BLACKFACTS
Black Facts highlights documented examples of Black economic innovation, institution-building, and leadership throughout U.S. history. ABEP shares this information to affirm what has always existed: a legacy of excellence, ownership, and self-determination. These facts ground our work in truth, strengthen economic awareness, and remind us that building power today is a continuation of what Black people have been doing for generations.
Segments in History of Black Wealth Building
Lake Lanier & Oscarville, Georgia – Displacement, Erasure, and Infrastructure
Lake Lanier is a man-made reservoir created in the 1950s through the construction of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River. While often described online as “Atlanta land,” the lake is actually located in north Georgia and submerged multiple communities—some of which were connected to a racially violent history that forced Black residents off their land decades earlier.
Key Facts:
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Lake Lanier was formed after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed Buford Dam, and the reservoir began filling on February 1, 1956.
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The project was designed for flood control, hydroelectric power, and regional water supply for metro Atlanta and surrounding areas.
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To create the lake, the federal government purchased and cleared thousands of acres, impacting homes, churches, farmland, and cemeteries across the basin.
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One submerged area included land tied to Oscarville, a community in Forsyth County associated with the 1912 expulsion of Black residents, when racial violence drove Black families out of the county.
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Descendants of displaced residents and historians continue to document this history as an example of how racial terror, land loss, and later infrastructure projects intersected.
Sources:
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Georgia Encyclopedia – Lake Lanier & Buford Dam
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Wikipedia – Lake Lanier; Buford Dam
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Atlanta History Center – Forsyth 1912 Project
Lynching Museums & Memorials: Remembering Racial Terror and Its Legacy
Lynching museums and memorials in the United States are dedicated spaces that document, confront, and honor the victims of racial terror lynchings—acts of violence used to enforce white supremacy and intimidate Black communities. These institutions preserve truth, support public education, and connect the violent history of lynching to ongoing struggles for justice and equality.
Several institutions across the U.S. are dedicated to documenting racial terror lynching and honoring its victims. The following sites are starting points for learning, with additional memorials and projects located nationwide.
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The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery, AL) — Opened in 2018 by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), this outdoor memorial commemorates more than 4,400 Black people killed in documented racial terror lynchings between the post-Reconstruction era and mid-20th century. Its more than 800 suspended corten steel monuments represent every U.S. county with recorded lynchings.
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America’s Black Holocaust Museum (Milwaukee, WI) — Founded in 1988 by lynching survivor James Cameron, this institution addresses the broader legacy of the Black Holocaust in America, including lynching, slavery, and systemic violence, promoting awareness, reconciliation, and healing.
Why Lynching Museums Matter:
These sites ensure that the history of racial terror is seen and named, not erased. They give dignity to the lives lost, provide context for structural racism, and help communities confront this past as part of collective healing and education.
Sources:
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Equal Justice Initiative – National Memorial for Peace and Justice Legacy Museum & Memorial Sites (EJI) – About the Memorial
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America’s Black Holocaust Museum – Official Website Smithsonian Magazine – America’s Black Holocaust Museum
The Negro Motorist Green Book
The Negro Motorist Green Book was first published in 1936 by Victor Hugo Green, a Black postal worker from Harlem, New York, to help Black travelers safely navigate segregation-era America. The guide listed Black-owned hotels, restaurants, gas stations, boarding houses, and businesses where Black people could find service, safety, and dignity during Jim Crow. Updated annually through 1966, the Green Book became an essential survival tool for families traveling across the country. While it is no longer published in its original form, digitized editions and archives are widely available today through libraries, museums, and cultural institutions, and its legacy continues to influence modern Black travel guides and directories.
Sources:
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture – The Green Book
National Archives – The Negro Motorist Green Book
Library of Congress – Victor Hugo Green and The Green Book
New York Public Library – Green Book Digital Collection
Architects of Black Progress
Highlighting some of the people and institutions whose vision, courage, and leadership laid the groundwork for Black economic power.
1888: Capital Savings Bank (Washington, DC)
Is cited as the first bank organized and operated by African Americans.