James Fisher

1952 – 2024

James Fisher, the face of racial justice efforts in Chevy Chase DC, has died at his home in Colmar Manor, MD, his family announced on Jan. 22. He was 72.

James had spent the last decade of his life advocating for Americans to reckon with the residual harms from Black land loss like that his family endured a century ago when the community of Chevy Chase DC removed them from Broad Branch Road to build a whites-only school.

James, who retired from the federal government, was an eighth generation direct descendant of Capt. George Pointer, who was born enslaved yet attained professional achievements rare in the 18th and 19th centuries for African Americans. It did not take long for history to forget Pointer, and subsequent generations lost track of their lineage until historians rediscovered Pointer’s role in building George Washington’s canal on the Potomac River. 

James served as an HCCDC board member, and was a powerful advocate for making history relevant, whether his audience was Lafayette Elementary School students or D.C. Councilmembers. He succeeded in getting the National Park Service to honor Pointer’s legacy, and his testimony before ANC 3-4 G galvanized support to acknowledge the displacement of Pointer descendants and other Black Broad Branch families that led to the renaming of the park to Lafayette-Pointer Park. James also spoke frequently in various civic and professional settings about racial displacement and the specific history of Dry Meadows, the previous name of his family’s acreage on Broad Branch Road.