The committee that worked on the text for a proposed historic marker for Gwynn’s Island was recognized during a gathering on Saturday at the Piankatank Ruritan Club of nearly 100 people, most of them the Black descendants of Gwynn’s Island residents who were enslaved on the island and/or who lived on the island in the early 1900s. Five generations of descendants were present, said spokesperson Allison Thomas. Committee members and where they’re from are, from left, Marcus Gwynn, North Carolina; Alma Lee, Gloucester; Shirley Frazier, Hampton; Allison Thomas, California; Kimberly Lee, Northern Virginia; Randy Gwynn, North Carolina; Bob Davidson, Falls Church; Arlene Rankin, Maryland; Rufus Frazier, Maryland; Elsie Williams, Chesterfield; Jennifer West, Northern Virginia; Bud Ward, Gwynn’s Island; Harry Jackson, California, and Jim Thomas, Vienna.
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