Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America

Though the trial had concluded, the violence against black citizens in Forsyth County did not cease. Byrd Oliver's daughter kept records of her conversations with her father about the mob violence he and his wife, Delia, experienced. Oliver “must have realized, in October of 1912, that his days in Forsyth County were numbered” (108) as he watched “the black community grow smaller and smaller” (108). When Oliver and Delia eventually left Forsyth, it was through a “landscape teeming with white mobs” (110); by the time they made it to Gainesville, half of his family—Delia and the three oldest daughters—were separated from him, and never seen again.

As the flight of black residents became more extreme, “the county’s white landowners began to feel deeply concerned about the future” (111), especially as white employers of black people began to also receive threats. A large group of white residents attempted to “address the ‘lawlessness’ that was driving black residents out of the county” (113). After writing to the governor, they received a response explaining that “‘the Governor has no authority to take any steps to give protection’” (116).

In 1915, prominent black author and political figure W.E.B. DuBois sent a journalist to Forsyth to investigate, which resulted in “one of the only written accounts of these events…from outside the southern point of view” (117).