Mississippi Flood of 1927

[mzteris]

Does any of this sound familiar????

Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

. . . By August 1927 the flood subsided. During the disaster 700,000 people were displaced, including 330,000 African-Americans who were moved to 154 relief camps. Over 13,000 refugees near Greenville, Mississippi were gathered from area farms and evacuated to the crest of an unbroken levee, and stranded there for days without food or clean water, while boats arrived to evacuate white women and children. Many African-Americans were detained and forced to labor at gunpoint during flood relief efforts.

Several reports on the poor situation in the refugee camps, including one by the Colored Advisory Commission by Robert Russa Moton, were kept out of the media at the request of Herbert Hoover, with the promise of further reforms for blacks after the presidential election. When he failed to keep the promise, Moton and other influential African-Americans helped to shift the allegiance of black Americans from the Republican party to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats. . . "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

here's another link with more detail:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0501_river4.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. yes and I smell a repeat of that history

in ways that will be amazing to teh Cons...

[dhinojosa]

2. Nominating for good info...

thanks

[annabanana]

3. nom. and thanks..

plus que change, plus que reste le meme chose, eh?

[mzteris]

7. something like

Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it?

[annabanana]

17. the more things change, the more they stay the same....n/t

[dhinojosa]

4. kicker

kick

[Tomee450]

5. And yet there are

people who would deny that race played a major part in how the Katrina evacuees were treated. I remember reading about the Mississippi flood and the mistreatment of the blacks. People wish to deny it but there is a certain segment of this society that does not value the lives of African Americans. I am reminded of the incident in which the army demanded that blacks unload dangerous munitions. When they refused because there had been a previous explosion, the black soldiers were court martialed. White soldiers were not asked to do such a dangerous job. The lives of the blacks were not valued. This country has a history of showing how very little it cares about the black population. The tragedy of New Orleans angers many blacks but is no surprise to many.

[mzteris]

8. Those who scream the loudest

that this is "not about race" - are usually the ones who are most racist.


Class and race in this country are inextriably intertwined.

[phusion]

6. Has anyone heard Public Enemy's new song?

http://www.shutemdown.com/dcl/index.php?audio/pe-hellno.mp3

Near the end Chuck D. calls for everyone to march on Washington on the October 16th anniversary of the Million Man March.

I'd love to see another MMM.

[mzteris]

9. 'cept wasn't that MMM

part of some "religious" thing?

granted, marching on washington millions strong would be a wonderful thing.

[Hissyspit]

10. Documented in Randy Newman's song...

"Louisiana 1927"

'...they're trying to wash us away.'

[OzarkDem]

18. Been listening to that

for the last couple of weeks.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0907-26.htm

[AspenRose]

11. Gee, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Nominated.

[mzteris]

12. the similiarities

are almost eerie, aren't they?

Truly sad that we haven't come very far.

Did you see the post on Tyson's "whites only" bathroom/breakroom? jeesh......

thanks for the nom, btw..

[AspenRose]

14. I heard about it on AAR

I hope this dark chapter gives way to an emerging democratic majority (that can beat the diebold machines).

I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. I fear for my mixed race son.

[mzteris]

15. I hear you.

I have an adopted AA son.

I used to be one of "those" - raised very southern, doncha know - but fate had a hand in slapping me upside the head to get my attention.

Racism is one of the reasons we're taking into consideration of taking an overseas assignment.

I wonder if anyone correlates the rise in "fundamentalism" and the re-increase in rampant racism?

[IndyOp]

16. Religious fundamentalism and Rampant Racism

Southern Poverty Law Center includes "Christian Identity" in its list of hate groups (the others they list include Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederate, Neo-Nazi). Here is a map of "Christian Identity" Hate Groups: <http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp?T=18&m=3>

From the SPLC website:

The Christian Identity religion asserts that whites, not Jews, are the true Israelites favored by God in the Bible. In most of its forms, Identity theology depicts Jews as biologically descended from Satan, while non-whites are seen as soulless "mud people" created with the other Biblical "beasts of the field." Christian Identity has its roots in a 19th-century English fad called British Israelism, which asserted that European whites were descended from the ten "lost tribes" of Israel and were thus related to Jews, who were descended from the other two Hebrew tribes mentioned in the Bible. But British Israelism, which was initially friendly to Jews, was adopted and transformed in the 20th century into a rabidly anti-Semitic creed by a number of racist preachers in the United States.

For decades, identity has been one of the most important ideologies for the white supremacist movement. In its hardest line form, it asserts that Christ will not return to earth until the globe is swept clean of Jews and other "Satanic" fluences. In recent years, deep doctrinal disputes, the lack of a central church structure, and a shift among white supremacists towards agnosticism and racist variations of neo-Paganism have weakened the Identity movement and reduced the number of its adherents.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. yes

yes it does... by the way... we are thinking of doing just that with a kid from the impacted area... I fear there will be many kids who will be left with no family, and I don't care what color their skin happens to be... but that is me

[mzteris]

23. I've been wondering about

all the children who may be orphaned by this. I don't know how long they will wait to try and find their parents. I assume most are in foster care by now, but in which state(s)? Intra-state foster/adoptions are usually kind of tricky, but the in these cases I would think they would try and eliminate some of the "our state first" mentality......

We no longer foster, and hadn't planned on adopting any more (I'm getting kinda old) BUT - if the need seems greater than there are places for them to go, I may have to reconsider.

[mcscajun]

13. Six states were impacted by this one...

The Great Mississippi Flood in 1927 was the most destructive river flood in United States history until the Hurricane Katrina flood of 2005.

In the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 the Mississippi River broke out of its levee system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles or about 16,570,627 acres (70,000 km²). The area was inundated up to a depth of 30 feet (10 m). The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people in seven states.

The flood affected Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee with Arkansas being hardest hit with 13% of its territory covered by floodwaters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927

[bobbieinok]

20. photo from the MS university collection

Reproduced here is a photograph of the African-American refugee camp at Cleveland, Mississippi on April 29th showing residents dining outdoors.

the picture is placed in context here


http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/files/archives/exhibits/past/25years/twentiethcen.html

Photograph Album. "The Mississippi River Flood of 1927. Mounds & Cairo, Ill. To New Orleans, La." Illinois Central Railroad Company, 1927.

With nearly 400 prints and proofs, this album documents the routes taken by the Illinois Central Railroad "Flood Committee" to survey damage to their tracks and depots. Mississippi locales constitute the majority of these images. Reproduced here is a photograph of the African-American refugee camp at Cleveland, Mississippi on April 29th showing residents dining outdoors.

[mzteris]

22. thanks for posting this. n/t

[Dancing_Dave]

21. And rich bastards blew up levees which would have protected black people

In 1927...as seemed to have happened to the 17th street canal floodwalls in 2005. Well, when someone writes about this as well as David Griffin and Webster Tarpley have written about 9/11, we'll all know just how far History has repeated itself.

[mzteris]

24. I really think that getting

this story more play, might serve to convince some of those who insist that Katrina's true devastation wasn't "race related". I think if they can see the parallels, it just might open their eyes a bit. Maybe. At least to those who are not REFUSING to "see".