Gwynn's Island Project
FAMILY REUNION
Black & White Together
Gwynn’s Island descendants have gathered three times since 2021 -- a century after the travesty of the Black exodus
2021 -- 20 people from three family lines; 2022 -- 65 people from six family lines; 2023 -- 100+ people from eight family lines
White descendants of the Hudgins family, who enslaved Black Smith, Jones and Gwynn families, joined the gatherings in 2022 and 2023
They were joined by White Mathews county residents interested in reckoning with the history of the Gwynn’s Island Black community
Photo Gallery
Photo Credit: Debra Dilworth
Historical Marker
As a reparative action, a request has been submitted to the State of Virginia Department of Historic Resources
to install an historical marker at Mathews County -- the marker has been approved, but the text will not be voted on until March, 2024
Below is the text that was submitted
If you are interested in documentation sources for facts on the marker, please contact us
Black Exodus from Gwynn's Island
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.
