WEBVTT - 110423 Way Black History Fact - Flooded Black Settlements

0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.080
<v Speaker 1>All right, it is time for the way Black History Fact.

0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.440
<v Speaker 1>In today's way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground

0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:08.399
<v Speaker 1>Beach Club from the Streets to the Beach. For the

0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:11.560
<v Speaker 1>latest in beachware, visit Underground Beach Club dot com. And

0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.520
<v Speaker 1>today we are going to be sharing from more black threads,

0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:22.239
<v Speaker 1>more spelled mor and follow me. Did you know that

0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.880
<v Speaker 1>there are many Black towns buried beneath lakes? Here are

0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:30.640
<v Speaker 1>eight Black towns hidden under lakes and from the history books. Birmingham, Kentucky,

0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.200
<v Speaker 1>Kentucky Lake. By nineteen twenty nine, approximately six hundred residents

0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.519
<v Speaker 1>called Birmingham, Kentucky home. The black community was self sufficient

0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.720
<v Speaker 1>with two schools, two hotels, four dry goods, multiple general stores,

0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.040
<v Speaker 1>two wagon and blacksmiths shops, five churches, three grocers, two

0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.839
<v Speaker 1>military shops, and a drug store. All of this is

0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.760
<v Speaker 1>now beneath the Kentucky Lake. When the lake is low,

0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.520
<v Speaker 1>the streets of Birmingham sometimes become visible. Benson, Alabama, Lake Martin.

0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.560
<v Speaker 1>Thanks to mister John Benson purchasing thousands of acres of

0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.040
<v Speaker 1>land and settling them to black families, a town was born.

0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.720
<v Speaker 1>The black community has had its own brickyard, sawmill, cotton

0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.479
<v Speaker 1>gen schools, homes, built its own railroad, and had multiple businesses.

0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.480
<v Speaker 1>The town also produced corn, cotton, sugar, and wood. It

0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.560
<v Speaker 1>would be flooded to form Lake Martin, one of the

0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.200
<v Speaker 1>largest lakes ever made. Many enjoy this and live on

0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.240
<v Speaker 1>this destination, not knowing that a secret black town lives

0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:25.480
<v Speaker 1>beneath it. Oscarville, Georgia, Lake Lanier, the black town of Oscarville, Georgia,

0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.880
<v Speaker 1>sits beneath Lake Laneer. Oscarville was full of black homes, businesses,

0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.640
<v Speaker 1>and cohesiveness. After a racial assault on them, many were

0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.119
<v Speaker 1>dead and about a thousand black people fled the town

0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.640
<v Speaker 1>in fear. After the black families were forced out of

0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.360
<v Speaker 1>their homes and chased off, Lake Lanier was built on top.

0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.880
<v Speaker 1>Lake Lanier is now a popular weekend destination known for fishing, boating,

0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:48.560
<v Speaker 1>and so much more, including an eerie reputation for being haunted. Ferguson,

0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.000
<v Speaker 1>South Carolina. Lake Marion, Ferguson, South Carolina, was a majority

0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.040
<v Speaker 1>black town. At one point, our ancestors managed to build

0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.240
<v Speaker 1>black homes, businesses, a church, lumber mill, grocery stores, and

0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.440
<v Speaker 1>a school for themselves purposely flooded to create Lake Marion,

0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.200
<v Speaker 1>the largest lake in South Carolina. It stretches nearly one

0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.960
<v Speaker 1>hundred and ten thousand acres of rolling farmlands, former marshes,

0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:14.919
<v Speaker 1>and river valley landscape. Even many fish here, but few

0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.600
<v Speaker 1>are aware of what lies beneath it. It is the

0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:24.560
<v Speaker 1>black town of Ferguson, South Carolina. Right Susannah, Alabama. Lake Martin, Susannah,

0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:29.560
<v Speaker 1>Alabama was one of the earliest settlements in Tallapoosa County, Alabama.

0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.680
<v Speaker 1>It was small and a farming community with its own bank,

0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.400
<v Speaker 1>its own gold mine, a school, post office, too, mercantile,

0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.880
<v Speaker 1>a grist mill, flour mills, sawmill, blacksmithshop, a church, and

0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.600
<v Speaker 1>multiple businesses. There are many homes and businesses here, but

0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.480
<v Speaker 1>many are unaware. It is one of the towns that

0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:51.360
<v Speaker 1>sit under Lake martin Little Egypt, North Carolina. Bellow's Lake

0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.760
<v Speaker 1>Little Egypt was a self sufficient black area of families

0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.720
<v Speaker 1>and businesses as well as homes. Ancestors here made a

0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.360
<v Speaker 1>home for themselves until the formation of Lake Loose. This

0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.800
<v Speaker 1>man made lake was built in nineteen seventy three. It

0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.720
<v Speaker 1>has eighty eight miles of shoreline covers three thousand, eight

0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.480
<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty three acres. It is a lake now

0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>that many camp live on and visit by the thousands.

0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.520
<v Speaker 1>Many are unaware it was built over a black settlement.

0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.560
<v Speaker 1>Had it not been for a few remaining living descendants,

0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:22.240
<v Speaker 1>this one would go truly unknown. And Fonta Flora, North Carolina.

0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.160
<v Speaker 1>Lake James, Fonta Flora, North Carolina, was another Black town

0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.840
<v Speaker 1>in North Carolina. While the population was a small one

0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.120
<v Speaker 1>of sharecropping and farming families, our ancestors did well here

0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.560
<v Speaker 1>on their own. Many of these people would be displaced

0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.520
<v Speaker 1>when the village was flooded to create Lake James in

0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.680
<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixteen. There are a few descendants left, but they

0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.400
<v Speaker 1>never were given a dime. They migrated to parts of

0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.720
<v Speaker 1>Asheville and other nearby towns. There is, however, a white

0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:48.680
<v Speaker 1>owned brewery in nearby Morgantown, North Carolina, that has named

0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.280
<v Speaker 1>their business after the area that many were even unaware existed.

0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.520
<v Speaker 1>And I don't have time, but be sure to check

0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.880
<v Speaker 1>out Long Island, North Carolina, Lake Norman because that is

0:03:57.920 --> 0:03:58.480
<v Speaker 1>one two