SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The Belleville community in Suffolk paid homage to its roots as a historical marker telling the story of William Saunders Crowdy, a runaway slave during the Civil War, was unveiled Wednesday. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources had approved the state historical m arker in June 2023 to highlight a community in Suffolk Crowdy founded, and it was unveiled at a site at the intersection of Judah Lane and Townpoint Road. Its manufacturing costs were covered by the Church of God and Saints of Christ at Temple Beth El in Suffolk. "He was a slave child in Maryland. St Mary's County, Maryland, and he ran away and he made his way and found his way out," said B. Da'Vida Plummer, a descendant of William Henry Plummer. "He found his way to a plot of land right over there." The marker aims to educate the public about the community of Belleville, said to have originated in 1896 after Crowdy, who escaped slavery during the Civil War, established the Church of God and Saints of Christ in Kansas. In 1903, Crowdy purchased 40 acres of land in Suffolk, which eventually became the international headquarters of the church. The community of Belleville developed around the church in the 1920s. At the community's peak, it encompassed over 700 acres and included farms, a school, a home for widows and orphans, stores, an electric plant, a music hall and athletic facilities. Although Crowdy himself died in 1908, the church persists today and is known as an African American Judaic organization. "My great-grandfather William Henry Plummer took the charge in the stewardship from Prophet William Saunders Crowdy, who purchased the land," B. Da'Vida Plummer said. "And he set up a school, incorporated Belleville in 1921 and really reached out to inner cities and brought people here. Young people taught them trades [and] educated them. I'm a product of that. I home-schooled right across the way there, and I grew up in one of the houses on this land." The contributions and sacrifices these men made to the community go on and on, and Wednesday's unveiling is a source of pride for their descendants. "I'm overwhelmed, I'm overjoyed," said Je'Syl Crowdy-Cunningham. "I'm so grateful that the work that my great-grandfather initiated was being divinely instructed by God is being recognized today in this way." For more information on state historical markers, click here. ...read more read less