Forsyth County (/fɔːrˈsaɪθ/for-SYTHE or/ˈfɔːrsaɪθ/FOR-sythe) is acounty in theNortheast region of theU.S. state ofGeorgia.Suburban andexurban in character, Forsyth County lies within theAtlanta metropolitan area. The county's onlyincorporated city andcounty seat isCumming.[1]At the 2020 census, the population was 251,283.[2][3] Forsyth was the fastest-growing county in Georgia and the 15th fastest-growing county in the United States between 2010 and 2019.[2] Forsyth County's rapid population growth can be attributed to its proximity to high-income employment opportunities in nearbyAlpharetta and northernFulton County, its equidistant location between the big-city amenities of bustlingAtlanta and the recreation offerings of the scenicBlue Ridge Mountains, its plentiful supply of large, relatively affordable new-construction homes, andits highly ranked public school system. The influx of high-income professionals and their families has increased the county's median annual household income dramatically in recent years; at $104,687, Forsyth County was the wealthiest in Georgia and the19th-wealthiest in the United States as of 2018 estimates.[4]
In the 1980s, the county attracted national media attention as the site of large civil rights demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. Organizers hoped to dispel the county's image as asundown county.[5][6][7] During the1987 Forsyth County protests officials kept peace with police officers and National Guard protecting the event as thousands of marchers protested the segregation in the county.
From 2007 to 2009, the county received national attention because of a severe drought. Water supplies for the Atlanta area and downstream areas ofAlabama andFlorida were threatened. This followed a more severe drought in 2007 and 2008, and flooding in 2009.[8] Flooding occurred in 2013, and severe drought again in 2016. Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been in atri-state water dispute since 1990 over apportionment of water flow fromLake Lanier, which forms the eastern border of the county and is regulated by theArmy Corps of Engineers as a federal project.
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 theMississippian culture settled in this area; they built earthwork mound structures at nearbyEtowah in present-dayBartow County, and large communities along theEtowah River in neighboringCherokee County. They disappeared about 1500 AD.
Members of theIroquoian-speakingCherokee Nation migrated into the area from the North, possibly from theGreat 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.
After thediscovery 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 theCherokee and other Native Americansremoved 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 theTrail of Tears.[9]
View of northern Forsyth County fromSawnee 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 asmixed race on the census[which?], indicating a continuing history of racial mixing that dated to slavery times.
Lynching and other violence driving non-white people from the county
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. Alynch 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 anall-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.
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.[11]
By 1987, the county was "all white".[12] In 1997, African Americans numbered just 39 in a population of 75,739.[11]
During the 1950s, with the introduction of thepoultry 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 abedroom community for people working inAtlanta, 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."[13] 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.[13]
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 theBlue Ridge Mountains, and bordering 37,000-acre (150 km2)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.[14] Several county organizations work to plan growth that can sustain the high quality of life in the area.[citation needed]
The changing dynamics between white and black citizens after theCivil 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, effectivelydisenfranchising most blacks in the state. Unable to vote, they were also excluded from juries. The white legislators passed racial segregation and otherJim Crow laws. Racial tensions increased as rural workers started to move to industrializing cities. Whites rioted against blacks in the1906 Atlanta race massacre, resulting in more than 20 dead.[15]
Racial violence broke out in Forsyth County in September 1912, following allegations of sexual attacks by black men of white women.[15][16][17]
Forsyth County had a county population with a minority of ethnic African residents. The1910 census recorded 10,847 white, 658 black, and 440mulatto (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 areablack churches gathered for abarbecue 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.) Whiteshorse-whipped Smith outside the courthouse, where he was rescued by police and taken into custody for his safety.
Theylocked him in the courthouse for safety. Rumors spread on both sides; whites said that the blacks threatened to dynamite the town. White residents gathered alynch 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 p.m., the Sheriffdeputized 25 men and called the Governor for help, who ordered in 23National Guardsmen from nearbyGainesville, 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 ahired 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 heconfessed 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 anaccomplice. Ed Collins, a black neighbor, was picked up and held as awitness. They were detained in the small Cumming jail. TheAtlanta Journal reported that Sheriff Reid drove through a mob of 2,000 people to get the suspects to the jail.
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.[18] 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 aspneumonia. Knox and Daniel wereindicted for rape and murder on September 30. Trussie Daniel and Ed Collins were both charged as accomplices.
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 theBuford, Georgia station, and walked the remaining 14 miles (23 km).
The trial of Tony Howell was postponed due to the lack ofevidence. Howell had analibi, with Isaiah Pirkle as a witness. The case would never go to trial, and was eventually dismissed.
As part of aplea bargain, Trussie Daniel changed her story and agreed to turnstate'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 averdict of guilty in Knox's case. Although no confession or other evidence linked Oscar Daniel to the crime, hissister's testimony was fatal. The all-white jury pronounced him guilty that night.
On the following day, October 4, both teenagers weresentenced to death byhanging, 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.[16]
In the following months, a small group of men called "Night Riders" terrorized black citizens,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 andsharecroppers left to seek safer places. Those who abandoned property, and failed to continue paying property tax, eventually lost it, and whites took it over.[15] Many black properties ended up in white hands without a sale and without a legal transfer of title.[15] The anti-black campaign spread across Northern Georgia, with similar results of whites expelling blacks in many surrounding counties.[16]
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 the1920 census only 30 ethnic African Americans remained in the county.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Forsyth County experienced unprecedented growth partly due towhite 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 ratedNorthview 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.[19]
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.[20][21][22]
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 inCumming, and a counter-demonstration was made by a branch of theKu 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 inThe 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.[12]
White Forsyth resident Charles A. Blackburn wanted to have a brotherhood march to celebrate the first annual celebration of national holidayMartin 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 RepresentativeBilly McKinney of Atlanta andHosea Williams, who was on theAtlanta City Council, took up the march plans instead.
The following week, January 24, approximately 20,000 participantsmarched in Cumming. This occurrence produced no violence, despite the presence of more than 5,000 counter-demonstrators, summoned by theForsyth County Defense League. The county and state had mustered about 2,000 peace officers and National Guardsmen. Forsyth County paid $670,000 for policeovertime during thepolitical demonstration. (V. S. Naipaul's interview with Forsyth County Sheriff Wesley Walraven, before the second march, is referred to in his bookA 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 theNationalist 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, includingJohn Lewis,Andrew Young,Julian Bond,Coretta Scott King,Joseph Lowery,Sam Nunn,Benjamin Hooks,Gary Hart andWyche Fowler[23] 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 inForsyth County, Georgia v. The Nationalist Movement (505 U.S. 123) in theSupreme Court of the United States on June 19, 1992.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 247 square miles (640 km2), of which 224 square miles (580 km2) is land and 23 square miles (60 km2) (9.4%) is water.[24]
The eastern two-thirds of Forsyth County are located in the UpperChattahoochee River sub-basin of theACF River Basin (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin), while the northwestern third of the county is located in theEtowah River sub-basin of theACT River Basin (Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin).[25]
With only one officially incorporated city, the majority of Forsyth County citizens live in areas with zip codes assigned to cities in surrounding counties. In addition, there are several unincorporated communities throughout the county.
Forsyth County is served byForsyth County Schools. FCS serves over 51,000 students and is the largest employer in the county with over 8000 full-time employees and substitutes.[36] Out of 180 school districts, FCS is the seventh largest school system in Georgia. FCS is home to 41 schools – twenty-two elementary, eleven middle, seven high schools, and one college and career high school, as well as the Academies for Creative Education (A.C.E) that houses one school, iAchieve Virtual Academy, FCS' 6–12 online school, and two programs, Gateway Academy (the alternative program for middle and high school students) and Forsyth Academy.
An indicator that part of the county had reached the status of a mainstream suburban/exurban area and was starting to create new, positive history beyond its racist past, a mixed-use developmentHalcyon with residential, office, dining and entertainment facilities, opened in the southern part of the county near Alpharetta in summer 2019.
One of the steam engines in theJuly 4, 2002 Parade in downtown Cumming
Lake Lanier, a 37,000-acre (150 km2) lake created and maintained by theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers in association withBuford Dam, is enjoyed by many residents and non-residents alike. Fishing, boating, tubing, wake boarding, and water skiing are common activities on the lake.
Forsyth County Parks and Recreation Department maintains 25 parks and facilities in the county.[40] Most notable are Sawnee Mountain Preserve, Central Park, Fowler Park,Poole's Mill Covered Bridge and theBig Creek Greenway.[41] The Cumming Fairgrounds host many events throughout the year including arodeo, The Cumming CountryFair, and afarmers' market.[42] There is also the annual July 4 Steam Engine Parade.[43]
Forsyth County Board of Commissioners (as of 2025)
Name
Party
First elected
District
Kerry Hill
Rep
2022
1
Alfred John
Rep
2020
2
Todd Levent
Rep
2006
3
Mendy Moore
Rep
2024
4
Laura Semanson
Rep
2012
5
David McKee is the current county manager, assuming the post on December 16, 2022.[45]
The city of Cumming is located in district 1, which also extends to the west. District 2 is located in the southern tip of Forsyth County. District 3 is to the southwest of Cumming, between districts 1 and 2. District 4 comprises most of the north of the county and district 5 comprises the east and southeast of the county, including most of the county's shoreline.
The board of commissioners has also established and is assisted by a number of governmental bodies.[46]
Forsyth County had voting patterns similar to mostSolid South and Georgia counties prior to1968 in presidential elections. It only backed RepublicanHerbert Hoover before then once in1928 amidst anti-Catholic sentiment towardsAl Smith. From 1968 onward, the county has swung strongly away from the Democratic Party at the presidential level, only failing to vote Republican in presidential elections in 1968, when segregationistGeorge Wallace appealed to anti-Civil Rights Act sentiment, and in the two elections GeorgianJimmy Carter was on the ballot, in1976 and1980. In addition, unlike the inner suburban counties of the Atlanta metropolitan area, Forsyth County has continued to vote for Republicans by landslide margins. However, just like other Atlanta suburbs, the county's share of Democratic voters has nevertheless increased in recent years; in2020,Joe Biden was the first Democratic presidential nominee to win over 30% of the county's vote since Carter, and RepublicanDonald Trump's margin of victory was only about half that ofMitt Romneyeight years previously.[63]
United States presidential election results for Forsyth County, Georgia[64]
^"Women Held Up, Autos Damaged, by Georgia Drys".The Evening Sun. Baltimore. August 4, 1925. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.In addition, complaints have been received from half a dozen sources that negro chauffeurs of tourists and of Atlanta citizens have been seized and subjected to indignities. No negroes are allowed to live in the county, of which Cumming is the county seat.
^abMarshall Ingwerson, "Facing a racial reckoning. Georgia town prepares for civil rights march",The Christian Science Monitor, January 23, 1987; accessed July 25, 2016
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