The Roswell Historical Society Celebrates Black History Month
 This is the third of a four-part series highlighting the history of various aspects of the black community
in the City of Roswell.  Check back each week for a new story!

Historically Black Neighborhoods in Roswell
 
Immediately after the Civil War, freed African-Americans established neighborhoods in the Roswell area.
Several members of the community became landowners by the 1880s. Most notably, a black woman by the name of Parthenia Cook purchased a tract of land on Oxbo Road from the Roswell Manufacturing Company for the sum of fifty dollars in 1886.
 
Area black neighborhoods fulfilled fundamental needs from the very beginning, especially during the time of segregation.  They were safe havens where the community looked after their own, nurtured their aspirations for a brighter future, and provided places for education, entertainment, recreation, and most importantly, worship.  For generations, life was experienced in multi-generational shared households and, a lot of the time, on the streets and front porches of this tight-knit community.
 
Pleasant Hill Street, Bush Street, Grove Way, Zion Circle, and Oxbo Road are still the predominant area for black residents with longtime ties to Roswell.  Webb Street became a refuge for blacks that moved into the area in the early twentieth century after all black residents were driven out of Forsyth County during a campaign of arson and terror beginning in 1912.  Many of these families settled on Webb Street. 
 
Family residences remained virtually unchanged from the 1940s until the recent movement away from Roswell that began to occur in 2000. These neighborhoods are now in danger of being lost in the current aggressive redevelopment of these areas.