We go back to the spring of 1927 when the Mississippi River flooded after weeks of incessant rains. While the federal government response was well-coordinated, African Americans were rounded into work camps by land owners and prevented from leaving as the waters rose. [includes rush transcript]

While the survivors of Hurricane Katrina struggle to cope the devastation, this is not the first time the Gulf Coast has been wracked by a natural disaster.

In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River flooded. Racing south from Cairo, Illinois, the river blew away levee after levee, inundating thousands of farms and hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving nearly a million homeless. The disaster laid bare the feudal between whites and blacksin the South.

As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, "Blacks were rounded up into work camps and held by armed guards. They were prevented from leaving as the waters rose. A steamer, the Capitol, played "Bye Bye Blackbird" as it sailed away." The racist violence that followed the floods helped persuade many blacks to move north."

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMYGOODMAN: We’re joined now in Washington, D.C., by Pete Daniel, author of, "Deep’N as it Come: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood." He’s the curator of the Division of Work and Industry at the National Museum of American History. We welcome you to Democracynow! We only have — its great to have you with us, but we only have a few