Virginia Beach installs a historical marker for the first black man chosen in Princess Ann County – Virginiabeach.gov

The story of Willis August Hodges, an canceller, as well as social and political paths during the era of reconstruction after the Civil War, is shared with a new state historical marker in Camppsvil.

He was a journalist, minister and the first black man, elected in a public position in Princess Ann County. What makes this achievement particularly significant is the fact that after the reconstruction he would have passed more than a century before another African American would be elected in a public position in Princess An/Virginia Beach. John Perry was elected to the Municipal Council in 1986.

Hodges was born in a free family in today’s Virginia beach in 1815. His family moved back and forth between Virginia and New York because of the racial persecution they face south.

He directed his horror from the brutalization of black Americans into political activism. He was the co -founder of the weekly newspaper “Antilles”, called the Aries Horn in Brooklyn in 1847, and after returning to Princess Ann after the Civil War, he opened a school for local children.

Hodges was elected to represent Princess Ann County in Richmond at the Constitutional Convention of Virginia of 1867-1868. He served in the Master of Camppsvil and was a voice defender of racial equality as one of only 24 black delegates. Hodges also served in the Council of the Supervisory Authorities of Princess Ann County, which began in 1870, and he performed two terms. That same year, he was hired as the first Afro -American guardian of Cape Henry’s headlight.

Hodges died on September 24, 1890, at the age of 75 and was buried in New York. The application for the Hodges marker was successfully submitted by the local historian an Hawkins-snowdrix. The marker is dedicated on February 8th and funded by the Commission for Historical Storage Through their Grant Program for Research