#oscarville

[thechanelmuse]

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Cumming, Forsyth County, GA

Black Americans have had 15 million acres of land stolen through terror, lynchings and genocide down to 1 million. 

This is just one of many that deal with the ethnic cleansing of Black Americans by white mobs. You may have heard of Oprah doing an episode in 1987 about that county. (Episode: Oprah Visits a County Where No Black Person Had Lived for 75 Years.) Sundown towns, of course. No longer completely completely white, it is still largely white. Mrs. Elon Osby and every last descendant needs to gather their docs and get every single acre back. Everybody living all comfortably there and shit gotta go. It is what it is. We’ve been needed an Anti-Black Hate Crime bill. But the Democrats, who Black Americans have loyally voted for with no tangibles in return, obviously feel it’s of no concern. The likes of Buffalo, anyone?

Did I mention this town is close by Oscarville, the Black American town under that man-made lake, Lake Lanier? 1912.

Add this onto the reparations claim and charge genocide.

SN: An almost silent shakedown almost went down in the small Black town of Mason, Tennessee not too long by the state’s comptroller. Thank goodness people caught wind outside of that town and seize of control (before a shift) was unsuccessful.

[onlytiktoks]

@a-captions-blog

[queenvlion]

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🚨📣📢⚠️➡️ AS WE REFLECT ON THE 9/11 ANNIVERSARY LETS ALSO #NeverForget #Buffalo #Uvalde #Orlando #Charleston #Rosewood #Tulsa #Elaine #SenecaVillage

[mimi-0007]

The Hidden History of Oscarville: The Secret Reason Forsyth County Was Cleansed of Black Residents Years Before Lake Lanier Was Built.

In the early 1900s, Forsyth County, Georgia, was home to a thriving Black community. With nearly 1,100 Black residents, including 58 landowners, the community had established itself as a vibrant and prosperous part of the county.

However, in 1912, two incidents occurred that would change the course of history for Forsyth County and its Black residents forever.

The first incident occurred in late August of that year when the body of 18-year-old Sleety Mae Crow, a White resident, was found in the woods near Oscarville, a predominantly Black community. Several Black residents were named as suspects for the alleged rape and murder, including Ernest Knox and Robert Edwards. Black homes and businesses were burned to the ground, and many Black residents were beaten and forced to flee their homes.

[blackbackedjackal]

I think about the fact that my great-great grandmother married a white man so she wasn't forcibly relocated by Andrew Fucking Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830, aka The Trail of Tears.

I think about how the KKK rode through my Grandpa's town after they linched 2 black men earlier that day, took everything of value left behind by the residents, and buried the town of Oscarville under what is currently Lake Lanier.

I remember being horrified as a kid post-9/11 in 2002 my dad was pulled off of our plane for looking like a "terrorist". He's not even of Muslim descent. He just looked "suspicious".

[ausetkmt]

But one lesser-known fact is the lake sits on top of the Black-town, Oscarville.

Oscarville was burnt down in 1912 and more than a thousand residents were forced to flee following the allegations of rape.

Rob Edwards was arrested in September 1912 along with Earnest Knox and Oscar Daniel, both teenagers, all accused of raping and murdering a young white woman named Mae Crow.

Edwards was dragged out of jail, beaten with a crowbar, and then lynched from a telephone pole.

Daniel and Knox went to trial and were found guilty on the same day. The boys were sentenced to death by hanging.

After the trials and executions, white men, known as Night Riders, forced Black families out of their homes by bringing their land, churches, and schools.

Once Black families fled, Lake Lanier was built on top of what was burned down.

2.Kowaliga (Benson), Alabama

Turns out, Alabama’s Lake Martin is built on the previous majority-Black town of Kowaliga. It is home to the first Black-owned railroad started by William E. Benson and the Black school Kowaligia Academic & Industrial Institute.

William is the son of John Benson, who was enslaved and then freed. He went on a journey to rescue his sister in Florida, who was separated during slavery, and they made their way back to Alabama. John purchased thousands of acres of land sold to Black families, where he formed a community.

William helped his dad expand the family business.

After William’s death and the closing of the school,  Kowaligia was destroyed to make room for Lake Martin.

3. Seneca Village In New York City

Seneca Village began in 1825 and, at its peak, spanned from 82nd Street to 89th Street along what is now the western edge of Central Park in New York City.

By the 1840s, half of the African Americans who lived there owned their own property, a rate five times higher than the city average, as reported in Timeline.

In 1857, Seneca Village was torn down for the construction of Central Park. The only thing that remains is a commemorative plaque, dedicated in 2001 to the lost village.

4. Susannah, Alabama

Susannah, or Sousana, was also flooded by Lake Martin.

According to Alabama Living, more than 900 bodies were moved from cemeteries before the land was submerged.

The town once included a gold mine, a school, two mercantile, a grist mill, a flour mill, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and a church.

5. Vanport, Oregon

In the 1940s, Vanport was the center of a booming shipyard industry because of World War II and quickly became the second-largest city in the state.

But as World War II saw white males drafted to serve overseas, a labor shortage pulled in a great migration of Blacks from the south.

With soldiers being drafted overseas to fight in the war, Oregon saw a labor shortage.  This resulted in a great migration of Black Americans from the south.

These new workers needed places to live, as the Albina neighborhood was the only place where Black people could live legally. It became too small for the growing population of Black Americans, and Vanport was built as a temporary housing solution.

At its peak, 40,000 residents, or 40 percent, were African-American.

But then, in 1948 massive flooding erupted in the neighborhood, and city officials didn’t warn residents of the dangerously high water levels, Many didn’t evacuate in time.

The town was wiped out within a day. 18,500 families were displaced, more than a third Black American.

Today, that area is known as Delta Park.

[cyarskj1899]

There is nothing that's NOT racial about lake Lanier. The Black town of Oscarville lies at the bottom. It was destroyed and flooded by white supremacists committing yet ANOTHER massacre. It's not race bait, But People who swim There might become fish bait.. add it to the list 🖕🏾you if think it’s nothing racial about it!

[claimyourkin]

What really happened to Oscarville, Georgia USA?

[thechanelmuse]

Lake Lanier

Every time it trends, I don't even bother to look.

Why people keep inviting themselves into the spiritual grounds of Oscarville, out of temptation and stupidity, is beyond me. Clockwork. The ancestors are always gonna collect and make an example out of them. And that's just one of many man-made lakes that engulfs Black towns.

[thundergrace]

The only haunted thing I believe in is Lake Lanier.

[kosmik-signals]

“In addition to the laws, white supremacists targeted Black communities, burning down their towns, churches, and businesses. Government officials also took part in destroying these towns. One example: Oscarville, Georgia.

In 1912, more than 1,000 Black people lived in Oscarville, a bustling farming community and the only Black town in Forsyth County. Threatened by Black progress, five Black men were suspects of an alleged rape and killing of a white woman. One of the Black men, Robert Edwards, was arrested, and was killed by a white mob that “dragged his body from the jailhouse and hung him from a telephone pole in the town.” After this, white supremacists amped up their violent attacks, forcing residents to leave or murdering them for refusing not to.”

(via Historic Black Towns Are in Danger - Capital B)

[90363462]

The Haunting Of Lake Lanier And The Black City Buried Underneath

An American horror story filled with terror, death, genocide, and black ghosts.

Source: Joanna Cepuchowicz / EyeEm / Getty

There’s a city buried under Lake Lanier(Georgia’s biggest lake), and submerged with it is a secret: An American horror story filled with terror, death, genocide, and ghosts.

If you spend any time in or around Atlanta, you’ve heard tales of Lake Lanier. There are the eerie accounts of fishermen seeing ghostly kayaks floating on the water, or women with no hands roaming the Jerry D. Jackson bridge. Every so often, someone loses their life at the lake and leaves behind stories of good swimmers being snatched under the water, unexplainable boating accidents, or vehicles crashing into the lake without cause.

Many folks who live close by will tell you straight up, “Don’t go to Lake Lanier.” And its death toll certainly validates their point. There have been well over 500 deaths since the lake’s inception and more than 200 since 1994. Whether the lake is cursed or not is entirely up to you. But, one thing’s for certain, its horrifying past adds a much-needed perspective to understanding its haunting present.

In the Beginning

Lake Lanier is a massive 57.92 square-mile reservoir that was established in 1956 with the completion of the Buford Dam. To this day, it helps control flooding along the Chattahoochee River, as well as provide water and power to residents near Atlanta. However, to get a clearer picture of how and why this behemoth of a lake exists, we’ll need to go back 45 years before its creation — to 1912, in the small African-American town of Oscarvllle.

Settled along the Chattahoochee waters,Oscarville was home to roughly 1,100 black folks, most of whom were freed after fighting in the American Civil War. Many worked as hands in the cotton fields or performed odd jobs for white residents in the surrounding neighborhoods. They managed to make a decent living for themselves, creating a healthy community with churches, schools, and small businesses.

Still, on edge from the Atlanta race riots of 1906, many locals feared more violence could erupt at any time. Black-American sociologist and author, W.E.B Du Bois, penned an emotional essay, called A Litany of Atlanta which was printed in local newspapers and captured the shared pain, fear, and terror black people felt in the south during that time.

“Forgive us, good Lord; we know not what we say!”

“Bewildered we are, and passion-tossed, mad with the madness of a mobbed and mocked and murdered people; straining at the arm posts of Thy Throne, we raise our shackled hands and charge Thee, God, by the bones of our stolen fathers, by the tears of our dead mothers, by the very blood of Thy crucified Christ: What meaneth this? Tell us the Plan; give us the Sign!”

Read all of W.E.B Du Bois’ A Litany of Atlanta

It was clear that in the early 1900s, blacks in Atlanta lived in constant fear of violence. For the small town of Oscarville, that fear would turn into brutal reality.

Forsyth County Racial Conflict

On September 5th, 1912, a 22-year-old white woman named Ellen Grice claimed two black men tried to rape her, but were unsuccessful because they were scared away by her mother. The Forsyth County Sheriff arrested five black men for the alleged assault. News of the attack and arrests caused quite a stir in the surrounding black communities. A vocal black preacher, named Grant Smith, appealed to the Sheriff to release the men. He claimed there wasn’t much evidence to hold all five men accountable for assault, and also suggested that one of the men could have already been in a consensual relationship with Grice. Many whites were outraged by Smith’s allegations and an angry mob beat and horse-whipped the preacher on the steps of the courthouse, almost taking his life.

A week later, on September 12th, 1912, an 18-year-old white woman named Mae Crow was raped and beaten in the Big Creek community of Forsyth County Georgia. The next morning Crow’s body was found half-naked, bloody, and hidden under a pile of leaves. Her skull had been bludgeoned with a stone, but she was alive and barely breathing. Searchers would allegedly find a small pocket mirror at the scene of the crime that was said to belong to Ernest Knox, a 16-year-old black boy from Cumming, Georgia. Knox was arrested at his home, then subjected to a mock lynching, which led to his coerced confession for the attack on Crow.

As word spread of the attack on Crow and the confession by Knox, whites became increasingly angry. It wasn’t long before a lynch mob formed in front of the jailhouse where Knox was being detained. Officers had to sneak Knox out the back door late that evening, just to keep him from being hanged. He was taken to a jail in Atlanta for his protection, but would soon stand trial for the attack. The next day, four additional men (Oscar Daniel, Rob Edwards, Jane Daniel, and Ed Collin) were arrested and taken into custody, suspected to be accomplices to the 16-year-old. All of them black. Soon, another angry mob of more than 2,000 whites had stormed the county jail, gaining access to the cells. They shot and killed Rob Edwards, dragged his body from the jailhouse, and hung him from a telephone pole in the town square.

Ernest Knox and Oscar Daniel were both found guilty of the rape of Mae Crow. They were sentenced to death by hanging, even though it was illegal by state law at the time. 8,000 whites congregated in the town square of Cumming to watch two teenage boys publicly hanged for an alleged crime they never truly had the opportunity to fight. It was after this hanging that the terror would begin to spread, as a white group of terrorists known as the “Night Riders” would make it their mission to run every black person they came across out of town.

Oscarville would end up being one of their main targets, and over the short period of just a few years, 98% of its black residents would end up either leaving their homes or being murdered for refusal to move. Black property deeds found their way into the hands of white neighbors without any bill of sale or transfer. This effectively allowed many whites to steal the land once owned by their black counterparts when they were driven out by the “Night Riders.” More than 1,100 blacks would lose their livelihood, and in little time, the once functioning African-American town of Oscarville would be a ghost town.

Source: Joanna Cepuchowicz / EyeEm / Getty

So, Is Lake Lanier Haunted?

Maybe.

Maybe it’s haunted by the culpability of genocide, terror, and a hatred for blacks that cannot be ignored. It’s interesting to note that The Forsyth County Newspaper was created in 1908, but its records before 1917 are completely missing? Why? It’s our duty as Americans, to be honest with ourselves about the past. Atlanta and its surrounding areas have a deep-rooted history of inflicting terror onto the black community. Unfortunately, this story, like so many, has been relatively hidden, stolen away, and drowned beneath a lake filled with pain and suffering.

We may not have facts, but we do have folklore. Stories like these are passed down through the generations, as a means to keep us safe. Some “culture rules” black folks might not understand, but they sure do follow, like: “Don’t go to Lake Lanier.”

Therapist and Psychology Grad Student, Sheena McLaughlin grew up in Decatur, Ga in the ’80s. She recalls many stories about Lake Lanier growing up and the folklore of a black city under the lake:

Q: Growing up in Decatur, did you ever hear any stories about Lake Lanier?

A: For sure, amongst the various tales that we would hear, one of the prominent ones was lake Lanier. From a younger age, I recall there would be jokes and hints that lake Lanier was a dangerous place and that you might visit, but don’t go in the water. As I got older I got a little more detail behind the stories and it became a lot more of a folktale, they would speak about the town underneath, how it was haunted. The black folks buried underneath the water would snatch you under. We would hear stories of graves and bodies that were never removed when they built a man-made body of water over black spirits.

Q: Do you believe that lake Lanier is haunted?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Have you ever been to Lake Lanier yourself?

A: Oh, yes many times. Growing up we would do boat trips every so often, but as I got older and learned more about the lake I couldn’t bring myself back to that place. I haven’t been in 15 years.

Like Sheena, many folks in the south are starting to learn the truth about Lake Lanier. No longer folklore, but not quite fact, history begins to bleed into the present as we get closer and closer to the truths of the past. Sadly, stories like these from the 1900s are hidden all over the south. Black communities were destroyed before having a real chance to thrive. Communities like Oscarville are just the tip of the iceberg in understanding the terror southern black folks faced in the periods after the American Civil War.

[toni-onone]

Haunted History

👀

[freewombatconnoisseur]

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revolttv

Imagine if Black Atlantis wasn’t the only underwater society established by the ancestors.

Imagine if Oscarville, the city once flooded to make Georgia’s man-made Lake Lanier, survived.

Imagine if the city’s inhabitants used their knowledge of technology, biology, resources, and reservoirs to create a thriving secret society underneath Lake Lanier for themselves and their heirs.

Imagine if they gathered regularly to discuss the defense tactics to keep their society hidden from those on land.

Enter these waters at your own risk.

#ImagineIfREVOLT

[blackbackedjackal]

do people just not know what it's like to be dehumanized

the op is fine but the other people. i feel like they don't know what it's like to be treated like a literal dangerous animal

Exactly. Like come back packing the heat after you learn the story of Oscarville and Lake Lanier and talk to me about "why black dog and religion ooooohhh????"