.  

 $100 Million for Undergrounding U.S. 1 Utilities; General Assembly Session Ends

           We have completed the 2023 Session of the General Assembly, but our work is not done.  Legislating has ended for now, but we did not finalize the state budget and will likely return for a special session to compete that work.

Of my 31 bills, 19 are with the Governor and one additional bill could be considered in a special session.  All of my bills passed with bipartisan support and I am hopeful that the Governor will sign them.

           Most importantly, we made significant progress in obtaining funding for undergrounding utilities on U.S. 1.   Delegate Paul Krizek, Senator Adam Ebbin and I amended a bill addressing a new Fauquier County transmission line to add a first-ever pilot program for an underground electric distribution line on the U.S. 1 Corridor if Fairfax County requests the funding as part of the U.S 1 widening and bus rapid transit project.  The bill is now on the Governor's desk.  

Weekly Column: General Assembly Is Finalizing Bills

The following is my column that will appear in this week's Mt. Vernon Gazette in the week of February 20, 2023.  

 General Assembly Is Finalizing Bills

    Now that the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have completed work on all bills from each chamber, each chamber has begun work on bills from the other chamber.  Some of the more difficult bills met their fate last week. 

    It appears that both houses will approve around 20 of my bills which I will discuss in a future column.  This column focuses on several of my bills that the House of Delegates rejected.

Protecting Choice

    In the aftermath of last year’s Dobbs decision, we must do everything we can to protect Virginia women and healthcare providers from prosecution for exercising their reproductive healthcare rights.  Virginia is likely to become a sanctuary for women seeking reproductive healthcare due to our geographic position and existing laws.  My legislation would prohibit the extradition of Virginia medical professionals who provide reproductive healthcare to other states.  It failed on a party-line vote.