The haunting racist past of a Georgia lake
There’s something in the water at Lake Sidney Lanier, a popular recreation spot for locals about an hour outside of Atlanta.
Decades before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flooded the area to create Georgia’s largest lake, it was home to a predominantly Black community called Oscarville, and before that, the Cherokee Nation. The black residents of Oscarville fled after white Forsyth County residents burned churches and damaged homes to compel Black people to leave the county.
Both Native Americans and Black people were forcibly removed from Forsyth County, where the lake currently hosts millions of visitors since its construction in the 1950s. But some people believe the lake is haunted by its past, citing hundreds of people who’ve been hurt or died in lake accidents over the years.