COURTHOUSE — A proposal to designate Birdneck Road in memory of E. George Minns is on hold after apparent communication failures led to a number of questions about how exactly Seatack residents want to honor the late, longtime civil rights leader and head of the civic league in the historic community — and what a majority of the City Council will support.
Minns died in 2019 at the age of 66 following an illness. His accomplishments include service as the head of the Virginia Beach branch of the NAACP for a decade and eight years as president of the Seatack Community Civic League. He advocated for the creation of the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission, which honored him for his community work, and the Virginia Beach Minority Business Council.
City Councilmember Sabrina Wooten, who represents the Centerville District, introduced the resolution to honor Minns by placing signs at prominent intersections along Birdneck Road, which passes through Seatack.
Some community members sought more participation, and Wooten discussed her steps to seek more input in support of recognizing Minns, and she said she had sought to learn how to best do so.
She reached out for feedback from colleagues on the council, and she said she had spoken with Vice Mayor Rosemary Wilson, who indicated a majority on the council would not support the resolution.
Wooten said it seemed people approached the resolution in terms of how not to approve it, rather than trying to make it work.
“There’s a double standard here,” she said, comparing the issue to other efforts to recognize prominent people by, for example, naming a building for them.
City Councilmember Guy Tower, who represents the Beach District, said the issue was communication that should have been clearer between the city and community. Tower’s district includes Seatack.
“This is simply a matter of miscommunication,” Tower said. “I don’t want to make it into anything more than what it is. I think Ms. Wooten’s intentions are absolutely right on. She’s trying to honor someone who is well respected in the community.”
He added, “We don’t have the votes here, tonight. I’m hoping, with further discussion, we can come up with a way to honor Mr. Minns that will feel satisfactory to the community, to Mr. Minn’s memory, to those who respect Mr. Minns and even those who may not share all those views.”
During the meeting, Tammie Mullins-Rice, president of the civic league in Seatack, suported deferral “because there has been a lot of misinformation floating around.”
Previously, the city passed a resolution recognizing Minns following his death. Mullins-Rice, during her remarks, said the community already has recognized Minns with a scholarship and an award named for him. She said information about the new idea came to board leadership about a council member seeking ways to recognize Minns, and it was believed this represented the view of the council.
She stressed that supporting deferral did not mean the community does not want the resolution to go forward, but she sought a process that included the civic league.
“We want to follow the process,” she said. “What we ask are two things – that two members of the community participate in the process or the committee that you form and, second, we get to choose the people. We are sick and tired of people second guessing what citizens of Seatack want.”
She also addressed email correspondence that apparently misrepresented a position Minns took.
Minns may not have been liked by all city leaders, “but he stood up for the most vulnerable in our community, and that’s across the city,” she said. “You may not have liked his tactics, but he was a bulldog for our community. He was what we needed when we needed it the most.”
© 2021 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC