History is a starting point.
The Oscarville Project, Inc. is a nonprofit helping Georgia neighborhoods turn the wisdom of a self-sufficient past into a more hopeful, locally led future. We believe community building starts with listening, shared responsibility, and practical chances to lead.
The story behind our name
We carry Oscarville’s name because its story reminds us what communities can build when they have the land, knowledge, faith, and freedom to shape their own future. Its history gives our work a steady question: what would it look like for neighbors to have the tools and trust to decide what comes next?
Before 1912
In the late 1800s, formerly enslaved African Americans and their descendants built a thriving rural community in and around Oscarville, Georgia. Families farmed, practiced skilled trades like carpentry, blacksmithing, and bricklaying, gathered in Black churches, opened Black schools, and steadily built land ownership. By 1910, many families owned the land they worked.
1912
After the death of a white woman was used as a pretext, mobs and “night riders” terrorized Black families across Forsyth County. They burned churches and homes and fired into houses. Roughly 1,000–1,100 Black residents were forced to flee or were killed, driving nearly 98% of the county’s Black population out within months.
Afterward
Families lost farms, homes, and businesses they had built from nothing. In the 1950s, much of the area—including Oscarville—was flooded to create Lake Lanier, erasing most of the community’s physical traces while its memory continued through the families who carried it forward.
Today
The Oscarville Project carries the town’s name because the community Oscarville built—self-sufficient, educated, land-owning, and faith-centered—is exactly what we help underserved communities rebuild today. We honor that legacy through practical work in self-sufficiency, financial literacy, skilled trades, and education. Remembering Oscarville is not only about looking back; it is about making community empowerment tangible in the present.
Remembering Oscarville means making room for more communities to own their future.
The Oscarville model
Historic Oscarville, Georgia, was known for a spirit of enterprise, connection, and self-determination. We carry that spirit forward by investing in the people and institutions already doing the work of making a neighborhood stronger.
Our approach is direct, local, and practical: give communities room to lead, then help bring the right support, partners, and resources to the table. That includes services for disabled and elderly neighbors, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and vulnerable children—people who deserve to be met with dignity, consistency, and a real path toward stability.
We also invest in the next generation through scholarships and school-based learning in financial literacy, skilled trades, and emotional intelligence. These are everyday tools for making wise choices, recognizing possibility, and building a future with options. When young people can see themselves as capable contributors, education becomes one way to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and strengthen the whole community.
How we show up
Three commitments keep our work close to the people it is meant to serve.
01
We help local leaders access the practical support and attention that can move an idea from promise to progress. Sometimes that means connecting a family to services; sometimes it means helping neighbors build a program that can last.
02
We believe the people closest to a challenge are often closest to the answer. Our role is to amplify that knowledge, learn alongside it, and make space for residents to shape the work.
03
We work toward futures where Georgia communities can define success on their own terms—and lead the way there. Community empowerment is strongest when people can keep building after a grant, program, or partner has moved on.
A movement of many hands
Our work is made possible by residents, educators, churches, civic leaders, and donors who understand that lasting change is built in relationship. A shared garden, a classroom lesson, a scholarship, or a neighbor’s first step toward financial stability can become part of a wider network of care. We bring people together around what is already growing and help it take root.
Find your place in the workThe places we carry forward
Community is made visible in the everyday places where people learn one another’s names and keep showing up. Homes, porches, classrooms, and churches can hold the beginnings of economic confidence, belonging, and a shared plan for the future.
Your next step
Whether you want to volunteer, share local knowledge, support a student, or invest in this nonprofit’s work, there is a place for you. Start a conversation and help build a Georgia where history is honored through opportunity.
scarville Project, Inc.