Willis Augustus Hodges (1815-1890)

Virginia Beach County · dedicated 2023 · S. Witchduck Road, just south of intersection with Singleton Way

Willis A. Hodges was born in Princess Anne County to Charles and Julia Hodges, free people of color. He moved between New York and Virginia before the Civil War and became an outspoken abolitionist, cofounding the weekly antislavery newspaper the Ram’s Horn in Brooklyn in 1847. In Princess Anne after the war, he opened a school and was a Republican Party leader. The first Black man to win an election in the county, he served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-68, where he was among the most prominent of its 24 Black members and advocated racial equality. Hodges served two terms on the county Board of Supervisors and was a keeper of the Cape Henry Lighthouse.

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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