Fairfax was raised in his grandparents' home in a predominantly black neighborhood in Northeast Washington — where his pharmacist mother moved Fairfax and his three older siblings after her divorce. Fairfax says he has a good relationship with his father, a Harvard-educated consultant to nonprofit organizations.
Fairfax attended Catholic school and Duke University on a scholarship, from which he graduated in 2000. He worked as a staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee for two years before Columbia Law School.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/justin-fairfaxs-journey-from-party-crasher-to-party-insider/2017/10/10/b211fd34-9cb1-11e7-9c8d-cf053ff30921_story.html?utm_term=.8f3470634379