Religion is debatable, and therefore, so are curses, but if there were ever a good example needed to argue the validity of curses, then look no farther than the depths of Lake Lanier, Georgia. No one goes partying at a cemetery unless they are on some FBI watchlist or unless they are partying it up at Lake Lanier.
Why yes, there is an entire cemetery underneath Lake Lanier, not to mention land that once belonged to Black people.
The town was filled with prosperous Black farmers, who were a bit more prosperous than their white counterparts. But see the way that hate is set up, it was only a matter of time before white supremacy drowned out the sound of Black people laughing all the way to the bank. There are conflicting accounts about whether the town was all or partially Black, but the sources all seem to agree that, say, 1,100 residents were expelled from Forsyth County under the threat of death of violence. Forsyth County remained entirely white until the 1980s. Patrick Phillips, a white writer who grew up in Forsyth County, reported that he was taught that the county needed to stay white in order to prevent Black men from raping white women.
The expulsion of the residents was sparked by two incidents involving white women and the accusations of rape by Black men.
Haunted History: Oscarville, GA. The Original Site of Lake Lanier pic.twitter.com/zLW9O2YRph
— 🟥SANGO'S✊🏿WRATH🟩 (@DetroitBabalawo) April 1, 2024
Now, there is no argument that Black men have and can rape white women, but let us not pretend that even when a white woman screams in the wrong or different direction, that her shrill still doesn’t have the capability to turn on a dime and direct itself right around the neck of an innocent Black man, let alone several at once.
In September of 1912, Ellen Grice claimed to have woken up with a mysterious Black man in her bed. Apparently, the assailant ran off when Grice’s mother came home just in time to save her from the company of the violator (looks directly into the camera). Four days later, a white 18-year-old woman, Mae Crow, was found halfway conscious in a field after being bludgeoned and presumed to have been sexually assaulted and left for dead. Even though she was alive upon rescue, she would succumb to her injuries a few weeks later. Someone obviously killed Mae Crow, and the immediate go-to was to accost the Black residents. Police found their suspects fairly quickly—back then, they didn’t need DNA to confirm their suspicions of Black blood being rife with criminality.
A month and a half later, the trial and execution were already finished, and 24-year-old Rob Edwards, 17-year-old Oscar Daniel and 16-year-old Ernest Knox were publically lynched, even though the public part was not very legal at the time.
These incidents led to the rapid expulsion of the Black residents, including land and business owners.
The majority of Black landowners were forced to sell their land for pennies on the dollar or abandon it altogether. Many of the expulsions took place at night, and according to George Rucker, the great-grandson of Bryd Oliver, a town resident, many people died on the way to Gainesville, GA, for refuge. Rucker’s family fled towards the Chattahoochee River, where they were met by an angry white mob, faced with only two options, “they either had to swim or drown,” the irony. Lake Lanier is where an estimated 700 people have lost their lives since 1956, but the fact remains that 1,100 people lost their lives whether hung in the gallows, whether their spirits were crushed from losing all they worked for.
Black people were not the only ones displaced from Forsyth County. It was originally inhabited by Indigenous Americans who were forced from their property during the Trail of Tears.
This is the second person who as drowned in Lake Lanier this year. https://t.co/dWke9WoIm4
— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) June 7, 2024
Averaging slightly over 10 deaths a year, and with the summer just gearing up, it has already claimed two lives in 2024. The latest Lake Lanier death was on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
The drowning victim was a 76-year-old man. On May 29, a 73-year-old man drowned when his seat unbolted and fell through the boat into the water. Even Usher’s stepson, Kile Glover, died on Lake Lanier after being struck by a personal watercraft in 2012. The deaths are not all from drowning; many are from boating accidents with intoxicated drivers, but there have also been weird incidents like unexplained boat fires, unexplained disappearances (one whose victim is the subject of multiple reported ghost sightings) and even an electrocution.
Earthquake confirmed near Lake Lanier in Georiga https://t.co/BEyA56YhkR
— 11Alive News (@11AliveNews) June 7, 2024
About 10 million people will visit the lake this year, which was originally slated for drinking water and hydroelectricity, not recreation, but things have already started to shake up with two earthquakes felt in the area yesterday, June 6. While Lake Lanier is not the deadliest body of water in the country, it is in the top ten, and those odds do not seem in your favor. Some attribute Lake Lanier’s high death toll to the town not being demolished and trees and structures not being removed before the area was flooded, but no matter how you slice it, whether the town was majority Black or majority white, there are still cemeteries under that lake, there are still broken legacies there, there is a still a town with the stains of Black and Indigenous blood at the bottom of the basin.
The land was still cultivated by hate.
Lake Lanier, named after a Confederate soldier, sits over a town that pushed all of its Black residents so far under that some drowned trying to escape.
