The Refugees
![Census of the school population (children 6 to 18 years of age) of Georgia, 1918 [1918]](/images/181/full/!800,800/0/default.jpg)
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The 1918 Georgia schools census highlights the extent of the racial cleansing. The 1908 census counted 316 "colored" children, but the 1918 census could only find two.
Courtesy of University of Georgia. Map and Government Information Library, Georgia Government Publications.
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This brief story describes the increasing flow of Black residents from Forsyth County ahead of Daniel and Knox's trials. The Dahlonega Nugget covered the entire saga, though its editors were seemingly pro-lynching and pro-capital punishment.
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
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The Dahlonega Nugget also ran coverage of the racial cleansing in Forsyth County. This story explains that "every Negro" who lived in Forsyth County is now gone, and "not a single one is left to tell the tale."
Courtesy of Georgia Newspaper Project, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
Forsyth County’s Black residents fled in all directions from the racial terror. The majority moved east across the Chattahoochee River to Hall County and Gainesville, a bustling city compared to the fields of Forsyth County. Several former Forsythians found success there, opening businesses and securing railroad jobs to climb their way into the middle class. Others went west into Cherokee County, towards the county seat of Canton.
Escaping Forsyth County didn’t guarantee an escape from the terror of the night riders, however. Newspapers from 1912 describe how attacks against refugees continued in Hall County until the local sheriff successfully fought off the local night riders. In neighboring Dawson County, gangs succeeded in forcing Black residents (including Forsyth refugees) from their borders.