By Liz Ray
In the wake of the devastating Memorial weekend floods that ravaged parts of our community, we were reminded in the worst of ways the devastating destruction floodwaters can bring. Floods can permanently change both landscape and society, and the excellent book “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America” by John M. Berry illustrates this theme on a national scale.
The river flood was the most destructive in American history. Damage was the result of unusually heavy rains and the collapse of virtually the entire levee system along the Mississippi river over a series of weeks. The flood began on April 15, 1927 when a 1,200-foot length of levee collapsed in Cairo, Illinois. Levees eventually broke in multiple states, submerging 23,000 square miles of land beneath up to 30 feet of water. It took at least two months before the floodwaters completely subsided.
But the natural disaster was only part of the story; this is also important social history, as the flood impacted race relations, politics, and society as a whole throughout the region. Authorities favored white populations during rescue and relief operations while African-Americans were forced, often at gunpoint, to work in atrocious conditions shoring up the levees.
In one particularly notorious event approximately 13,000 African Americans who had sought higher ground were left stranded on a levee for four days without food or drinking water in Greenville, Mississippi while 33 white citizens from the same levee were rescued. No African Americans were rescued because planters were afraid they would not return to work the fields if they were allowed to leave.
Meanwhile, almost 300,000 African Americans along the river were forced to live as virtual prisoners for months in camps where food, water, and medical supplies were inadequate while they were forced to clean up flooded areas. The treatment of African Americans during the flood added significantly to the historic Great Migration of African Americans to northern and mid-western cities, altering forever the demographics and social fabric of America.
This and other books on historic disasters are available at the Kyle Public Library. And the next time you hear “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin, you’ll know they’re singing about the Mississippi flood of 1927.
