Lake Lanier…sounds like some quiet, peaceful place you’d like to spend a weekend with a sweetheart or just spend some quality time with family (though it’s rumored to be haunted). Lake Lanier is very well known, but has anyone ever heard of a place called Oscarville? I don’t know why not because these two locations are connected.
Though Oscarville has become a source of legend, what follows is the community’s tragic real-life story as recorded in historical records and other sources.
Strong Black Community
Many remember Oscarville simply as a rural area that was taken up as land to make room for Lake Lanier. But many years before that time, it was a bustling Black community.
Just before 1912, there were nearly 1,100 Black residents in Forsyth County – with 58 of those residents being landowners, mostly in Oscarville. According to the Digital Library of Georgia, 109 paid the farm tax, meaning they rented or owned farms. Other Black residents worked in Cumming as craftsmen and other laborers.
There seemed to be a feeling of community in the town, which quickly became known for its churches. Pastors such as Grant Smith and Levi Greenlee, Jr., were “spiritual leaders and outspoken advocates for Black residents,” according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Not only did they help to protect the community, but they worked to bring Black residents together. Surviving records from Greenlee’s church show organized picnics for churchgoers and collected tithes from many in the community, including some White residents in Cumming.
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