Editing Forsyth County, Georgia (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Chromesun mississippian priest digital painting.jpg|thumb|175px|A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint mace and severed head. Artist Herb Roe, based on a ''repoussé'' copper plate.]]

===Before European contact===
For thousands of years, varying indigenous cultures lived in this area along the Etowah River. Starting near the end of the first millennium, [[Mound Builders]] of the [[Mississippian culture]] settled in this area; they built earthwork mound structures at nearby [[Etowah Indian Mounds|Etowah]] in present-day [[Bartow County, Georgia|Bartow County]], and large communities along the [[Etowah River]] in neighboring [[Cherokee County, Georgia|Cherokee County]]. They disappeared about 1500 AD.

Members of the [[Iroquoian language|Iroquoian-speaking]] [[Cherokee Nation]] migrated into the area from the North, possibly from the [[Great Lakes]] area. They settled in the territory that would become Forsyth County and throughout upper Georgia and Alabama, also having settlements or towns in present-day Tennessee and western North Carolina.

===19th century===
After the [[Georgia Gold Rush|discovery of gold]] by European Americans in the surrounding area in 1829, numerous settlers moved into the area. They increased the pressure on the state and federal government to have the [[Cherokee]] and other Native Americans [[Indian Removal|removed]] to west of the Mississippi River, in order to extinguish their land claims and make land available for purchase. The Cherokee were forced to relocate during what was called the [[Cherokee removal|Trail of Tears]].<ref name="Pioneer History">{{Cite book |last=Shadburn |first=Don |url=http://ngeorgia.com/business/shadburn.html |title=Pioneer History of Forsyth County Georgia |publisher=WH Wolfe Associates |year=1981 |location=Roswell, Georgia |access-date=December 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100101020756/http://ngeorgia.com/business/shadburn.html |archive-date=January 1, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Forsyth County was named after [[John Forsyth (politician)|John Forsyth]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gannett, Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |publisher=Govt. Print. Off. |year=1905 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n127 128]}}</ref> Governor of Georgia from 1827 to 1829 and [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Martin Van Buren]]. For many years, much of this hill country was farmed by [[Yeoman#United States|yeomen]] farmers, who owned few or no slaves.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

===20th century===
[[File:View from Indian Seats, Sawnee Mountain, March 2017.jpg|thumb|View of northern Forsyth County from [[Sawnee Mountain]]'s Indian Seats]]
The county population of about 10,000 was 90 percent White in the early 20th century, and residents still depended on agriculture. Its more than 1,000 blacks included 440 persons classified as [[mixed race]] on the census{{which|date=June 2018}}, indicating a continuing history of racial mixing that dated to slavery times.

====Lynching and other violence driving non-white people from the county====
After two different incidents in September 1912, in which black men were alleged to have assaulted white women, tensions rose in the county.
{{main|1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County, Georgia}}

In the first case, a woman claimed she awoke to find two black men in her bedroom. A black preacher was later assaulted by whites for making disparaging comments about the victim. The sheriff gained support from the governor, who sent more than 20 National Guard troops to keep peace. The suspects were never tried, for lack of evidence. In the second case, a white woman was attacked and raped, allegedly by black men; she later died of her injuries. A [[Lynching in the United States|lynch mob]] stormed the Cumming county jail and dragged out one of the suspects, Rob Edwards. They shot him and hung his body in the town square. At trial in early October, two black youths under the age of 18 were quickly convicted by an [[all-white jury]]; they were executed by hanging later that month.

Afterward, whites harassed and intimidated blacks in Forsyth and neighboring counties. Within weeks, they forced most of the blacks to leave the region in fear of their lives, losing land and personal property that was never recovered.

{{Blockquote|Almost every single one of Forsyth's 1,098 African Americans — prosperous and poor, literate and unlettered — was driven out of the county. It took only a few weeks. Marauding residents wielded guns, sticks of dynamite, bottles of kerosene. Then they stole everything, from farmland to tombstones.

Forsyth County remained white right through the 20th century. A black man or woman couldn't so much as drive through without being run out.... During the 1950s and '60s, there were no "colored" water fountains in the courthouse or "whites only" diners in the county seat, Cumming; there was no black population to segregate.<ref name="Blood">{{Cite news |last=Senior |first=Jennifer |date=September 14, 2016 |title=Review: 'Blood at the Root,' a Tale of Racial Cleansing Close to Home |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/books/review-blood-at-the-root-a-tale-of-racial-cleansing-close-to-home.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=June 6, 2018 |archive-date=February 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211133446/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/books/review-blood-at-the-root-a-tale-of-racial-cleansing-close-to-home.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

By 1987, the county was "all white".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=January 18, 1987 |title=White Protestors Disrupt 'Walk for Brotherhood' in Georgia Town |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/18/us/white-protestors-disrupt-walk-for-brotherhood-in-georgia-town.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=June 6, 2018 |archive-date=April 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220406154304/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/18/us/white-protestors-disrupt-walk-for-brotherhood-in-georgia-town.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1997, African Americans numbered just 39 in a population of 75,739.<ref name="Blood" />

====Later 20th century====
During the 1950s, with the introduction of the [[Poultry farming|poultry industry]], the county had steady economic growth but remained largely rural and all white in population. [[Georgia State Route 400]] opened in 1971 and was eventually extended through the county and northward; it stimulated population growth as residential housing was developed in the county and it became a [[bedroom community]] for people working in [[Atlanta]], which had expanding work opportunities. The opening of Georgia State Route 400 also spurred industrial growth in the South West portion of the county along the McFarland Parkway corridor starting in the early 1970s.

By 1980, the county population was 27,500, growing to 40,000 in 1987. While some blacks worked in the county in new industries, none lived there. The county gained more than 30 new industries from 1980 and unemployment was low. Such growth resulted in the median income, formerly low, "rising faster than in any other county in Georgia."<ref name="ingwerson">Marshall Ingwerson, "Facing a racial reckoning. Georgia town prepares for civil rights march", ''The Christian Science Monitor,'' January 23, 1987; accessed July 25, 2016</ref> A small civil rights march by African Americans in the county seat of Cumming in January 1987 was attacked by people throwing rocks, dirt and bottles. A week later another, much larger march took place, with civil rights activists going from Atlanta to Cumming protected by police and the National Guard. Thousands of protesters joined a counter-demonstration. Local people said conditions had been improving for minorities, but whites appeared to be reacting to the march out of fear.<ref name="ingwerson" />

===21st century===
Forsyth County continued to be developed for subdivisions, industry and related businesses. By 2008 it had been ranked for several years among the top ten fastest-growing counties of the United States. Many new subdivisions have been constructed, several around top-quality golf courses. The county's proximity to Atlanta and the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]], and bordering {{convert|37000|acre|km2|adj=on}} [[Lake Sidney Lanier]], has attracted many new residents. More than 60% of the current population either lived elsewhere in 1987 or had not yet been born.

The growth has put a strain on water supplies, especially during area droughts in the 21st century. Suburban growth has greatly increased water consumption in the area to maintain lawns and gardens, and supply new households. The region had severe droughts in 2007-2008 that threatened downriver water supplies in Alabama and Florida, in addition to Atlanta, in 2013 and in 2016.<!--  --> Bans on outdoor use of water were put in place, and the area has encouraged conversion of toilets and appliances to those that use less water. A severe drought in southern Forsyth County was declared by the end of June 2016.<ref name="lake">[http://www.forsythnews.com/section/1/article/30442/ Kayla Robins, "Lake Lanier levels concerning for drought"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802062702/http://www.forsythnews.com/section/1/article/30442/ |date=August 2, 2016 }}, ''Forsyth County News,'' June 29, 2016; accessed July 25, 2016</ref> Several county organizations work to plan growth that can sustain the high quality of life in the area.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

=== Racial history ===
{{See also|1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County, Georgia}}
The changing dynamics between white and black citizens after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] resulted in tensions across the southern United States as whites tried to maintain dominance. They used violence to intimidate black voters and regain control of state legislatures, ending Reconstruction. At the turn of the 20th century, white Democrats dominated the Georgia legislature and passed laws increasing barriers to voter registration and voting, effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchising most blacks]] in the state. Unable to vote, they were also excluded from juries. The white legislators passed racial segregation and other [[Jim Crow]] laws. Racial tensions increased as rural workers started to move to industrializing cities. Whites rioted against blacks in the [[1906 Atlanta race massacre]], resulting in more than 20 dead.<ref name="Bitter Waters" />

Racial violence broke out in Forsyth County in September 1912, following allegations of sexual attacks by black men of white women.<ref name="Bitter Waters">{{Cite book |last=Jaspin |first=Elliot |url=https://archive.org/details/buriedinbitterwa00jasp |title=Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America |date=March 5, 2007 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-03636-3 |location=New York, New York |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Historic Forsyth">{{Cite book |last=Bramblett |first=Annette |url=http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9780738523866 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130117023904/http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9780738523866 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |title=Forsyth County: History Stories, The Making of America Series |date=October 1, 2002 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-2386-6 |location=Mt. Pleasant, South Caronlina |pages=143–147}}</ref><ref name="Parrish">{{Cite web |last=Parrish |first=Donna |title=Forsyth County Ga History and Records |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gaforsyt/ |access-date=December 5, 2009 |website=Rootsweb}}</ref>

Forsyth County had a county population with a minority of ethnic African residents. The [[1910 United States census|1910 census]] recorded 10,847 white, 658 black, and 440 [[mulatto]] (mixed-race) residents, making the number of black citizens slightly more than 10% (as classified under the binary system of the South that classified all people of any African descent as Negro or black). They tended to work as sharecroppers, with some women working as domestic servants, and struggled with poverty.

In early September 1912 a white woman said she was the victim of an attempted rape by two black men, but they left before she was hurt. On September 7, 1912, police arrested five black men in connection with the assault, including Tony Howell and Isaiah Pirkle. That same afternoon members of numerous area [[black church]]es gathered for a [[barbecue]] just outside the county seat of Cumming. Preacher Grant Smith was heard to question the alleged victim's account, saying that perhaps she had been caught and had lied about what was actually a consensual relationship with a black man. (The mixed-race population in the county showed that whites and blacks had relationships; most were between white men and black or mixed-race women, which the whites tried to treat as a secret.) Whites [[Flagellation|horse-whipped]] Smith outside the courthouse, where he was rescued by police and taken into custody for his safety.

They [[Protective custody|locked him in the courthouse for safety]]. Rumors spread on both sides; whites said that the blacks threatened to dynamite the town. White residents gathered a [[Lynching|lynch mob]] of 500 men (when Cumming had only 300 residents in total), with men coming to join from surrounding areas. They talked of lynching the black citizens held at the jail. By 1:30&nbsp;p.m., the Sheriff [[Deputy sheriff|deputized]] 25 men and called the Governor for help, who ordered in 23 [[National Guard (United States)|National Guardsmen]] from nearby [[Gainesville, Georgia]].

The next day, September 8, Mae Crow, a 19-year-old white woman, was allegedly attacked in a nearby community while walking to her aunt's house. She was allegedly pulled into the woods and assaulted. According to later testimony, she was allegedly raped by Ernest Knox, a 16-year-old black boy who worked as a [[Farm worker|hired hand]] at a neighbor's farm. Knox was said to have told friends about the incident: Oscar Daniel (17), his sister Trussie (Jane) Daniel (21), and her live-in boyfriend Rob Edwards (24), who also went to the scene. They left the girl, thinking she had died and being afraid to get involved. Crow was found the next day by a search party; whites said later that she had regained consciousness briefly and named Knox as her attacker, but no newspaper reported this. A small hand mirror found at the scene was recognized as belonging to Knox; police used it to connect him to the crime and arrested him that morning. Police said he [[confession (law)|confessed fully]]. Because of the trouble two days before in Cumming, they took Knox to the jail in Gainesville. Hearing threats of a lynch mob there, officials moved him to a jail in Atlanta.

The following day, Knox's friends were arrested in connection with the Mae Crow assault. Oscar Daniel and Rob Edwards were suspects in rape, and Trussie Daniel was held for not reporting the crime and as an [[accomplice]]. Ed Collins, a black neighbor, was picked up and held as a [[witness]]. They were detained in the small Cumming jail. The ''[[Atlanta Journal]]'' reported that Sheriff Reid drove through a mob of 2,000 people to get the suspects to the jail.

[[File:Mob batters down jail door at Cumming, Atlanta Georgian Newspaper Sep 10 1912.jpg|thumb|right|The Rob Edwards lynching made front-page news in all the Atlanta papers. Many newspapers first reported that Ed Collins was lynched because the body was so damaged that it could not be identified.]]
Within a few hours on September 9, the white mob increased to 4,000 people, who stormed the jail. Sheriff Reid was not there, having strategically left deputy Mitchell Lummus alone to protect the prisoners. Deputy Lummus hid most of them, but Rob Edwards was shot and killed by the mob while still in his cell. They dragged him out, mutilated him, and dragged his body behind a wagon, before hanging him from a telephone pole at the northwest corner of the Square.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 13, 1912 |title=Negro Lynched by Mob in Cumming |newspaper=Marietta Journal and Courier |page=2}}</ref> The coroner's inquest, held on September 18, 1912, found the cause of death to be a gunshot by an unknown assailant.

Crow died in the hospital two weeks later on September 23, 1912. The cause of death was listed as [[pneumonia]]. Knox and Daniel were [[indictment|indicted]] for rape and murder on September 30. Trussie Daniel and Ed Collins were both charged as accomplices.

[[File:Defendants in 1912 Forsyth County Trials.jpg|thumb|Photo taken October 2, 1912. Although not identified by the newspaper they are believed to be: (Left to Right) Trussie (Jane) Daniel, Oscar Daniel, Tony Howell (defendant in Ellen Grice rape), Ed Collins (witness), Isaiah Pirkle (witness for Howell), and Ernest Knox]] All five trials, (including Tony Howell for the Ellen Grice case) were set for October 3 in Cumming, the county seat. The prisoners were escorted by four companies of the state militia by train to the [[Buford, Georgia]] station, and walked the remaining {{convert|14|mi|km}}.

The trial of Tony Howell was postponed due to the lack of [[Evidence (law)|evidence]]. Howell had an [[alibi]], with Isaiah Pirkle as a witness. The case would never go to trial, and was eventually dismissed.

As part of a [[plea bargain]], Trussie Daniel changed her story and agreed to turn [[state's witness]]. Charges against her and Collins were dropped, in exchange for her testimony against Knox, her brother Oscar, and Edwards. The all-white jury deliberated 16 minutes and returned a [[Conviction|verdict of guilty]] in Knox's case. Although no confession or other evidence linked Oscar Daniel to the crime, his [[Eyewitness identification|sister's testimony]] was fatal. The all-white jury pronounced him guilty that night.

On the following day, October 4, both teenagers were [[Capital punishment|sentenced to death]] by [[hanging]], scheduled for October 25. State law prohibited public hangings. The scheduled execution was to be viewed only by the victim's family, a minister, and law officers. Gallows were built off the square in Cumming. A fence erected around the gallows was burned down the night before the execution. A crowd estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 gathered to watch the hanging of the two youths, at a time when the total county population was around 12,000.<ref name="Historic Forsyth" />

In the following months, a small group of men called "Night Riders" terrorized black citizens, [[Intimidation|threatening 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. Some 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 [[sharecropping|sharecroppers]] left to seek safer places. Those who abandoned property, and failed to continue paying property tax, eventually lost it, and whites took it over.<ref name="Bitter Waters" /> Many black properties ended up in white hands without a sale and without a legal transfer of title.<ref name="Bitter Waters" /> The anti-black campaign spread across Northern Georgia, with similar results of whites expelling blacks in many surrounding counties.<ref name="Historic Forsyth" />

In the 1910 census, more than 1,000 black and mixed-race people were recorded in Forsyth County, with slightly more than 10,000 whites. By the [[1920 United States census|1920 census]] only 30 ethnic African Americans remained in the county.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Forsyth County experienced unprecedented growth partly due to [[white flight]] from north Fulton County as a result of the rapid increase of Asians settling in that area which borders the southern part of Forsyth County. For example, the highly rated [[Northview High School (Georgia)|Northview High School]] based in north Fulton County, went from 60% white and 30% Asian in 2007 to 50% Asian and 30% white in 2017. Many white parents claimed north Fulton County public schools with a relatively high percentage of Asian students became overwhelmingly academically competitive which negatively impacted their children's mental health and social life.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Enjeti |first=Anjali |date=August 25, 2016 |title=Ghosts of White People Past: Witnessing White Flight from an Asian Ethnoburb |url=https://psmag.com/.amp/news/ghosts-of-white-people-past-witnessing-white-flight-from-an-asian-ethnoburb |work=[[Pacific Standard]] |access-date=September 26, 2024}}</ref>

Since the 1990s, Forsyth County has become more racially and culturally diverse. There are an increasing number of Asian, Hispanic, and African-American families relocating to Forsyth County mainly due to the abundance of high performing and resource-rich public schools in the county.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=Jeffry |date=July 16, 2010 |title=Minorities Move Into Forsyth |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/local/minorities-move-into-forsyth/m2CP0CihpxErijEWKGf1ZJ/ |access-date=June 6, 2020 |work=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yoganathan |first=Anila |date=June 20, 2019 |title=Forsyth County Has Fastest-Growing Asian Population in U.S. |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/local/forsyth-county-has-fastest-growing-asian-population/ZPRrCJl8FcmtkevRUXQryI |access-date=June 6, 2020 |work=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]] |archive-date=September 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240912065802/https://www.ajc.com/news/local/forsyth-county-has-fastest-growing-asian-population/ZPRrCJl8FcmtkevRUXQryI/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Popp |first=Alexander |date=October 26, 2019 |title=How Diverse Are Forsyth County Schools? |url=https://www.forsythnews.com/local/education/how-diverse-are-forsyth-county-schools/ |access-date=June 6, 2020 |work=Forsyth County News |archive-date=September 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240912071846/https://www.forsythnews.com/local/education/how-diverse-are-forsyth-county-schools/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Marches and demonstrations of the 1980s====
{{Main|1987 Forsyth County protests}}
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2020}}

More ethnically diverse citizens had begun in recent years to migrate to the county, particularly in the affluent southern portion. However, racial tension continued to be a part of the county's image into the early 1990s. On January 17, 1987, [[civil rights]] activists marched in [[Cumming, Georgia|Cumming]], and a counter-demonstration was made by a branch of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], most of whom were not residents of the county, as well as others who objected to the march. According to a story published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on January 18, four marchers were slightly injured by stones and bottles thrown at them. Eight people from the counter-demonstration, all white, were arrested. The charges included trespassing and carrying concealed weapons.<ref name=":0" />

White Forsyth resident Charles A. Blackburn wanted to have a brotherhood march to celebrate the first annual celebration of national holiday [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day]]. He wanted to dispel the racist image of Forsyth County, where he owned and operated a private school, the Blackburn Learning Center. Blackburn cancelled his plans after he received threatening phone calls. Other whites in nearby counties, as well as State Representative [[Billy McKinney (politician)|Billy McKinney]] of Atlanta and [[Hosea Williams]], who was on the [[Atlanta City Council]], took up the march plans instead.

The following week, January 24, approximately 20,000 participants [[marching|marched]] in Cumming. This occurrence produced no violence, despite the presence of more than 5,000 counter-demonstrators, summoned by the [[Forsyth County Defense League]]. The county and state had mustered about 2,000 peace officers and National Guardsmen. Forsyth County paid $670,000 for police [[overtime]] during the [[political demonstration]]. ([[V. S. Naipaul]]'s interview with Forsyth County Sheriff Wesley Walraven, before the second march, is referred to in his book ''[[A Turn in the South]].'')

The demonstration is thought to have been the largest civil rights demonstration in the U.S. since about 1970. The unexpected turnout of some 5,000 counter-demonstrators, 66 of whom were arrested for "parading without a permit," turned out to be the largest resistance opposed to civil rights since the 1960s. The counter-demonstration was called by the Forsyth County Defense League and the [[Nationalist Movement]], newly organized in Cumming by local plumber Mark Watts.

Marchers came for the second march from all over the country, forming a caravan from Atlanta; National Guard troops were assigned for protection on freeway overpasses along the route. When marchers, including [[John Lewis]], [[Andrew Young]], [[Julian Bond]], [[Coretta Scott King]], [[Joseph Lowery]], [[Sam Nunn]], [[Benjamin Hooks]], [[Gary Hart]] and [[Wyche Fowler]]<ref>Phillips, Patrick. ''Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America.'' W.W. Norton & Company New York, 2016. p. 225.</ref> arrived, they discovered that most of the Cumming residents had left town for the day. Some had boarded up their windows because they feared violence. Marchers wound slowly through streets lined by hundreds of armed National Guardsmen, many of them black. Forsyth County subsequently charged large fees for parade permits until the practice was overturned in ''[[Forsyth County, Georgia v. The Nationalist Movement]]'' (505 U.S. 123) in the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] on June 19, 1992.