Oscarville is a ghost town in Forsyth County, Georgia. Oscarville, a majority-Black town, is most famous for being a central location in a series of violent crimes and racially motivated riots that happened in 1912, driving away most of the Black residents in Forsyth County. In 1950, the remnants of the town were flooded during the construction of Lake Lanier. [1] The site of Oscarville was located in northeastern Forsyth County, close to the border with Hall County. [2]
Oscarville was formed in the 1800s during the post-war Reconstruction. [3] Oscarville was an agricultural community, and for most of its history it was reported to be prosperous. [3] Though not all residents of Oscarville were Black, [4] a large number were, and many of those residents had achieved higher economic growth than other Black communities of the time. [3] Many of Oscarville's Black residents had been freed from slavery after fighting in the American Civil War. [5] In 1911, Oscarville had approximately 1,100 residents, 58 of whom owned land. [6] 109 residents rented farms, and many more worked as craftsmen in nearby towns such as Cumming. [6] Other residents were employed as cottonhands. [5] Oscarville residents were especially noted for their skill in raising poultry. [3]
In the months preceding the 1912 conflicts, racial tensions in the area still remained high from the 1906 Atlanta race riot. [5] In 1912, several White farmers in the area were under economic stress, which they blamed on Black landowners. [7] Several months prior to the events at Oscarville, a dispute between a Black boy and a White girl at a peach orchard in nearby Plainville had turned into an attempted lynching of several Black men. Black residents of Plainville resisted, and the situation escalated into a shootout which resulted in the death of the White sheriff of Plainville. [8]
Information about the 1912 conflicts can at times be conflicting or hard to find, due to a lack of available records. There are no available arrest records for several of the events involved in the conflict, including the beating of Grant Smith, the lynching of Rob Edwards, or any of the following "Night Rider" attacks. [8] The Forsyth County newspaper was founded in 1908, but has no available archives before 1917. [5]
On 5 September 1912, a 22-year-old White woman named Ellen Grice [5] made an allegation that two Black men had attempted to rape her. [5] Grice claimed that she woke in her bed to find a Black man in her bed beside her, [8] but all assailants were scared off by the arrival of Grice's mother. [5] Five black men were arrested by the Forsyth County sheriff in connection with the case. [5] News of the alleged attack and resulting arrests unsettled the surrounding black communities. [5] A local Black preacher, Grant Smith, made an appeal to the sheriff that the five Black men who had been detained be released, [5] claiming that there was not enough evidence in the case to charge all five men. [5] Smith also claimed that Ellen Grice may have been in a consensual relationship with one of the suspects, [5] and upon being caught, reported a crime, a defense known as "the old threadbare lie" and known to be used by White women caught in relationships with Black men. [8] Smith's comments on the Grice case enraged the local White community, and a mob surrounded Smith on the steps of the courthouse, [5] and Smith was beaten by the mob and horse-whipped. [5] Smith sustained life-threatening injuries, but survived the attack. [5]
On the morning of 13 September 1912, [1] a White woman named Mae Crow was found unresponsive [1] in the woods outside Oscarville. [3] Crow, who was either 18 [1] or 19 years old [3] and was a resident of the nearby community of Big Creek, [5] had been raped and bludgeoned in the head with a rock, [5] fracturing her skull.[ citation needed ] Crow was significantly battered and half-undressed [1] when her body was found hidden under a pile of leaves. [1] Although Crow was alive at the time of her discovery, she was unconscious and hardly breathing. [5] Crow remained in a coma for two weeks before dying from her injuries. [8] It is widely believed that none of the individuals arrested for her attack were actually involved. [9] Due to the length of time elapsed and lack of living witnesses, it is unlikely that an actual culprit will ever be discovered. [1]
At the time, a common response to violent attacks committed against White women was to search nearby Black communities for the alleged perpetrator. [3] Searchers at the scene where Mae Crow's body was found had reported the discovery of a small pocket mirror. [5] It was alleged that the pocket mirror belonged to Ernest Knox, [5] a 16-year-old Black resident of nearby Cumming. [5] Knox was arrested at his house and subject to a mock lynching, and a confession was coerced out of him. [5] News of Crow's rape and Knox's subsequent arrest continued to agitate the already upset White community, leading to the formation of a mob outside the jailhouse where Knox was detained. [5] In order to keep Knox alive until his trial, Knox was covertly transported out the back door of the jail to be detained at a different jail in Atlanta. [5]
Following the arrest of Knox, four other Black residents were arrested as accomplices to the crime. [5] The alleged accomplices were Knox's cousin Oscar Daniel [8] (age 18), [8] Oscar Daniel's sister Jane Daniel [8] (age 22), [9] Jane Daniel's husband Rob Edwards [8] (age 24), [9] and another resident named Ed Collins. [5] Rob Edwards, an Oscarville resident, was known as "Big Rob" for his distinctive large stature. [8] While the accused were awaiting trial, a mob of approximately 2,000 White vigilantes formed outside the county courthouse holding the alleged accomplices. [5] The deputy attempted to prevent the mob from storming the courthouse, but the sheriff had gone home earlier that evening, claiming that he had no idea of the growing mob. [8] After gaining access to the cells, the mob beat Rob Edwards with crowbars and hung a noose around his neck. [8] The mob then fatally shot Rob Edwards, [5] then dragged his body out of the jailhouse to the town square, where it was hung from a telephone pole, [5] drawing large crowds. [1] Additional bullets were also then fired into Edwards' remains by members of the crowd. [1]
At trial, 18-year-old Oscar Daniel [8] and 16-year-old Ernest Knox [5] were found guilty of the rape and murder of Mae Crow. [5] Jane Daniels was acquitted of her charges. [9] The separate trials of Daniels and Knox both took place and concluded within a single day. [8] Newt Morris, the judge overseeing the trials, was later at the forefront of the mob during the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank. [8] Oscar Daniels and Ernest Knox were both sentenced to death by hanging, which was illegal under state law at the time. [5] As public executions were illegal in Forsyth County at the time, [8] Judge Morris ordered that the hangings take place behind a blind. [8] The night before the executions, arsonists burned the blind down, leaving the gallows untouched. [8] The hangings of Oscar Daniels and Ernest Knox drew large crowds of approximately 8,000 spectators. [5] A piece of rope used in the hangings was kept in the minute book of court records until the 1912 violence received attention from civil rights protestors in 1987, around which time the rope went missing. [8]
Starting the day of Mae Crow's funeral, [8] groups of White individuals calling themselves "Night Riders" [3] carried out group attacks where Whites on horseback would use the cover of night to descend on the black communities of Forsyth County with the intention of inflicting property damage and injury for the purpose of expunging Forsyth County of all Black residents. [5] Because of the short amount of time between the attacks on Ellen Grice and Mae Crow, White locals believed that a "Black insurrection" was causing a spree of rapes. [8] In Oscarville, firebombs were thrown into the local church, which was a community hub for Oscarville, similarly to other communities at the time. [3] Many of the Night Ridings involved arson. [8] These attacks happened regularly for several months. [10] Many residents of Oscarville died in these attacks while fleeing to the relative safety of nearby Gainesville, [3] which was across the Chattahoochee River in Hall County. [8]
In 1912, there were 1,098 Black residents in Forsyth County, amounting to 10% of the total population. [1] Because of the danger and instability caused by the Night Riders, most of the Black residents of Forsyth County left Forsyth County during September and October 1912. [8] Within a few years, 98% of the Black residents of Oscarville had either left Forsyth County or been killed for refusing to leave. [5] Many of the fleeing residents settled just to the North in Hall County, [1] where they would bring their poultry-rearing skills and lead to the growth of the poultry industry in Gainesville, [3] while many others continued farther North as part of the Great Migration. [1] The 1912 racial conflict at Forsyth County is not considered unusual as occurrence, as it is instead part of a noted pattern of violent incidents that took place in the United States between the 1860s and 1920s, [1] wherein White communities would attempt to forcibly expel all Black residents from their communities. [1] The 1912 racial conflict was one of multiple such incidents occurring in Northern Georgia at the time. [1] However, the expulsions at Forsyth County are considered unusual for the level of success they achieved in removing the Black presence in local communities. [1] For comparison, similar attempts in neighboring Hall County led to arrests within the first week, causing the movement to quickly peter out. [8]
Because of the urgency of their situation, Black landowners attempting to leave often had no choice but to sell their land at prices far below what the land was worth and far below what they themselves had paid for the land. [8] Other families were unable to sell their property before leaving, thus receiving no compensation. [5] Many times, after a Black family fled, any property they had left behind would be destroyed and any livestock killed. [8] White residents would later take advantage of adverse possession laws, intended to make better use of abandoned land, to take possession of land left behind by Black residents without having to pay the previous owners for it. [8] In 1987, following a civil rights march, an inquiry was launched into the possibility of repatriation for land taken from Black residents without due legal process. [1] However, due to the amount of times the land has been sold and passed down since its seizure, the County did not repatriate any land, and any future repatriation is unlikely. [1]
In the decades following the 1912 expulsions, land that had formerly been part of Oscarville was gradually sold to the government. [5] Growing demand for water in surrounding cities, such as Atlanta, [5] led to the development of plans for a man-made reservoir. [11] Plans for construction of the Buford Dam were approved in 1947. [11] The dam, situated on the Chattahoochee River, would regulate flooding and lead to the formation of Lake Lanier. [5] The remains of Oscarville were flooded in 1950 during the lake's construction. [1] Named after Confederate veteran and poet Sidney Lanier, [5] Lake Lanier was completed in 1956. [11] Oscarville is supposedly one of multiple "drowned towns" beneath Lake Lanier. [11]
Local legend alleges Lake Lanier to be haunted. [12] One commonly claimed reason for the supposed haunting is the high number of drowning deaths, [3] with over 500 deaths between the lake's formation and 2021. [5] 200 deaths occurred between 1994 and 2020. [13] Underwater debris such as trees and buildings contribute to this drowning rate. [3] The abandoned structures at Oscarville were not demolished before being flooded, turning the structures into underwater hazards. [9] Another commonly cited reason for the supposed haunting is that several cemeteries were not relocated before the flooding, and as of 2023 remain at the bottom of the lake. [12]
Following the 1912 expulsions, the borders of Forsyth County were enforced as White-only until as recently as the 1980s. [1] Some White children growing up in Forsyth County were raised with the explanation that the White residents of Forsyth had driven out all the Black residents in order to protect the county's White women. [1] In 2019, Forsyth County's population remained only 3.6% Black. [1] As recently as 2022, efforts in Forsyth County to teach the story of Oscarville have led to resistance, criticizing the efforts as "critical race theory". [14]
In January 1987, a civil rights march called the "Brotherhood March" [8] took place in Forsyth county, led by Hosea Williams. [15] Locals and other White counter-protestors are reported to have thrown rocks at the demonstrators. [1] Oprah Winfrey, at the time still early in her television career, went to Forsyth County to cover the demonstrations. [8] The civil rights demonstrations in the 1980s drew statewide attention to the past expulsions at Oscarville, [1] prompting an inquiry at the county level into land repatriation. However, the inquiry did not result in the repatriation of any land. [1]
Today, Oscarville is locally famous in the communities surrounding Lake Lanier. Through word of mouth, stories of the town have evolved into a local legend of a haunted town beneath the lake, with even a few reports of supernatural sightings. [2]
A 2016 book, Blood at the Root , was published about the 1912 violence at Oscarville. [8] The author, Patrick Philips, had grown up with White anti-segregationist parents as a White boy in a still-segregated Forsyth County. [8]
In 2022, filmmaker Bob Mackey began production on a television series [3] called Oscarville: Below the Surface, a historical thriller centering on the 1912 expulsions. [16] The series is a fictionalized account of the supernatural legends surrounding Oscarville and other legends of Lake Lanier. [16]
A third-season episode of the television show Atlanta centered on the violence at Oscarville. [17]
In the broader context of racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:
Lanier County is a county in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. At the 2020 census, the population was 9,877. The county seat is Lakeland. It is named after Georgia poet Sidney Lanier.
Hall County is a county in the Northeast region of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 203,136, up from 179,684 at the 2010 census. The county seat is Gainesville. The entirety of Hall County comprises the Gainesville, Georgia, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also part of the Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs, Combined Statistical Area.
Forsyth County is a county in the Northeast region of the U.S. state of Georgia. Suburban and exurban in character, Forsyth County lies within the Atlanta metropolitan area. The county's only incorporated city and county seat is Cumming. At the 2020 census, the population was 251,283. Forsyth was the fastest-growing county in Georgia and the 15th fastest-growing county in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Forsyth County's rapid population growth can be attributed to its proximity to high-income employment opportunities in nearby Alpharetta and northern Fulton County, its equidistant location between the big-city amenities of bustling Atlanta and the recreation offerings of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains, its plentiful supply of large, relatively affordable new-construction homes, and its highly ranked public school system. The influx of high-income professionals and their families has increased the county's median annual household income dramatically in recent years; at $104,687, Forsyth County was the wealthiest in Georgia and the 19th-wealthiest in the United States as of 2018 estimates.
Cumming is a city in and the county seat of Forsyth County, Georgia, United States, and the sole incorporated area in the county. It is a suburban city, and part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In the 2020 census, the population is 7,318, up from 5,430 in 2010. Surrounding unincorporated areas with a Cumming mailing address have a population of approximately 100,000.
Lakeland is a city and the county seat of Lanier County, Georgia, United States. The city is the county seat of Lanier County. It is part of the Valdosta, Georgia metropolitan statistical area. The population was 2,875 at the 2020 census.
The Rosewood massacre was a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six black people were killed, but eyewitness accounts suggested a higher death toll of 27 to 150. In addition, two white people were killed in self-defense by one of the victims. The town of Rosewood was destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot. Florida had an especially high number of lynchings of black men in the years before the massacre, including the lynching of Charles Strong and the Perry massacre in 1922.
Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States. They were towns that practice a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation or violence. They were most prevalent before the 1950s. The term came into use because of signs that directed "colored people" to leave town by sundown.
Lake Lanier is a reservoir in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee River. The lake encompasses 38,000 acres (15,000 ha) or 59 sq mi (150 km2) of water, and 692 mi (1,114 km) of shoreline at normal level, a "full pool" of 1,071 ft (326 m) above mean sea level and the exact shoreline varies by resolution according to the coastline paradox. Named for Confederate veteran and poet Sidney Lanier, it was built and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and water supplies. Its construction destroyed more than 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of farmland and displaced more than 250 families, 15 businesses, and relocated 20 cemeteries along with their remains in the process.
On May 16, 1918, a plantation owner was murdered, prompting a manhunt which resulted in a series of lynchings in May 1918 in southern Georgia, United States. White people killed at least 13 black people during the next two weeks. Among those killed were Hazel "Hayes" Turner and his wife, Mary Turner. Hayes was killed on May 18, and the next day, his pregnant wife Mary was strung up by her feet, doused with gasoline and oil then set on fire. Mary's unborn child was cut from her abdomen and stomped to death. Her body was then repeatedly shot. No one was ever convicted of her lynching.
In Forsyth County, Georgia, in September 1912, two separate alleged attacks on white women in the Cumming area resulted in black men being accused as suspects. First, a white woman reportedly awoke to find a black man in her bedroom; then days later, a white teenage girl was beaten and raped, later dying of her injuries.
The Longview race riot was a series of violent incidents in Longview, Texas, between July 10 and July 12, 1919, when whites attacked black areas of town, killed one black man, and burned down several properties, including the houses of a black teacher and a doctor. It was one of the many race riots in 1919 in the United States during what became known as Red Summer, a period after World War I known for numerous riots occurring mostly in urban areas.
The Ocoee massacre was a mass racial violence event that saw a white mob attack numerous African-American residents in the northern parts of Ocoee, Florida, a town located in Orange County near Orlando. Ocoee was the home to 255 African-American residents and 560 white residents according to the 1920 Census. The massacre took place on November 2, 1920, the day of the U.S. presidential election leaving a lasting political, but also community impact, as the 1930 census shows 1,180 whites, 11 Native Americans, and 2 African Americans (0.2%).
On Tuesday, November 12, 1914, John Evans, a black man, was lynched in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, by a mob of 1,500 white men, women and children. Evans was accused of the murder of Edward Sherman, a white real estate developer, and the attack of Sherman's wife, Mary. After word of the attack spread, and Mary Sherman claimed her attackers were "two negroes," a citywide search ensued. Suspicions immediately led to John Evans. Two days after the murder, a posse consisting of some of the city's most prominent and well-respected members stormed the St. Petersburg jail, threw a noose around Evans' neck and marched him to his death. He was never given a fair trial. Evans was hanged from a light post on the corner of Ninth Street South and Second Avenue. At first, he kept himself alive by wrapping his legs around the light pole. An unidentified white woman in a nearby automobile ended his struggle with a single bullet. Though the shot was fatal, the rest of the crowd began shooting at Evans' dangling body until their ammunition was depleted.
The lynching of the Walker family took place near Hickman, Fulton County, Kentucky, on October 3, 1908, at the hands of about fifty masked Night Riders. David Walker was a landowner, with a 21.5-acre (8.7 ha) farm. The entire family of seven African Americans including parents, infant in arms, and four children were killed, with the event reported by national newspapers. Governor Augustus E. Willson of Kentucky strongly condemned the murders and promised a reward for information leading to prosecution. No one was ever prosecuted.
Jim McIlherron was an African-American man who was tortured and executed by a lynch mob on February 12, 1918, in Estill Springs, Tennessee. McIlherron was lynched in retaliation for shooting and killing two white men after a fight broke out.
The Slocum massacre was the killing of Black residents by Whites on July 29–30, 1910, in Slocum, an unincorporated community in Anderson County near Palestine in East Texas. Only seven deaths were officially confirmed, but some 22 were reported by major newspapers. This is the official count, but it is estimated that as many as one hundred African Americans were killed.
Corbin, Kentucky race riot of 1919 was a race riot in 1919 in which a white mob forced nearly all the town's 200 black residents onto a freight train out of town, and a sundown town policy until the late 20th century.
The 1987Forsyth County protests were a series of civil rights demonstrations held in Forsyth County, Georgia, in the United States. The protests consisted of two marches, held one week apart from each other on January 17 and January 24, 1987. The marches and accompanying counterdemonstrations by white supremacists drew national attention to the county. The second march was attended by many prominent civil rights activists and politicians, including both of Georgia's U.S. senators, and attracted about 20,000 marchers, making it one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in United States history.
The Mack Haygood Public Library was a segregated Black library in Lawrenceville, Georgia, that operated from 1958 to 1967.