How Martha's Vineyard Became a Haven for Black Americans

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent decision to transport fifty Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard had created quite the media stir. These migrants have since said that jobs and other opportunities were promised to them once they arrived. 

This event is reminiscent of a similar incident in 1962 involving Black Americans. In this case, a white supremacist group known as the White Citizens Council placed fake ads in periodicals encouraging Black families to relocate from Louisiana to Hyannis, a village on Cape Code in Massachusetts. Known as the Reverse Freedom Rides, this group utilized Greyhound buses to transport southern Black families to the North. 

The ad which read, “President Kennedy’s brother assures you a grand reception to Massachusetts. Good jobs, housing, etc. are promised” was in retaliation against the Freedom Riders, a group of white and Black civil rights activists who traveled the South in the early 1960s protesting segregated bus terminals.

These chilling accounts aside, many are surprised to hear that Black Americans have had a long history in Martha’s Vineyard and the coast of Massachusetts. This story is told in an exquisitely well-written and documented book entitled Finding Martha’s Vineyard: African-Americans at Home on an Island by Jill Nelson

Replete with photographs, personal narrative, memories, and fascinating historical detail, author lifelong summer Vineyard resident and bestselling author Jill Nelson offers a fascinating account of the island’s storied place in Black History. It looks at the trajectory of Black settlement on the vineyard and in Oak Bluffs among slaves and their descendants, many of whom followed their white employers to the island before later establishing their own community.

In seeking refuge from the racial tension and hostility that was often common in their hometowns, generations of Black professionals which included prominent doctors, writers, academics, and artists made summer visits and in some cases established residency there. 

This in-migration began occurring in mass during the 19th century as indentured servants, runaway slaves, and whalers began arriving for the oil. Over time, some Black families purchased property when they were able to afford it. With each summer, growing numbers migrated over from New York, Boston, and other areas, particularly during the holiday seasons. 

But by the mid-19th century when whale oil began being replaced by other energy sources, the Vineyard saw its rebirth as a resort. Oak Bluffs, a town on Martha’s Vineyard, was repurposed into a tourist destination out of necessity. By the 20th century, it had become a retreat locale for Black Americans amid Jim Crow laws and the prevailing segregation that led them to be turned away from other popular beaches and hotels. It was the only town where Blacks were permitted lodging. 

With this, the Oak Bluffs community eventually became a popular enclave for the “who's-who” of the Black community. By way of example Dorothy West,  an acclaimed storyteller and short story writer during the Harlem Renaissance period grew up going there each summer. And prominent New York Baptist pastor and politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. often stayed at Shearer Cottage, a seasonal inn catering to Black Americans, utilizing his newspaper, the People’s Voice to urge others to visit. 

Many did, boosting the number of renters and homeowners. By the 1950s, growing numbers of middle and upper-class Black doctors, lawyers, and executives and their families had formed their own enclave, with yearly retreats and rituals. 

The Oak Bluff area of Martha’s Vineyard known as the Inkwell, became a particularly popular destination for Blac families. As one of a handful of historic Black summer resort communities that sprouted along the seaboard in the 1890s, it featured a popular beach among Black Americans beginning in the late nineteenth century. The Inkwell name was coined by nearby whites to symbolize the skin color of beach-goers, which was said to glisten amid the radiating sun. 

The area was often highlighted in the popular travel guide for vacationing Black families known as the Negro Motorist Green Book, from the ‘40s to ‘60s. Black identity is firmly embedded in the community, with famed figures such as Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harry Belafonte all having vacationed there. 

Martha’s Vineyards Oak Bluffs remains a popular destination for Black families today attracted to the area’s aesthetically rich gingerbread houses, sparkling beaches, bustling marina, and popular seafood joints. During summers, the town population soars, teaming with Black folks — a trend that year-round residents affectionately refer to as “Black August.” 

In his book African-Americans of Martha’s Vineyard: From Enslavement to Presidential Visit  author Thomas Dressler notes: 

“When President Obama vacationed on Martha's Vineyard, in 2009, I felt compelled to write a history of African Americans of Martha's Vineyard, from slavery through abolition and on to Civil Rights.  The dramatic history of black Americans thrives along the African American Trail which leads visitors from site to site across the Island. In my book, African Americans of Martha's Vineyard, I captured intriguing  anecdotes from the 19th and 20th century, from Shearer Cottage in the Highlands to Olive Tomlinson's account of her ride to the March on Washington in 1963.” 

He adds: 

“The experience of African Americans on Martha’s Vineyard has proven to be a seemingly endless struggle, a saga of events not that different from episodes in other parts of the country, but unique because of the Island setting and the resort community that evolved on the Vineyard.”