A historic marker installation ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 23, at First Baptist Church, 9654 Buckley Hall Road, Mathews, marking the unveiling by the NAACP Mathews Branch and the black descendants of Gwynn’s Island of what is believed to be the first highway marker in Virginia to commemorate a black community that was alleged to have been driven from its land by racial threats and violence.
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources marker tells the story of the black community of Gwynn’s Island, whose presence on the island dates to the 1600s. By 1910, Gwynn’s Island was home to 135 black residents—7 percent of the population—many of them landowners who had built a church, a school, and a way of life across generations. Within a decade, they were gone.
The exodus is believed to have been set in motion on Christmas Eve 1915, when a fight at a local store led to the arrest and conviction of James Henry Smith, a 48-year-old black man and father of eight who witnesses said was attempting to break up the altercation. Following his trial in 1916, white islanders were said to have threatened violence against the broader black community. Fearing for their safety, black residents fled—many immediately, others over the following years—selling their land and scattering to Norfolk, Hampton, and the Hampton Roads area. The last black family departed the island in 1920.
The approved text of the marker reads:
“In 1910, Gwynn’s Island was home to 135 Black residents (17% of the population), many of them landowners. This community, which likely originated in the 1600s, had its own church and school—yet by 1921, all Black citizens had departed. Some may have left for economic reasons, but the primary cause of the exodus was racial tension that followed a Dec. 1915 fight among Black and White men. Subsequent threats against Black residents led them to fear for their safety. They left, selling their property under pressure and losing their community and the institutions they had built. During Jim Crow, threats and violence drove many Black families from localities across the U.S.”
The marker language was approved unanimously by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources on Sept. 19, 2024.
The story of Gwynn’s Island reflects a broader pattern of forced black displacement during the Jim Crow era. Rural black land ownership in the United States peaked at 14 percent in 1910 and has fallen to less than 1 percent today. The families who left Gwynn’s Island lost not only their homes and farms, but the generational wealth that land represents, as well, stated a release from the Mathews NAACP.
“Gwynn’s Island was not unique,” noted Allison Thomas, one of the researchers who documented the exodus. “In some southern communities, white residents expelled prosperous black landowners, burned down their neighborhoods and businesses, and lynched their community leaders. On Gwynn’s Island, no one was killed, no homes were burned down—but the threat of violence on an Island was enough to drive black families off.”
“The NAACP Mathews Branch is proud to sponsor the addition of another historic marker that tells the story of African Americans in Mathews County,” said Mathews NAACP president Edith Turner. “We thank the black descendants of Gwynn’s Island for their tireless campaign to bring this endeavor to fruition. We are honored that that Virginia Board of Historic Resources approved this important project. And we deeply appreciate the First Baptist Church hosting the marker on their site,” she said.
The public is invited to the installation ceremony, which begins at 11 a.m. More information and historic documents about these events can be found at www.gwynnsislandproject.com. For more information, contact Turner at mathewsnaacp@gmail.org or 757-344-5388.