Oscarville The Town Under Lake Lanier That Was Erased Before the Water Came

Millions of people swim, fish and boat on Lake Lanier every summer. Very few of them know that beneath the water lies the land of Oscarville, a Georgia community that was erased long before the lake ever covered it. In 1912, a wave of racial terror drove almost the entire Black population out of Forsyth County, Georgia. Families who had farmed that land for generations were forced to flee, leaving behind their homes, churches, schools and graves. Decades later, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Buford Dam, and the waters of Lake Lanier rose over the place where Oscarville once stood. In this documentary we tell the true story of Oscarville: who lived there, what happened in 1912, how the land changed hands, and how a lake built for water and power ended up covering a history that many people had already tried to forget. This is a history documentary built from real research. Sources are listed below. Visual reconstructions are illustrative and do not show exact historical locations or real individuals. 📚 SOURCES Patrick Phillips, "Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America" (2016) New Georgia Encyclopedia: Forsyth County history U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Lake Sidney Lanier and Buford Dam history Library of Congress, Chronicling America: historical newspaper archive 💬 Does your family have roots in Forsyth County or the Lake Lanier area? We would be honored to hear your story in the comments. ▶️ Watch the first episode, the town Lake Mead drowned in 1938: [LINK DO VÍDEO 1] 🔔 Below the Waterline tells the true stories of the towns beneath America's lakes. New documentaries every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. #LakeLanier #Oscarville #BlackHistory