Lake Lanier once... Oscarville

Another thriving African-American town set up for destruction

In continuing with the theme of this month, I’m revisiting once thriving African-American towns that were destroyed because of racism.

Let’s take a look at Oscarville, Georgia.

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Oscarville, Georgia

During the Reconstruction Era, Oscarville a town in Forsyth County, Georgia was a majority Black town. It was a prosperous agricultural community known for raising poultry. Many of the residents had achieved higher economic growth than other Black communities at that time.

In 1911, there were about 1100 residents in Oscarville. 58 owned land while 109 rented farms and others worked as craftsmen in nearby towns.

By 1912, racial tensions were ever increasing by the jealousy of white farmers who were under economic stress and blamed the Black land owners.

A couple of inciting incidents spurred racial tensions even further.

On September 5, Ellen Grice, accused 2 Black men of raping her. Tony Howell confessed to the assault and was charged but was the case was dropped a year later.

And on September 13, Mae Crow was found unresponsive, raped and head bludgeoned. She died two weeks later but never informed anyone of the possible assailant because she was in a coma.

During this time, any account of a white woman being harmed in any way, led white communities to storm nearby Black communities to look for who they believed were the possible assailants. At a later date, I will discuss how practices like these and the film A Birth of A Nation continued these false accusations which heavily put the lives of Blacks at risk and in turn also stripping them from their rightfully owned lands.

Ernest Knox, a 16 year old boy was accused of the attack on Mae Crow because a pocket mirror was found near her body and was believed to be his.

Once captured, he was put through a mock lynching and a confession was coerced out of him. And then four other Black residents were arrested as accomplices.

The alleged accomplices were Knox's cousin Oscar Daniel (age18, Oscar Daniel's sister Jane Daniel (age 22), Jane Daniel's husband Rob Edwards (age 24), and another resident named Ed Collins.

Photo taken October 2, 1912. Although not identified by the newspaper, they are believed to be: (left to right) Trussie "Jane" Daniel, Oscar Daniel, Tony Howell (accused of Mae Crow assault), Ed Collins (witness), Isaiah Pirkle (witness for Howell), and Ernest Knox.

Oscar Daniel and Ernest Knox were found guilty and ordered to a hanging. Public executions were no longer legal in Forsyth County so the judge ordered it behind a blind. Nevertheless, it drew a large crowd. Approximately 8,000 spectators showed up.

On the day of Mae Crow’s funeral, a white group called Night Riders descended on the town carrying out group attacks with the intent to expunge Black people from Forsyth County.

Firebombs were thrown into an Oscarville church. Many arsons occurred because of the Night Riders.

Black landowners were forced to sell their property well below value. And those were the lucky ones. Many fled the town for fear of their lives and abandoned their property.

Later, whites took advantage of adverse possession laws taking advantage of abandoned land without having to pay the Black owners.

By 1947, the government owned the land and decided to turn Oscarville into a man made lake, Lake Lanier named after the Confederate Soldier Sidney Lanier. The remains of Oscarville were flooded in 1950 during the lake's construction. The lake was completed in 1956.

Following the expulsion of Blacks, Forsyth County was known as a whites-only community. In 1987, a civil rights march took place and Oprah traveled there to discuss the racial issues with the Forsyth residents.

Here is a clip from that show.

Today Forsyth, still mostly white, is one of the most prosperous counties in the country. Lake Lanier earns around 5 billion annually. The clip below discusses this and how the removal of Blacks from communities were intentional.

Albeit, that Forsyth County is thriving economically, Lake Lanier is believed to be haunted because of the high number of drowning deaths with over 500 deaths from 1956-2021. 200 deaths occurred between 1994 and 2020.

Underwater debris such as trees and buildings contribute to this drowning rate. The old buildings of the Oscarville town were never demolished before turning it into a lake. Also none of the cemeteries were relocated and as of 2023, everything still remains at the bottom of the lake.

You can find many videos about Oscarville and Lake Lanier on YouTube. The story was touched on in the FX’s series Atlanta. And a very dear close friend of mine Njeri Njuhigu wrote a short story inspired by Lake Lanier for The Something Scary Podcast. The link is below.

The economic and psychological impact from these events that I’ve been writing about this month really brings home that we as a Black culture have suffered to strive forward. We accomplish something with our own hard work and labor but the jealousies and envy of the people that put us in the subservient position in the first place can’t stand for us to thrive equally with them. You can’t pull yourself up by the bootstrap, if you take the strap and the boot away and then kick us with the boot too.

But I must celebrate those of us, that have succeeded thus far, despite the enormous obstacles that our ancestors survived and for those of us that are still succeeding in today’s world against many adversities. I take my hat off to those of us that still try to make a way for ourselves and our children for a brighter future.

I look forward to diving more into this story and others at my next monthly discussion. Join me Saturday, August 31st at 11am (pst)/1pm (cst)/2pm (est) for paid subscribers.

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Best,

Danita

Resources:

Wikipedia

Teen Vogue