Beyond the Inkwell, the Black history of Martha’s Vineyard runs much deeper
TheGrio...
Inkwell Beach may be the island’s most famous landmark, but locals say generations of Black homeowners, educators and whalers tell the fuller story.
By noon during the peak summer season in Oak Bluffs, there’s hardly an empty patch of sand left at Inkwell Beach, a nickname with about a dozen theories surrounding how it came to be known for what is officially Town Beach.
Folding chairs and towels dot the shoreline with families spread out beneath umbrellas. Children dart in and out of the chilly Atlantic surf, squealing as the nearby ferry drops off midday revelers calling out to their friends, while generations of Black vacationers settle in for another day at one of the country’s most storied summer gathering spots. But when it comes to the Black legacy of Oak Bluffs, the Inkwell is only half the story.
Every year, hundreds of tourists travel to Martha’s Vineyard with Inkwell Beach at the top of their list, seeking Black culture and legacy. But the people who know it best say they’re looking in the wrong place.
“If you really want to know something about our presence here… Inkwell is the last place you want to start,” said Larry Jones, a tour guide with the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard.
Inkwell Beach and “the Black Elite” who retreat there have become synonymous with the culture of Martha’s Vineyard, but as more generations continue to discover it, historians and locals hope the full story of the island’s Black legacy remains front and center.
“A lot of times I read stories about Martha’s Vineyard and Oak Bluffs and the Inkwell in our community, a lot of people think that we’re all just celebrities and wealthy and the ‘Black elite’ and all that crap. A lot of people who grew up here, we don’t identify as that,” said Erica Belle, another tour guide and local who has been coming to the island since she was child for nearly 40 years.
“We were not, you know, this Black Elite, we were the vision class,” she continued, adding that instead she sees many of the first to settle there as “the folks who wanted to have more.”
That perception has developed through the way Oak Bluffs, and Martha’s Vineyard in general, are often portrayed as a place that’s quiet in the winter and alive in the summer. We see luxury travel influencers and other high-profile visitors retreat there year after year.
One of the first things that brought the island into the mainstream was Matty Rich’s film, “The Inkwell”—which was actually filmed in North Carolina. Of course, the main characters jetting off to the island in shows like Netflix’s “Forever,” Bravo launching a “Summer House” franchise there, and high-profile campaigns like Ralph Lauren’s recent one have all increased awareness of the community in the cultural zeitgeist.
Before all of that, Belle said, the legacy began with several different groups who found refuge there. While many people know Martha’s Vineyard once had enslaved Black residents, it eventually became a welcoming place for Black people looking to build a life beyond the South and one of the few early places where Black people could own homes.
Some of those early Black settlers were educators, including Belle’s grandmother, who had summers off and would head to the island before returning year after year, creating a thriving community and establishing traditions that many of their families continue today. Another important group included Black whalers who migrated to the island to work in the whaling industry. Belle said that, at one point, more than 40% of Martha’s Vineyard’s whalers had been Black.
There have also been groups in more recent history that helped put the beach on the map, including the famous Polar Bears, a water fitness group that gathers at Inkwell Beach on summer mornings and has done so since roughly 1946. The first group to do so was Black. But for Belle, the more remarkable story is how Martha’s Vineyard has managed to preserve its legacy of Black homeownership and culture in ways many other early Black vacation destinations have not. Neighborhoods like the Highlands and the Gold Coast overlooking Inkwell Beach have maintained those legacies through generations of Black families passing homes down from one generation to the next.
“When talking about our community, it’s very important to understand that some folks came here with money, some folks did not,” Belle explained.
“The way we were able to gain our homes with making backwater deals to be able to purchase homes in this area, and then keep those homes that have been in the same family for four generations, five generations, six generations of Black homeowners,” she continued. “I think that’s really important to understand that it’s a community of people who basically did everything to sacrifice to provide for their family, despite that there might be slavery still going on.”
She noted that there are records of Black homeowners on Martha’s Vineyard while slavery was still occurring in this country.
“People don’t really quite understand why this community is so important,” she noted.
No one knows for sure how Inkwell Beach, which has been affectionately called that for generations, earned its nickname. One theory is that it got the name after Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes started retreating there and would dip their pens into the water. Another suggests that, because Town Beach was the beach designated for Black people on the island, it may have begun as a derogatory term. But locals like Belle, say it has long since become a term of pride. It was always what the locals called it, she said, and watching it grow into a cultural phenomenon has been fascinating.
Today, the story of Martha’s Vineyard’s Black community has continued to evolve alongside generations of well-known visitors, from Madame C.J. Walker to former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, while the families who built the community continue returning summer after summer.
“Again, you have all these people who are really famous that came to the islands, but then you also have the community,” Belle said.
So come for the Inkwell, but stay for the fact that the Black legacy of Martha’s Vineyard is so much more than that.