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America's Forgotten History: The 1927 Mississippi Valley Flood
Atomika
Live fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered User regular
Live fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered User regular
I remember hearing about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 a few years before it caught the zeitgeist due to being a central point of the Watchmen TV series. I grew up in the South, so unfortunately I wasn't as shocked to learn about it as some might have been; the history of the American South is just rotten apples all the way down, repeatedly plastered over by false histories and the veneers of gentility to the point where if it were a house, it would be more paint than brick.
What surprised me most this week when I heard about the Flood of 1927 and its appalling aftermath wasn't the depravity and lack of humanity; sadly that was the easy part to believe. What struck me was the scale of the devastation and how much it affected mid-century national politics, only to be swept under the rug and virtually removed from our national memory. So, if you have the stomach for more tales of America being just a horrorshow, I'm here to oblige.
The Great Mississippi Valley Flood of 1927 was the single-most destructive natural disaster in US history. Brought on by a summer of incessant torrents in the Gulf South that brought upwards of 18 inches of rain in a single day, the flooding occurred over several weeks and spread for hundreds of miles, from New Orleans on the coast all the way to Kentucky and Missouri, heavily exacerbated by failing levees all along the pathway of the Mississippi River. The damage was estimated to be more than a trillion dollars at today's rates, and set in motion political moves that eventually paved the way for the defection of Southern Blacks to the Democratic Party.
The flooding destroyed homes, businesses, and farms all across the Delta. Over 500 people died in the flooding alone, and almost a million people were made homeless. Much of the initial human cost was mitigated by swift work from the American Red Cross, but emergency relief programs--like FEMA--were not yet established by congress to deal with these types of crises, so the local and state governments were stuck with initial response efforts until Washington could scramble together a package. So, in the absence of federal oversight, the local governments began doing something unconscionable.
They created labor prisons.
Under the guise of providing "emergency housing" and empowered by the Mississippi River Commission established in 1879 (which was itself a white-supremacist operation which illegally used Black slave labor to build defenses against flooding along the Delta), these states began setting up camps for flood refugees, three-quarters of which were African-American. Over 225,000 Southern Blacks were kept corralled at these camps, and after the flood waters receded, were pressganged into manual service against their will at the threat of gunpoint and lynching. Herbert Hoover was the US Secretary of Commerce and led an executive effort to bring these camps under federal control, and while under his direction the camps were able to receive more provisions and supplies, very few of these supplies went to the Black refugees who were still imprisoned there despite having committed no crime. Despite making up 70% percent of all refugees, the Black Americans held in ad hoc bondage received almost no relief from the government, and were given nothing after the labor was completed. African Americans also did not receive their meager supplies without providing the name of their white overseer or a voucher from a white person.
These were not laborers looking for work, or even tradesmen looking to rebuild their communities. These were teachers, doctors, businessmen, all manner of folk, all forced into slavery. Many were outright murdered by overseers for their unwillingness to participate in their own dehumanization:
When news of the spiraling conditions threatened to become a national disgrace, Secretary Hoover (at that time running for president) hired Robert Moton to provide a ground-level review of the situation; Moton was "a prominent negro" in national politics at that time, serving as the chair of the Tuskegee Institute, one of the only nationally-acclaimed HBUCs. Moton's Colored Advisory Commission was direct and explicit in cataloging the atrocities found in these camps across the Delta and advocated immediate improvements to aid the flood's neediest victims, but the information was never made public. Hoover had asked Moton to keep a tight lid on his investigation. In return, Hoover implied that if he were successful in his bid for the presidency, Moton and his people would play a role in his administration unprecedented in the nation's history. Hoover also hinted that as president he intended to divide the land of bankrupt planters into small African-American-owned farms.
Motivated by Hoover's promises, Moton saw to it that the Colored Advisory Commission never revealed the full extent of the abuses in the Delta, and Moton championed Hoover's candidacy to the African-American population. However, once elected President in 1928, Hoover ignored Robert Moton and the promises he had made to his black constituency. In the following election of 1932, Moton withdrew his support for Hoover and switched to the Democratic Party. Black Americans throughout the South shunned the Republican Party henceforth, and many joined the ongoing Northern Migration to cities in the upper Midwest such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit.
All of this is now publicly available information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Delta_Levee_Camps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Valley_Division#Mississippi_River_Commission
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Owen_Flemming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Russa_Moton
And now you know.
What surprised me most this week when I heard about the Flood of 1927 and its appalling aftermath wasn't the depravity and lack of humanity; sadly that was the easy part to believe. What struck me was the scale of the devastation and how much it affected mid-century national politics, only to be swept under the rug and virtually removed from our national memory. So, if you have the stomach for more tales of America being just a horrorshow, I'm here to oblige.
The Great Mississippi Valley Flood of 1927 was the single-most destructive natural disaster in US history. Brought on by a summer of incessant torrents in the Gulf South that brought upwards of 18 inches of rain in a single day, the flooding occurred over several weeks and spread for hundreds of miles, from New Orleans on the coast all the way to Kentucky and Missouri, heavily exacerbated by failing levees all along the pathway of the Mississippi River. The damage was estimated to be more than a trillion dollars at today's rates, and set in motion political moves that eventually paved the way for the defection of Southern Blacks to the Democratic Party.
The flooding destroyed homes, businesses, and farms all across the Delta. Over 500 people died in the flooding alone, and almost a million people were made homeless. Much of the initial human cost was mitigated by swift work from the American Red Cross, but emergency relief programs--like FEMA--were not yet established by congress to deal with these types of crises, so the local and state governments were stuck with initial response efforts until Washington could scramble together a package. So, in the absence of federal oversight, the local governments began doing something unconscionable.
They created labor prisons.
Under the guise of providing "emergency housing" and empowered by the Mississippi River Commission established in 1879 (which was itself a white-supremacist operation which illegally used Black slave labor to build defenses against flooding along the Delta), these states began setting up camps for flood refugees, three-quarters of which were African-American. Over 225,000 Southern Blacks were kept corralled at these camps, and after the flood waters receded, were pressganged into manual service against their will at the threat of gunpoint and lynching. Herbert Hoover was the US Secretary of Commerce and led an executive effort to bring these camps under federal control, and while under his direction the camps were able to receive more provisions and supplies, very few of these supplies went to the Black refugees who were still imprisoned there despite having committed no crime. Despite making up 70% percent of all refugees, the Black Americans held in ad hoc bondage received almost no relief from the government, and were given nothing after the labor was completed. African Americans also did not receive their meager supplies without providing the name of their white overseer or a voucher from a white person.
These were not laborers looking for work, or even tradesmen looking to rebuild their communities. These were teachers, doctors, businessmen, all manner of folk, all forced into slavery. Many were outright murdered by overseers for their unwillingness to participate in their own dehumanization:
Owen Flemming, about whom little is known, was among the forced laborers. According to researcher Nancy Snell Griffith in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, various articles describe Flemming as "a prominent black man." The Courier describes Flemming as a "well-to-do race man of this city." The Arkansas Gazette reports that, at the Barton refugee camp, the officials described him as “a bad negro, continually shirking work.” Flemming was coerced to work near Mellwood, Arkansas, an unincorporated community some 35 miles (56 km) from Helena.
According to the Courier, Flemming was already working, forcibly, on the levee when he was ordered by a plantation overseer, Roy Waters, to retrieve the mules of the plantation owner, in an area that had flooded. Flemming refused, killed Waters, and was then captured but not arrested: the Helena sheriff, J. D. Mays, was called by the plantation owner Woods, but supposedly said, "I'm busy. Just go ahead and lynch him." The Courier responded:
Along with other phrases, this will go down in history as one of the most notable ever delivered, for it conveyed into the hands of a white mob of 500 people, the living form of Owen Flemming, well-to-do race man of this city, and made of him one more sacrifice upon the bloody altar of the reign of this country's uncrowned sovereign—'King Lynch 'Em'.
A very different account came from the Gazette, which said that Roy Waters, the overseer, sent someone to fetch Flemming, who was in a boxcar, to come to the work site, but Flemming refused. Waters then went himself to Flemming, who shot him with a shotgun, and then shot him twice more with Waters's own pistol. (Alternately, Flemming wrestled with Waters, took Waters's pistol from him, and shot him, in self-defense.[3]) Flemming then fled and hid in a tent, and was then surrounded by a posse (of some 500 people[4]) and shot. According to the newspaper from Helena, his "wife and baby were summoned to the scene before the posse fired into the Negro's body."
When news of the spiraling conditions threatened to become a national disgrace, Secretary Hoover (at that time running for president) hired Robert Moton to provide a ground-level review of the situation; Moton was "a prominent negro" in national politics at that time, serving as the chair of the Tuskegee Institute, one of the only nationally-acclaimed HBUCs. Moton's Colored Advisory Commission was direct and explicit in cataloging the atrocities found in these camps across the Delta and advocated immediate improvements to aid the flood's neediest victims, but the information was never made public. Hoover had asked Moton to keep a tight lid on his investigation. In return, Hoover implied that if he were successful in his bid for the presidency, Moton and his people would play a role in his administration unprecedented in the nation's history. Hoover also hinted that as president he intended to divide the land of bankrupt planters into small African-American-owned farms.
Motivated by Hoover's promises, Moton saw to it that the Colored Advisory Commission never revealed the full extent of the abuses in the Delta, and Moton championed Hoover's candidacy to the African-American population. However, once elected President in 1928, Hoover ignored Robert Moton and the promises he had made to his black constituency. In the following election of 1932, Moton withdrew his support for Hoover and switched to the Democratic Party. Black Americans throughout the South shunned the Republican Party henceforth, and many joined the ongoing Northern Migration to cities in the upper Midwest such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit.
All of this is now publicly available information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Delta_Levee_Camps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Valley_Division#Mississippi_River_Commission
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Owen_Flemming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Russa_Moton
And now you know.
+18
Posts
I feel awful for Moton, making a hard choice because of the possible benefits, and then lolnope. At least we can hate Hoover with a clear conscience.
The way we bury history in this country is just nuts.
Hey now, Don’t forget also France forcing them to pay off the losses of the slave owners back in France!
You know
The slave owners who enslaved them.
Paying them back for… emancipating themselves from the french’s tyranny.
If memory serves that set the… “justification” for Wilson taking control of the finances, if I have my timeline of events right
Yeah, it was the avalanche that caused the avalanche that was Haitian fiscal nogoodness.
And I said avalanche twice deliberately.
Welcome to the history of every country.
Infrastructure Neglect -> Inadequate crisis response -> Slavery (this was like five steps) -> lynching -> governmental whitewashing -> making otherwise sympathetic folk complicit in the whitewashing