The Great Mississippi (River) Flood of 1927
Black People Were Treated Worse Than After Hurricane Katrina
In Northern Minnesota, flowing from Lake Itasca is what might be called a creek that, at one point, one can step over a few rocks and walk to the other side.
I stepped over those rocks as a youth; it's hard to imagine that peaceful stream would become the mighty Mississippi River as it wound its way South to New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta.
After leaving Minnesota, the Mississippi River is the border that divides multiple states: Iowa and Illinois, Missouri and Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee, and Louisiana and Mississippi. Communities large and small grew up on both sides of its banks. At Lake Itasca, the river is barely twenty feet wide; another point is more than eleven miles wide. Several major rivers flow into the Mississippi River, becoming a crucial commercial shipping waterway. The Mississippi River runs for over 2,300 miles and is the second-longest river in North America.
I grew up in Minneapolis, MN, where the Mississippi River separates Minneapolis from its twin city, St. Paul. My home was about a mile from Minnehaha Creek, and we fished from its banks. On a good day, we might walk the 3–4 miles to Minnehaha Falls, the only waterfall leading into the Mississippi River. On a great day, we might walk another two miles to the river itself.
It wasn't unusual for the creek to flood each spring as the snow melted after winter. The banks of the river were very high, and while it rose, it didn't often cause major flood damage. The creek banks were much lower and often flooded into neighborhoods along its path, though they never reached mine. Homes along my street, Oakland Avenue, were built higher and higher off the street the closer they were to the road. Near the creek, the streets flooded, but the homes were secure.
In 1927, it wasn't just melting snow that caused our nation's most destructive river flood. It began with lots of rain during the summer of 1926. The tributaries flowing into the Mississippi River were at record levels, including the Cumberland River in Tennessee, which reached its second-highest level ever on Christmas Day. Dams and levees were breaking, and some flooding did occur in 1926. Once the snow did melt in the spring in the Northern States, flooding increased in the lower states, covering over 27,000 square miles.
Most of the damage occurred in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Over 500 people died, and more than 630,000 were directly affected. Calvin Coolidge was President, and Herbert Hoover was the Secretary of Commerce. Hoover is credited for implementing a plan to prevent future floods by constructing a series of levees and floodways. The Mississippi River was literally diverted to make things safer in the Mississippi Delta in the coming years.
Coolidge and Hoover chose to flood African American communities along the river for the greater good. Some white Americans were displaced to a lesser degree. Refugee camps were set up to provide aid, with white people receiving it first. While under government supervision, white people received supplies first, and Black ones might get leftovers. Black people could only get supplies by providing the name of their white employer or a voucher from an authorized white person.
Violence and sexual assault were common in the camps. A Black man was shot and killed for refusing to unload a relief boat for white citizens at gunpoint. Another was lynched after killing an overseer who tried to force him to rescue a plantation owner's mules. Black people were forced to remain in the camps and provide labor to repair levees and dams, sometimes without pay. Black women were raped by guards. Commerce Secretary Hoover promised the Black community there would be changes, though they never occurred.
Hoover was credited for performing admirably during the flood and rode that "success" to being elected President in 1928. Over 300,000 Black people were permanently displaced, joining the great migration to northern cities. Media reports about conditions in the camps were suppressed at Hoover's direction. Before the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, before the integration of the armed forces in 1948, the first shift of Black voters from Republicans to Democrats began after broken promises on the Mississippi River.
African Americans comprised 75% of the population of the Mississippi River basin and were 95% of the agricultural labor force. I grew up not far from the banks of the Mississippi River, yet was never taught about the Great Mississippi Flood and the aftermath though I heard plenty about the Dust Bowl and Great Depression that came not long after. I would have missed it altogether if I had not been looking up the Coolidge Presidency. The victors have always told history, which is also true here. Had everyone known the government's response after this flood, the response after Hurricane Katrina might have been different—food for thought.
One of the few real truths I learned in History class was that there is more than one side to a story, but the one you are reading was written by the victors. DD