Fatal Flood Notes PDF

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FATAL FLOOD NOTES 

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1927 Mississippi River- one of the worst floods in history o highlights human-environmental relationship o Mississippi Delta region was an area rewarded and controlled by cotton and planters who hired blacks in sharecropping  Resulted in extreme poverty for blacks  Basically post-civil war slavery o Would contribute to the Great Migration Leroy Percy- former senator, lawyer and a businessman o Initially very tolerant towards blacks o Hunted, fished, played poker etc o His empire was based around black labor o Even spoke out against the KKK o His son Will- very different from his father  Was soft spoken, gay, wrote poetry etc When the flood hit, they pulled blacks from the fields and forced them to protect the levee o Flooded the equivalent of 4 northeastern states o Whites were evacuated o Blacks were forced to stay and help. Planters and Leroy were afraid to release their workers because they didn’t think they would come back o Tent cities were set up by the national guard to provide relief  However, for blacks you had to get permission to leave and you needed to wear a tag (basically slavery)  They were beat and raped by guards  Whites received the aid first and then blacks got the leftovers Leroy didn’t fight for blacks’ rights anymore. He demanded their labor because he was strictly concerned with his empire. US has a history of abandoning morals and ethics in order to prioritize the economy...