Black Exodus from Gwynn's Island

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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 the Jim Crow era, threats and violence drove many Black families from localities across the U.S.

Department of Historic Resources, 2024

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

U.S. Census and Mathews County records (Black land purchases and Black family departures) Trial of James Smith, 18-20 Jan. 1916, Common Law Order Book No. 4: 629-635 (transcript), Mathews County Clerk’s Office. Mathews Journal, 31 Aug. 1916, 1 July, 16 Sept. 1920. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 5 Oct. 1924. Oral histories, compiled by Allison Thomas and Maria Montgomery Gwynn’s Island Project: https://www.gwynnsislandproject.com/exodus Allison Thomas and Maria Montgomery, “Why African Americans Fled Gwynn’s Island, VA, between 1916 and 1920,” Gwynn’s Island Project: https://allisonthom.wordpress.com/2021/07/01/why-african-americans-left-gwynns-island-between-1916-and-1920/ John Dixon, The Black Americans of Gwynn’s Island, 1600s through 1900s (Gwynn, VA: Gwynn’s Island Museum, 4th printing 2018). Stewart E. Tolnay and E.M. Beck, “Black Flight: Lethal Violence and the Great Migration, 1900-1930,” Social Science History, vol. 14, no. 3 (Autumn 1990), 347- 370. Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America (New York: Basic Books, 2007). James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York: Touchstone, 2006).