@kelvinwashington36: A crowd near the gallows where Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel were hung, with Sawnee Mountain in the distance, October 25, 1912. Source: Jimmy E. Anderson In September 1912, an 18-year-old White woman’s body was found near the Black community of Oscarville in northeastern Forsyth County, Georgia and five Black suspects were arrested. Rob Edwards was lynched by a mob of Whites; Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel were tried and found guilty of rape by all-White juries, sentenced to death, then hanged in the Cumming town square in front of 8,000 White people. (The noose was displayed in the county courthouse until 1987.) White men called “Night Riders” began terrorizing Blacks throughout the county, telling them to leave or be killed. Everything the fleeing Black refugees left behind was plundered by Whites who also burned down the abandoned churches. Over several weeks, more than 1,000 Blacks were murdered or run out of Forsyth County. Most Black landowners who were forced to leave couldn’t sell their land before leaving and were never allowed back to sell their land. Consequently, White residents were able to simply take their land titles via adverse possession without having to buy the land. The racial cleansing was so effective, no Blacks would live in the county for the next eighty years. During the Jim Crow era, there were no signs indicating whether a public facility was for “Whites” or “Coloreds” because Blacks were never in the county. In the process of constructing the Buford Dam during the 1950s, the federal government acquired 56,000 acres of land, including Oscarville, forever submerging the formerly vibrant Black town under Lake Lanier, named for a Confederate soldier. On January 17, 1987, Rev Hosea Williams led a civil rights march through Cumming in honor of Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. The fifty marchers were turned back by a mob of thousands of violent Whites who spat and threw rocks while shouting, “Go home, niggers!” Several Whites were arrested for carrying concealed firearms. No descendant of the banished Blacks of Forsyth County has ever received compensation for the land stolen from their ancestors through violence and the legal system. Today, Forsyth County is the wealthiest county in Georgia. Recommended reading: Blood at the Root by Patrick Phillips Thank you.. Black History Snippets @lestercraven… on Substack, for this story. #fyp #fypシ゚viral #blackhistorytiktok

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Friday 19 September 2025 15:44:40 GMT