Sawdust

Sawdust: A Rural Community In The Heart Of Gadsden

As a mainly rural settlement, Sawdust developed into a small tightly-knit community during a time when hate groups attacked isolated African American families. Between working on shade tobacco farms and the sugar mill, residents gathered to celebrate holidays or traveled to neighboring Greensboro and Quincy to get ice cream. The Twentieth of May Celebration, similar to Juneteenth, is an event where residents would meet at the Sawdust School grounds to have a large cookout. Sawdust residents also frequented the Union Chapel AME Church on Sundays and periodically sang with a quartet of Black soldiers from Panama City.