Forsyth 1912: The Truth About Lake Lanier and Oscarville
Editor’s note: As part of a new initiative at Atlanta History Center to explore the 1912 lynching of Rob Edwards and the forced migration of Black residents from Forsyth County, AHC’s Digital Storytelling team is producing a suite of content related to the history and effect of the displacement. Digital Storytelling also invites descendants of the displacement to contact them at forsyth1912@atlantahistorycenter.com.
By Monique Rojas
Communications Coordinator
Lake Lanier, a local attraction that often draws attention for the fatalities that occur in its waters, was established through eminent domain, much like Lake Blue Ridge in Fannin County and other man-made bodies of water in Georgia, to supply the Buford Dam.
Before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created Lake Lanier in Forsyth County, the area held a history of pain, death, and ongoing racial tension.
There is a longstanding myth that this body of water was created to flood a predominantly Black town in Forsyth named Oscarville. The idea is not implausible given historical instances of racial violence against Black communities, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre (1921), the Rosewood Race Massacre (1923), and the Red Summer of 1919.
However, the characterization of Oscarville as an all-Black town obliterated by floodwaters is more myth than reality.
Floyd Jillson Photographs, Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center
Myth: Oscarville was an all-Black town, and people were kicked out to make room for Lake Lanier.
Fact: Oscarville was a predominately white town. The mass exodus of Black residents from the town is true, but it occurred across Forsyth County.
At the start of the 20th century, after Reconstruction, there was a clear shift in favor of separating Black and white citizens. Georgia Governor M. Hoke Smith was an ardent segregationist.
As the publisher of the “Atlanta Journal,” now known as the “Atlanta Journal-Constitution,” his views were reflected in the newspaper’s reporting and his 1906 gubernatorial campaign.
The paper’s unfounded stories about Black men attacking white women contributed to the escalating violence against Black people in the South. This heightened tension erupted in the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, leading to the death of 23 Black Atlantans and two white ones.
The horrific event revealed an increasing resentment from many white people stemming from the ratification of the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, which established citizenship and voting rights for formerly enslaved individuals, respectively.
One year after the Atlanta Race Massacre, about the growing number of what was once known as race riots across the United States, District Attorney of Georgia Hooper Alexander wrote in an essay:
Lynch law, so called, has been, in the main, administered by men of at least comparative prominence in their several communities — men who at least believed they were establishing order, and so discharging a public duty. The Atlanta riot was wholly wanting in responsible leadership, was lawlessness pure and simple, with no redeeming motive, and sprang from unmitigated race hatred.
The socio-political climate created a volatile environment in Georgia that could easily be agitated.
Several years later, Forsyth County was at the center of more unrest that would initiate the mass exodus of more than 1,000 Black residents within a few months.
Floyd Jillson Photographs, Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center
On September 5, 1912, Ellen Grice, a young white woman living in Forsyth County, called the police, claiming a Black man sexually assaulted her.
Four days later, a group of locals discovered 18-year-old Oscarville resident Mae Crow savagely beaten and barely conscious in the woods just a few miles east of Cumming, Georgia.
After Mae’s death, a month following her discovery, many white citizens wanted justice served swiftly by any means.
As a result, Rob Edwards (24), Oscar Daniel (17), and Ernest Knox (16), a group of Black Oscarville residents, were identified as suspects in Mae’s murder.
Immediately after being jailed, white vigilantes known as “night riders” gutted homes of personal belongings across Forsyth County and ignited Black-owned properties.
Edwards was accosted by a lynch mob shortly following his arrest and lynched in downtown Cumming.
Over three months, more than 1,000 Black residents were pushed into neighboring counties to escape the violence that permeated Forsyth County.
Daniel and Knox received due process in the following months and were quickly sentenced to death by hanging. By the time of their execution on October 25, 1912, most Black residents had vacated the county.
Floyd Jillson Photographs, Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center
Myth: Residents of Oscarville were killed using flood waters.
Fact: The land was vacated long before the water started trickling into what became Lake Lanier.
As the mass displacement of Black Forsythians became another facet of Georgia’s history, the remaining white residents of Oscarville continued farming, raising families, and living out their lives until the United States military claimed roughly a quarter of the town through eminent domain on behalf of the Atlanta government.
Atlanta desperately needed fresh water, and displacing people in small farming towns and rural areas was an expedient way to help meet the water demands of a growing metropolitan epicenter.
The Industrial Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce met in April 1947 to officially move forward with building the Buford Dam, which would pool water in Forsyth County to create Lake Lanier.
The government purchased 56,000 acres of private land through eminent domain.
Ultimately, white residents from the small section of Oscarville who had previously fought to cleanse the area of Black people had to leave their property to birth the body of water.
Floyd Jillson Photographs, Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center
Myth: People die at Lake Lanier because the ghosts of former Black residents of Oscarville haunt the waters.
Fact: Many factors contribute to deaths at Lake Lanier outside of the supernatural.
According to statistics from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, there seems to be a correlation between most accidents and deaths at Lake Lanier and boating under the influence (BUI).
In fact, according to 2022 statistics from the department, six people drowned, 19 people were injured, 24 unspecified incidents happened, and 109 instances of BUI were recorded at the lake.
Compounding things are the structures that exist beneath the lake’s waters. When the lake was created, the city of Atlanta found it too expensive to demolish the infrastructure at the bottom of Lake Lanier.
To this day, rooftops, home foundations, cemeteries, and the Gainesville Speedway remain virtually intact beneath the lake. These structures make the lake more dangerous for recreational activities and make it difficult for emergency services to recover bodies.
