IDKMYDE: Drowning Towns

On this episode of #IDKMYDE, did you know that some man-made lakes hold the secrets of forgotten black towns? From Lake Lanier in Georgia to Lake Martin in Alabama, and even the massive Lake Norman in Charlotte, North Carolina – these spots have dark tales beneath the surface. Join us as we uncover the shocking stories of communities forced out, homes burned, and black history erased. So, before your next lakeside chill, listen in and learn about what's hidden beneath the waters.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode of I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I want to ask you a question, do you have
a man made lake in your city or town? Cause
if you do, there might be some black bodies under there.
And I had absolutely no clue.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I didn't know. Maybe you didn't. I didn't no, I
didn't know. Maybe I didn't know. I didn't know. Maybe
you didn't.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Did you know that black American town are under man
made lakes?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Some of them Lake Lanier in Georgia. It's beautiful. Folks
go there the boat fish jet ski.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's named after a poet, Sydney Lanier, and Lake Lanier
was formed in nineteen fifty six by the Chattahoochee River.
Now fifty years prior to that, it was a black
town called Oscarville, where about eleven hundred black people live.
It will burn to the ground in nineteen twelve and
all the residents were forced out. See Rob Edwards. Ernest
Knox and Oscar Daniel were teenagers, and they were arrested

(01:01):
for the rape and murder of a young white woman
in nineteen twelve. Now Rob Edwards They drug him about
of jail, beat him with a crowbar, and lynched him
from a telephone pole. The other two gentlemen, Daniel and Knox,
they were sent to trial and found guilty on the
same day the boys were sentenced to death by hanging.
Now afterwards white men named themselves the night Riders, but

(01:22):
they weren't cool with a talking car. Some of you
might not get that reference, so I'm gonna move on.
But those night Riders of nineteen twelve, oh, they forced
black folks up out of town. They burned their homes,
burned their land, burned their churches, burned their schools, and
once the black families fled, Lake Lanier was built on
top of what was burned down. Fifty years later, Lake
Martin in Alabama, A black town is under there. Kowaliga,

(01:45):
home to the first black owned railroad started by William E. Benson,
and the Black School Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute, all
under Lake Martin in Alabama. And it's not just lakes,
oh No, they put parks on top of black towns too.
Back in season one, we talked about the western edge
of Central Park in New York City. A black town

(02:06):
is under there, Seneca Village even where I live, Charlotte,
North Carolina, home to the Panthers, the Hornets.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, yeah, I know, chill. The city is suffering and.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
The state's largest man made lake, Lake Norman. It covers
more than thirty two acres five hundred and twenty miles
of shoreline, and it's got tons of history underneath.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
It's cotton mills under there.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
An entire Revolutionary War battlefield from seventeen eighty one is
under there, remnants of old plantations and homes and highways,
an abandoned airplane crash. So today's episode of I didn't know,
maybe you didn't either.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
You've got homework.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
If there's a man made lake in your town, do
a little research and see what was up under that
out before they put ward on copper Us because it's
black Town's under some of these man made lakes.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. No,