Watoga is located on the east bank of the Greenbrier River, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east-northeast of Hillsboro.

In 1921, nine African Americans from Bluefield, West Virginia became the first share holders of the Watoga Land Association.

[5] The idea for this enterprise came from Dr. Tyler Edward Hill, the then director of the Bureau for Negro Welfare and Statistics, a state agency that was set up to assist African Americans economically, such as providing help in purchasing farms.

In the early twentieth century West Virginia saw a huge rise in its African American population.

The housing that was supplied for black miners was often inferior to that of their white counterparts, and there is documented evidence that management put any maintenance or repair request from black workers at the bottom of their lists, leaving their houses in poor condition.

This discrimination compounded the problems already faced by residents of company towns, such as lack of access to indoor plumbing, inadequate sewer systems, and little to no electricity.

When they did, African Americans tended to buy land outside of established urban areas and create "unincorporated segregated developments on the edges of towns or cities.

"[12] Nationally, there is also a movement for African Americans to create their own spaces and communities, the most famous being the back to Africa movement led by Marcus Garvey, however there were many other political thinkers who wanted to try creating safe spaces for African Americans to exist, separate from the racial violence and hatred that they experienced in their communities.