The 'Racial Cleansing' That Drove 1,100 Black Residents Out Of Forsyth County, Ga

In Forsyth County, Georgia, in September 1912 two separate alleged attacks on white women resulted in black men being accused as suspects. One white woman accused two black men of breaking into her home in Big Creek Community and one of raping her. Another teenage woman was fatally beaten and raped in the Oscarville Community. Earnest Knox was linked to the Oscarville murder along with his half brother by a hair comb sold to him at the Oscarville store. When confronted, he confessed to the Sheriff and implicated his half brother and mother’s live-in boyfriend. His mother testified against the sons during the jury trial which sentenced both to hanging. 21 days later the sentence was carried out.

In the Big Creek assault, a black preacher and his congregation drove to Cumming to demand the release of the men being held for the rape of a young girl from the Big Creek Community. This resulted in a white counter mob showing up in confrontation. Tempers flared and the preacher was harshly beaten for having been heard to suggest that the first woman may have had a consensual relationship with a black man. The Forsyth County Sheriff locked the preacher inside the court house over night to protect him from the mob waiting outside.

Rob Edwards was arrested for the second murder and rape and was being held in the small 20x20 foot jail in Cumming. He was taken from the jail by a white mob, shot and beaten to death. His body was hanged from the telephone pole which stood near the entrance of the present City Hall. In all five black men were charged in the second crime, and Rob Edwards who was lynched by a mob. Two youths (aged 16 and 17) in the case were convicted of rape and murder by a jury and sentenced to death by hanging.

In 1910 more than 1,000 black people lived in the county, which had more than 10,000 white people. After the trials and executions, bands of white men, known as Night Riders from Cherokee and other nearby counties threatened and intimidated Black inhabitants. These families fled and sold their property at discounted prices with most fleeing to Hall and Gwinnett Counties. Within the next four months, an estimated 98% of the blacks living in the county had left due to Night Rider threats. Night Riders next moved on to Dawson and Hall Counties where they attempted to do the same. They were finally stopped when eleven Night Riders were arrested by the Hall County Sheriff.

In the following months, a small group of men called "Night Riders" terrorized black citizens, warning them to leave in 24 hours or be killed. Those who resisted were subjected to further harassment, including shots fired into their homes, or livestock killed. Allegedly a few white residents tried to stop the Night Riders, but were unsuccessful. An estimated 98% of black residents of Forsyth County left. Some property owners were able to sell, likely at a loss. The renters and sharecroppers left to seek safer places. Those who had to abandon property, and failed to continue paying property tax, eventually lost their lands, and whites took it over.[7] Many black properties ended up in white hands without a sale and without a legal transfer of title.[7] Much of this land was in the village of Oscarville, Georgia. Eventually, the village was submerged under the waters of Lake Lanier. This anti-black campaign was widespread across Appalachian Georgia, with Forsyth County being the third to expel its black population after Towns and Union,whilst whites soon afterwards expelled blacks from the surrounding counties of Fannin, Gilmer and Dawson.