Global Information1987 Forsyth County protests information
| 1987 Forsyth County protests | |||
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| Part of the post–civil rights era in African-American history | |||
| Date | January 17, 1987 (first march) January 24, 1987 (second march) | ||
| Location | Forsyth County, Georgia, United States 34°12′23″N 84°8′23″W / 34.20639°N 84.13972°W | ||
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| Resulted in | A bi-racial human relations committee was established by the county | ||
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The 1987 Forsyth County protests were a series of civil rights demonstrations held in Forsyth County, Georgia, in the United States. The protests consisted of two marches, held one week apart from each other on January 17 and January 24, 1987. The marches and accompanying counterdemonstrations by white supremacists drew national attention to the county. The second march was attended by many prominent civil rights activists and politicians, including both of Georgia's U.S. senators, and attracted about 20,000 marchers, making it one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in United States history.
At the time, Forsyth County was a rural county about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Atlanta that had a history of violence and discrimination against African Americans, being a sundown county that was almost entirely populated by white Americans. In light of this, in 1987, a local resident announced plans for a march to occur on the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to draw attention to the county's history and continuing problems with race. Hosea Williams, a civil rights activist and politician in Atlanta, joined the project and helped lead a group of about 75 marchers through the county on January 17. The march was disrupted by a group of about 400 white supremacists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, who injured several marchers, including Williams. The march was eventually called off and several Klansmen were arrested.
The violence attracted national and international attention to the county. Williams and other activists organized another march for January 24 that was attended by about 20,000 people, including several famous politicians and civil rights activists, such as both of Georgia's senators and Representative John Lewis. Between 1,000 and 1,500 white supremacist counter-protesters were present, though with roughly 3,000 law enforcement officials present (including over 1,000 members of the Georgia National Guard), there were few incidents of violence. About 64 people were arrested during the march, including white supremacists Don Black and David Duke. About two weeks after the second march, Oprah Winfrey traveled to Cumming to broadcast an episode of her talk show, interviewing several white residents. Some activists protested the show due to the producers' decisions to not have any African Americans on the show, and Williams and several others were arrested for unlawful assembly.
Following the marches, the county created a bi-racial human relations committee intended to address some of the issues raised by activists. Additionally, the Southern Poverty Law Center sued several white supremacist organizations and individuals for damages from the protests and won nearly $1 million in a federal case that resulted in the dissolution of one of the groups involved. Over the next several decades, the non-white population of Forsyth County increased, and by 2022, black people represented about 4 percent of the population, while about a quarter of the county was made up of Asian or Hispanic Americans.