The purpose of my research is to analyze the similarities and differences between the tragedies of the 1927 great Mississippi flooding on the black populations in the south and the tragedies that were seen during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Beginnning
Slavery in America was the beginning of a societal system of mistreating Africans/African Americans as disposable and unimportant pieces of property in the U.S. The continued suffering of blacks progressed for centuries and did not truly end when the emancipation proclamation was supported by Abraham Lincoln. The societal belief that blacks were inferior continued in the form of sharecropping and the mistreatment of blacks throughout the nation. Though African Americans were seen as animalistic and inferior they successfully helped build the economic and cultural fabric of the U.S.
Hotbed of American Economic Success
The role of water is vital to life. The Mississippi river is the life’s blood of the south and has supported the growth of the U.S. However, the impacts of water have also caused catastrophic events to occur throughout history that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The levee systems that were created to protect people from floods have failed on numerous occasions. Some instances of levee breeches have been more deadly than others. I will discuss two events that dramatically impacted the south especially the African American community.
The U.S. has the Mississippi river to thank for a large majority of our economic success. Without the waters of the Mississippi as a trade route we would not have had such quick progression into a commercial powerhouse.
The Mississippi river has had tremendous impact on the lives of the people who live along its banks. The flooding each year, and the movement of nutrient rich sediment (clay, silt and sand) aided in the Mississippi delta becoming some of the most fertile soil in the world. However, a great deal of suffering has come as a result of the Mississippi river and the levee system that was utilized to try to control its muddy waters.
“If it keeps on raining…the levee is gonna break”
The Red Cross and Mistreatment of Negro Workers
The wonderful book by John M. Barry Rising Tide gives excellent accounts on the mistreatment and disrespect that was shown to black refugees of the Mississippi river flooding of 1927. The racial separation dictated by Jim Crow laws was multiplied after the flooding, and African Americans endured systematic abuse by the Red Cross. Their food rations were much lower than the amount of food given to a white household. Their standards of living were limited to small areas of the refugee camps that were often the dirtiest and the most dangerous.
Black males were rounded up like cattle and forced to work on the levee crews or forfeit their rations for themselves and their families. Numerous stories were told about the harsh treatment of levee workers. One notorious overseer by the name of Charlie Silas was “reputed to routinely murder black workers and throw their bodies into the river” (Barry 184). Many black men worked until their bodies broke down from carrying the 60-80 pound sacks of sand to barricade the flood waters of the Mississippi. John Barry clearly states his opinion of the treatment of African Americans when he states that “white men did not treat them [the blacks] like men” (193).
‘
Hurricane Katrina
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was marked with the widespread abandonment of the black community by the government. Supplies were limited and came days after the tragedy of the hurricane ruined homes and flooded streets. A large number of rapes were reported that occurred during the traumatic days following the floods. One women was quoted while sobbing “They just left us to die. Nobody cared.”
One rape victim by the name of Ms. Lewis (her full name was not included to protect her identity) recalls the further trauma of having watching “national guardsmen [as they] forced evacuees out of the building at gunpoint. (http://www.npr.org)
Another account of racially based violence was detailed in the interview of a black man that was shot with a shot gun while walking down the street after hurricane Katrina had damaged the greater New Orleans area. He said that as his friends attempted to carry to him to safety they heard armed white men shouting “Get him! Get that nigger!”
(http://www.thenation.com/article/katrinas-hidden-race-war#)
Racial disharmony was increased after Hurricane Katrina ruined the city of New Orleans. Time magazines article Healing Katrina’s Racial Wounds expressed the ideas that “poor black residents have had the hardest time restoring their lives, with many evacuees still living outside the city and others in FEMA trailers, waiting for promised help to arrive.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1656660,00.html#ixzz2MhUUqZTL
The Superdome stadium was a prime example of the filth and destitution that the citizens of New Orleans endured after the onset of hurricane Katrina. Numerous deaths, sicknesses and rapes were reported to have occurred while thousands of Katrina refugees were housed within the stadium.
Related Links (optional)
- You can link to other lfc.com pages
- You can link to an outside url
- You can link to files like pdf’s
- You can link to