Forsyth County, NC

Settlement & growth (pre-1960)

Before European contact, the area now known as Forsyth County was part of the homeland of the Saura and Keyauwee peoples, Siouan-speaking tribes who lived in small villages along the Yadkin River. European exploration was limited until the mid-18th century, when the region became a frontier of the British colony of North Carolina. The first permanent European settlers were primarily Scots-Irish and English farmers who moved south from Pennsylvania and Virginia along the Great Wagon Road, arriving in the 1740s and 1750s. They established scattered homesteads in what are now the rural areas of Lewisville and Clemmons, drawn by cheap land and the promise of self-sufficiency.

The defining settlement wave came in 1753, when a group of Moravian missionaries and colonists from Germany and Bohemia purchased a 100,000-acre tract called the Wachovia Tract. They founded the town of Salem (now part of Winston-Salem) in 1766, a planned religious community built around a central square and a communal economy. The Moravians were skilled craftsmen and farmers, and their influence remains visible in the restored buildings of Old Salem and the county’s strong tradition of education and craftsmanship. Unlike many Southern settlements, the Moravians initially discouraged slavery, though the practice did grow in the surrounding countryside by the early 1800s.

The 19th century brought slow growth, with the county formally created in 1849 from parts of Stokes County. The arrival of the railroad in the 1870s transformed the economy. In 1880, the town of Winston (founded in 1849 as the county seat) merged with Salem to form Winston-Salem, which became a powerhouse of tobacco manufacturing. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, founded in 1875, drew thousands of workers from across the rural South, including a large wave of Black migrants from the Deep South during the Great Migration (roughly 1910–1940). These workers settled in neighborhoods like East Winston and Happy Hill, creating a vibrant Black middle class centered on the city’s tobacco factories and the historically Black Winston-Salem State University (founded 1892).

Simultaneously, the textile industry boomed, with mills in Kernersville and Rural Hall attracting poor White families from the Appalachian foothills. By 1960, Forsyth County’s population was roughly 70% White and 30% Black, with a small but established Jewish community in Winston-Salem and virtually no Hispanic or Asian presence. The economy was dominated by tobacco, textiles, and the growing Wake Forest University (relocated to Winston-Salem in 1956), which began to attract a more educated, professional class.

Modern era (post-1965)

The 1965 Hart-Cellar Act opened the door to new immigration, but Forsyth County’s foreign-born population remained low for decades, reaching only 2.5% by 1990. The real demographic shift began in the 1990s and accelerated after 2000, driven by two forces: Hispanic immigration for construction, agriculture, and service jobs, and domestic migration of Black and White families from the Rust Belt and coastal cities seeking lower costs and a milder climate.

Hispanic residents, primarily from Mexico and Central America, began settling in Winston-Salem’s Southside and Waughtown neighborhoods, as well as in the growing suburban corridor along Highway 52 through Walkertown and Tobaccoville. By 2020, the Hispanic share had risen to 14.6%, making it the county’s fastest-growing ethnic group. Many work in construction, landscaping, and the food processing plants that have replaced tobacco as a major employer. A smaller but notable East/Southeast Asian community (1.6%) has formed, concentrated in the Polo Ridge and Meadowbrook areas of Winston-Salem, with many employed in healthcare and research at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The Indian subcontinent community (0.8%) is similarly small but growing, with professionals drawn to the medical and tech sectors.

Domestic migration has been equally transformative. Since the 1990s, Black families have moved from the Northeast and Midwest into established neighborhoods like East Winston and newer subdivisions in Kernersville, while White families have suburbanized heavily into Clemmons, Lewisville, and Pfafftown. The county’s college-educated share has risen to 36.9%, driven by the expansion of Wake Forest University, the Wake Forest School of Medicine, and the innovation district known as the Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem. This has attracted a younger, more diverse professional class, though the county remains less affluent than the Research Triangle to the east.