WEBVTT

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Imagine standing on a narrow muddy strip of dirt.

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It's maybe 30 feet across. Right. And on one

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side of you is just this raging 80 mile wide

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inland ocean. I mean, it's where your home, your

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church, your entire town used to be. Yeah, completely.

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The water is just churning. It's filled with

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the wreckage of your life, uprooted trees, drowned

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livestock, roofs of houses. And then, you know,

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on the other side of you is white plantation

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overseer holding a rifle holding a rifle and

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he is explicitly telling you that if you try

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to board one of the approaching rescue boats

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he will shoot you it's just horrific you are

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a refugee of this catastrophic natural disaster

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yes but you are also for all intents and purposes

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a prisoner of war in your own county it's I mean

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it's an almost unimaginable scenario yet For

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tens of thousands of people, this wasn't hypothetical.

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It was their terrifying reality. The dirt they

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were standing on was the crest of the Greenville

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levee in Mississippi. And that water surrounding

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them was the result of a total catastrophic failure

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of American engineering. Welcome, everyone. You

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are joining us for a brand new deep dive. And

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today we have just a staggering stack of sources

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that you, the listener, send our way. We do.

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It's a really extensive, deeply researched historical

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account of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

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But here is the specific mission for today's

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conversation. We aren't just looking at the hydrology

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of a flood. Right. No. We aren't just looking

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at rain gauges and broken dams. We are investigating

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how an unprecedented environmental disaster acted

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as a massive violent catalyst for one of the

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most important demographic shifts in American

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history. To the Great Migration. Exactly. The

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Great Migration of African Americans to northern

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industrial cities. Because natural disasters

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as history, well, as it always shows us, they

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never happen in a social vacuum. They don't just

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wash away topsoil or flood basements. They expose

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and then they violently accelerate the fractures

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and systemic inequalities that already exist

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in a society. Yeah, they really do. Now, before

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we really wade into these sources, I want to

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set the table for you listening right now. As

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we look at these documents, we're going to be

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navigating some incredibly dark chapters of American

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history. Very dark. We're talking about systemic

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racism, forced labor, extreme racial violence,

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and some, frankly, highly cynical political maneuvering

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involving both major US political parties of

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the era. Absolutely. And our job today isn't

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to take a political side. or endorse any specific

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viewpoint, or even judge the past through a modern

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political lens, our mission is simply to lay

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out the historical facts impartially, exactly

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as they're documented in the material in front

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of us. Right. We are just acting as a mirror

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to the history you've asked us to explore today.

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Exactly. So, okay, let's unpack this because

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that history is staggering in its physical scale

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alone. It really is. I mean, to understand the

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social explosion that followed, we first have

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to understand the sheer terrifying magnitude

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of the water itself. Right, let's look at the

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numbers because they broke my brain a little

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bit. I want you to picture 27 ,000 square miles

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of land. Just an unfathomable area. That is what

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went underwater. We're talking depths of up to

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30 feet in some places. And this water didn't

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just rush in and drain out. No, it sat there.

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It sat there over the course of several months.

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And the economic toll. If this exact same sequence

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of events were to happen right now, In the modern

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day, the sources estimate the damages would total

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somewhere between $1 .38 trillion and $1 .48

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trillion. Trillion? With a T? Yeah, trillion.

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It's an almost unfathomable amount of destruction.

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But as we see in the sources, it wasn't just

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an act of God. No, not at all. To understand

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how this flood caused such a massive permanent

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displacement of the African -American workforce,

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we first have to look at the deeply flawed human

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engineering that essentially placed those vulnerable

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populations directly in the path of maximum destruction.

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Right. We have to look at the hubris of the late

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19th century. Because this disaster was literally

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decades in the making. The sources take us back

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to the late 1800s, to how the United States viewed

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the Mississippi River. Yeah, at this point in

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history, the country's expanding, they're industrializing,

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and they are acutely aware of the economic power

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of this massive river system. And just to put

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the geography in perspective for a second, the

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Mississippi River basin drains roughly 40 percent

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of the entire continental United States. Exactly.

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From the Rockies all the way to the Appalachians,

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all that water is funneling down into this one

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main artery. Wow. So, in 1879, the federal government

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forms the Mississippi River Commission, and their

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directive sounds perfectly logical, almost noble

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on paper. What did they want them to do? The

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government basically tells them to deepen the

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river channel. improve navigation for shipping,

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prevent major seasonal flooding, and increase

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river -based commerce. The nation wanted the

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river tamed. Tamed, right. But the meth that

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the commission chose to achieve this, this is

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where the fatal flaw is introduced. Yes. This

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is where the hubris really takes the wheel. Yes.

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The commission decided on what they called a

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levees -only approach. They recommended raising

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extensive, continuous earthen walls levees all

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along the river's channels to strictly contain

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the flow of the water. And this wasn't just like

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a casual decision. It was a deeply contested

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ideological battle. They actively ignored brilliant

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engineers who were warning them that this was

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a catastrophic idea. The sources specifically

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highlight a guy named James Eads, right? Yes,

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James Eads. And Eads was no amateur. He was the

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director of the incredible St. Louis Bridge Project

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back in the 1860s. I mean, it was a massive feat

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of engineering. Eads understood the physics of

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the river better than almost anyone. Right. And

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he, along with other critics, vehemently argued

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against the levees -only policy. I really want

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to dig into the physics of this for a second

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because reading Eads' warnings gave me chills.

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If you're listening, try to visualize this. It's

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important to picture it. If you build these massive

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dirt walls all along the banks, you are artificially

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narrowing the channel. It's not like building

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a wall to keep out an invading army. Water is

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dynamic. Highly dynamic. So wait, if I'm understanding

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the hydrology correctly, building these levees

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is essentially like taking a massive flowing

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garden hose and aggressively clamping your thumb

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over the nozzle, right? That is exactly it. You

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aren't actually reducing the volume of the water.

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You're just compressing it into a tighter space

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and massively increasing its speed in its destructive

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pressure. That garden hose analogy is completely

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accurate, but it actually gets worse when you

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apply it to a river. And this is exactly what

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Eads was trying to explain. How does it get worse?

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Well, when a river is allowed to naturally flood

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its plains, the water spreads out, it slows down,

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and it drops millions of tons of suspended sediment

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-like silt sand. mud onto the surrounding land.

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Okay, so that's what makes the river valley so

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fertile for farming. Precisely. But when you

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build a corset of levees around the river, you

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force that water to stay in the channel. OK,

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so the water stays fast and the sediment stays

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trapped in the water. Yes. And because the river

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is constrained, much of that heavy sediment eventually

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drops not onto the floodplains, but directly

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onto the riverbed itself. Ooh. Yeah. Over the

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decades, as the river deposits more and more

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silt onto its own floor, the actual bottom of

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the river begins to rise in elevation. Oh, wow.

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So the river is physically lifting itself up.

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Yes, so the engineers have to build the levees

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higher and then the riverbed rises more so they

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build the levees higher again. It's an endless

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cycle. It is. By the time we get to the 1920s,

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in many places along the Mississippi, the surface

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of the river is flowing at an elevation higher

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than the towns and farms sitting just on the

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other side of the levee. That is terrifying.

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It's like living at the bottom of a bowl while

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an ocean flows along the rim above your head.

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That's exactly what it was. If the wall breaks,

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The water doesn't just spill over, gravity pulls

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it violently downward into your living room.

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And Eads basically predicted this. He good. He

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told them that compressing a swollen river between

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walls would dramatically increase its destructive

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potential. But the commission just dismissed

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the warnings. Completely. They wanted absolute

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economic control over the river. They wanted

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a predictable, navigable canal for commerce.

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And they let that desire completely override

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ecological reality. They essentially build a

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pressurized bomb. They did. And by the mid -1920s,

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that bomb was just waiting for the right meteorological

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trigger. And that trigger didn't come as a single

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traumatic hurricane. No, it came as a relentless

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month -long deluge. The sources show this wasn't

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just a sudden event. The heavy rainfall began

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almost a full year earlier. in the summer of

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1926, across the river's central basin. Right.

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By September of 26, the Mississippi's major tributaries

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up in Kansas and Iowa were already swollen to

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maximum capacity. And it just kept coming month

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after month. It was relentless. The sources point

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out that on Christmas Day of 1926, the Carbilland

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River over in Nashville, Tennessee, crested at

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56 .2 feet. That was the second highest recorded

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level ever, second only to a massive flood back

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in 1793. So practically the entire middle of

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the North American continent is gorged with water

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months before the actual disaster hits the Delta.

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The system has zero capacity left. But I'm struggling

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to understand something here. America has had

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heavy rain before. Was it purely the volume of

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water or was something else happening on the

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ground? It's a great question. Because the sources

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talk about the condition of the watershed itself.

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And it seems like human intervention made the

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landscape completely defenseless. That is a vital

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piece of the puzzle. It was what was falling

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from the sky. combined with what was missing

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from the ground. Missing. Yeah, by the 1920s,

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heavy industrialized agriculture and rampant

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deforestation had completely transformed the

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Mississippi watershed. OK. The timber industry

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had clear cut massive swaths of the upper Midwest

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and the Mississippi Valley. Millions of acres

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of deep rooted trees, native grasses and natural

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wetlands had been entirely stripped away or drained

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for farming. So instead of a natural sponge,

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the rain is just hitting hard, flat dirt. Exactly.

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For millennia. Those forests, wetlands, and deep

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root systems did the ancient, invisible work

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of catching the rain, aerating the soil, and

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slowly absorbing floodwater after seasons of

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intense precipitation. Right. When you clear

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cut a forest, you don't just lose the trees.

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You lose the canopy that breaks the impact of

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the rain, and you kill the root systems that

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hold the soil together. Makes sense. Without

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that natural infrastructure, the water had absolutely

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nowhere to go but to run off directly immediately

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into the river basin. OK, so the picture is coming

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into focus here. You have a massive historic

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volume of continuous rain. You have a stripped,

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denuded landscape with zero capacity to absorb

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that water. Yes. And you have a stubborn, hubristic,

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levees -only engineering system that has artificially

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compressed all this runoff into a narrow, high

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-pressure, elevated corridor. The bomb is fully

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armed, the fuse is lit, and there's no way to

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put it out. Wow. And then we move into the spring

00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:14.500
of 1927. The immense pressure of all that northern

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water finally travels south. And the inevitable

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happens. The earthen wall simply cannot hold.

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When the levees broke, they didn't just crack.

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The sources describe them failing catastrophically.

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The pressure finally overcame the engineering

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along the river in at least 145 different places.

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145 separate levee breaks. That's insane. I really

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want the listener to absorb that number. This

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wasn't a single point of failure where a localized

00:11:38.830 --> 00:11:42.029
crew made a mistake. This was a systemic, absolute

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collapse of the entire levees -only philosophy.

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The flooding peaked in the lower Mississippi

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River near Mound Landing, Mississippi, and Arkansas

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City, Arkansas. And when these Pacific levees

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broke, the release of energy was apocalyptic.

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It was. We mentioned earlier how the river was

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flowing higher than the land. When the Mound

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Landing levee gave way in April, it didn't just

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leak. No. The water exploded through the dirt

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wall with the force of Niagara Falls. It literally

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scoured a channel into the earth nearly 100 feet

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deep in an instant. The water poured out, violently

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flooding more than 27 ,000 square miles. The

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human cost was immediate and staggering. It left

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over 700 ,000 people homeless. Approximately

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500 people died, though. I mean, many historians

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believe the actual death toll, particularly among

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undocumented rural African -American sharecroppers,

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was significantly higher. And just to help you...

00:12:34.220 --> 00:12:37.019
The listener visualized the sheer geoglossy of

00:12:37.019 --> 00:12:40.899
the water itself. By May of 1927, the Mississippi

00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:44.379
River below Memphis, Tennessee, had overflowed

00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:46.620
its banks so dramatically that the river had

00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:50.659
reached a width of 80 miles. 80 miles wide. A

00:12:50.659 --> 00:12:53.340
body of water the width of a Great Lake moving

00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:55.679
with the current of a swollen river straight

00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:57.360
through the middle of the American South. You

00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:59.809
could get in a car. drive at highway speeds for

00:12:59.809 --> 00:13:01.889
an hour and 15 minutes, and you would still be

00:13:01.889 --> 00:13:04.649
crossing the river. Entire towns, infrastructure,

00:13:05.289 --> 00:13:07.750
generations of farming just gone. Completely

00:13:07.750 --> 00:13:10.470
wiped out. Arkansas was hit exceptionally hard.

00:13:10.950 --> 00:13:13.710
14 % of the entire state's landmass was covered

00:13:13.710 --> 00:13:15.730
by floodwaters extending from the Mississippi

00:13:15.730 --> 00:13:19.269
and Arkansas deltas. It remains one of the deadliest

00:13:19.269 --> 00:13:21.970
disasters ever recorded in that state's history.

00:13:22.059 --> 00:13:24.340
But to understand the true historical impact

00:13:24.340 --> 00:13:26.799
of this flood, we have to look at exactly who

00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:29.039
was living in the path of this 80 -mile -wide

00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:31.720
wall of water. Because when the water hit, it

00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:33.879
didn't strike an empty wilderness. It struck

00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.940
the absolute beating economic heart of the southern

00:13:36.940 --> 00:13:39.460
agricultural system. Let's look at the demographics,

00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:41.820
because this is where the story shifts from an

00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:44.820
engineering failure to a profound social crisis.

00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:49.600
Of the more than 630 ,000 people who were directly

00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:52.379
displaced and affected by the flood, the sources

00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:55.980
note that 94 % of them lived in just three states.

00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:59.320
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Exactly.

00:13:59.860 --> 00:14:01.879
More specifically, they lived in the fertile,

00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:04.419
low -lying areas known as the Mississippi Delta.

00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:07.480
And we really must ask. who was living in the

00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.080
lowest, most geographically perilous areas of

00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:13.320
the Delta. African -Americans made up 75 % of

00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:16.159
the general population in these lowlands. But

00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:18.240
even more telling for the economic reality of

00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.960
the region, African -Americans supplied 95 %

00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:24.080
of the agricultural labor force. 95%. They were

00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:26.559
the absolute backbone of the economy. But I have

00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:28.960
a question about this. Why were they concentrated

00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:31.960
so heavily in the most dangerous low -lying floodplains?

00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:34.399
Was it just a coincidence of geography? Not at

00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:36.909
all. It was the direct result of the post -Civil

00:14:36.909 --> 00:14:39.870
War economic system, specifically sharecropping

00:14:39.870 --> 00:14:43.620
and tenant farming. After the abolition of slavery,

00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:46.259
the wealthy white plantation owners retained

00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:49.200
the vast majority of the land. They needed cheap

00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:52.120
labor to grow cotton, and the formerly enslaved

00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:54.980
black population needed work but had no capital

00:14:54.980 --> 00:14:57.799
to buy land. Right. So the sharecropping system

00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:00.500
was born. Black farmers would work a piece of

00:15:00.500 --> 00:15:02.480
the planter's land in exchange for a share of

00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:05.820
the crop. But the system was notoriously exploitative,

00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:08.299
designed to keep the workers in perpetual debt

00:15:08.299 --> 00:15:11.360
to the landowner for tools, seeds, and housing.

00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:14.779
So the workers are deeply tied to the land, physically

00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:17.940
and economically. Yes. And the landowners naturally

00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:20.419
reserve the safest, highest ground for their

00:15:20.419 --> 00:15:23.710
own mansions and crucial infrastructure. The

00:15:23.710 --> 00:15:26.450
tenant shacks, the homes of the black agricultural

00:15:26.450 --> 00:15:28.929
workers, were almost universally built on the

00:15:28.929 --> 00:15:31.750
lowest, cheapest, most vulnerable land right

00:15:31.750 --> 00:15:33.649
up against the levees. They were placed directly

00:15:33.649 --> 00:15:35.950
in the line of fire. Exactly. So when the levees

00:15:35.950 --> 00:15:38.509
failed, it wasn't an equal opportunity disaster.

00:15:39.309 --> 00:15:40.950
Because black Americans were the overwhelming

00:15:40.950 --> 00:15:43.110
majority of the workforce forced to live in these

00:15:43.110 --> 00:15:46.409
highly vulnerable lowlands, they bore the absolute

00:15:46.409 --> 00:15:48.769
undeniable brunt of the physical destruction.

00:15:48.929 --> 00:15:51.190
It did. The sources estimate that more than 200

00:15:51.190 --> 00:15:54.789
,000 African Americans instantly lost their homes.

00:15:55.269 --> 00:15:57.210
The people who were most essential to the economic

00:15:57.210 --> 00:15:59.970
engine of the South were protected only by a

00:15:59.970 --> 00:16:03.190
flawed wall of dirt. When that system failed,

00:16:03.649 --> 00:16:05.870
it didn't just wash away the year's cotton crop.

00:16:06.110 --> 00:16:08.649
It washed away the entire living infrastructure

00:16:08.649 --> 00:16:12.110
of the black agricultural workforce. It obliterated

00:16:12.110 --> 00:16:14.250
what little they had. It's just devastating.

00:16:14.789 --> 00:16:16.610
Hundreds of thousands of people are suddenly

00:16:16.610 --> 00:16:19.210
homeless, fleeing rising waters, losing everything.

00:16:19.370 --> 00:16:21.889
And while this immense tragedy is unfolding in

00:16:21.889 --> 00:16:24.549
the rural Delta, the sources take us slightly

00:16:24.549 --> 00:16:27.529
further south to New Orleans. And I'm so glad

00:16:27.529 --> 00:16:29.070
the listener provided these sources, because

00:16:29.070 --> 00:16:31.230
what happens in New Orleans gives us a chilling,

00:16:31.529 --> 00:16:33.909
infuriating look at the mindset of the people

00:16:33.909 --> 00:16:36.769
in power during this crisis. It is a master class

00:16:36.769 --> 00:16:39.169
in elite self -preservation. Yes, the New Orleans

00:16:39.169 --> 00:16:41.649
Diversion. If you want to understand the hierarchy

00:16:41.649 --> 00:16:44.870
of value in the 1920s South, whose lives mattered

00:16:44.870 --> 00:16:47.509
and whose property was expendable, you really

00:16:47.509 --> 00:16:49.610
only have to look at how the powerful elite of

00:16:49.610 --> 00:16:52.090
New Orleans reacted to the approaching floodwaters.

00:16:52.470 --> 00:16:55.529
So let's set the scene. On Good Friday, April

00:16:55.529 --> 00:16:59.870
15th, 1927, New Orleans experiences a massive

00:16:59.870 --> 00:17:02.470
localized weather event. This is practically

00:17:02.470 --> 00:17:05.589
a freak storm. 15 inches of rain falls directly

00:17:05.589 --> 00:17:08.950
on the city in just 18 hours. 15 inches in less

00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:11.970
than a day is a torrential system breaking amount

00:17:11.970 --> 00:17:14.630
of water for any city, let alone a city that

00:17:14.630 --> 00:17:18.230
sits largely below sea level. Right. It completely

00:17:18.230 --> 00:17:21.650
overwhelmed New Orleans's rainwater pumping system.

00:17:22.230 --> 00:17:24.970
Up to four feet of water flooded some residential

00:17:24.970 --> 00:17:26.950
and commercial parts of the city. Now, this is

00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:29.390
important to clarify. This local rainstorm was

00:17:29.390 --> 00:17:31.869
entirely disconnected from the massive Mississippi

00:17:31.869 --> 00:17:33.680
River flooding. making its way down from the

00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:35.900
north. The big flood crest hadn't arrived yet.

00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.000
Right. Two separate events. But the psychological

00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.240
effect of this local flooding on the city's power

00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:43.500
brokers was profound. Exactly. The city is already

00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:46.099
waterlogged. The pumps are failing. And the wealthy

00:17:46.099 --> 00:17:48.880
elite, the bankers, the shipping magnates, the

00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.359
politicians, they are reading the telegraph reports.

00:17:51.460 --> 00:17:54.319
They know what's coming. They know an 80 mile

00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:56.660
wide river of destruction is currently wiping

00:17:56.660 --> 00:17:59.420
out the Delta. And that crest is heading straight

00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:03.000
south directly toward their city. They are gripped

00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:06.420
by an absolute panic that if the levees protecting

00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:09.240
New Orleans fail, the financial capital of the

00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:11.880
South will be wiped off the map. And the bankers

00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:13.720
aren't about to let their banks go underwater.

00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:16.380
No, they are not. So a group of the most influential

00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:18.839
businessmen in New Orleans hold a series of emergency

00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.039
meetings. And they decide they need an insurance

00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:22.980
policy. They need to guarantee the safety of

00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:25.039
their city to protect their massive financial

00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:27.559
interests. And the solution they come up with

00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.039
is genuinely jaw -dropping. They decide they're

00:18:30.039 --> 00:18:32.920
going to manually blow up a levee outside the

00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:35.789
city to relieve the pressure on the river. They

00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:38.250
formed what was essentially a shadow government

00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:40.630
and they lobbied the actual government for permission

00:18:40.630 --> 00:18:44.809
to execute this plan. Wow. On April 29th, they

00:18:44.809 --> 00:18:47.930
arranged to set off roughly 30 tons of dynamite

00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:50.750
on the levee at a place called Carnarvon, Louisiana,

00:18:51.230 --> 00:18:53.750
which is situated about 15 miles downriver from

00:18:53.750 --> 00:18:56.269
New Orleans. 30 tons of dynamite. I mean, that

00:18:56.269 --> 00:18:58.329
isn't a controlled demolition. That is an act

00:18:58.329 --> 00:19:01.589
of war against the landscape. The sheer scale

00:19:01.589 --> 00:19:05.019
of that explosion is hard to overstate. By blowing

00:19:05.019 --> 00:19:07.579
the Carnarvon levee, they intentionally tore

00:19:07.579 --> 00:19:10.160
a massive hole in the river's containment system,

00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:13.700
releasing a roughly 250 ,000 cubic feet of water

00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:16.140
per second out of the main river channel. And

00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:18.900
their goal was to draw water away from New Orleans.

00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:22.059
But as we know, water doesn't just disappear,

00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:24.390
it has to go somewhere. And where it went was

00:19:24.390 --> 00:19:27.670
directly into the neighboring, vastly less densely

00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:30.269
populated and politically powerless parishes.

00:19:30.609 --> 00:19:33.369
By blowing that levee, the bankers of New Orleans

00:19:33.369 --> 00:19:36.250
deliberately flooded much of St. Bernard Parish

00:19:36.250 --> 00:19:39.509
and the entire East Bank of Clackmines Parish.

00:19:39.630 --> 00:19:42.670
These were areas populated largely by poor rural

00:19:42.670 --> 00:19:45.230
populations trappers, fishermen. white yeoman

00:19:45.230 --> 00:19:48.789
farmers. The elite of New Orleans literally sacrificed

00:19:48.789 --> 00:19:50.890
the homes, the livelihoods, and the generational

00:19:50.890 --> 00:19:53.970
land of the rural poor to ensure the dry safety

00:19:53.970 --> 00:19:56.230
of the wealthy city. It's like being on a sinking

00:19:56.230 --> 00:19:58.210
ship and tossing your neighbor out of the lifeboat

00:19:58.210 --> 00:20:00.750
so you can stretch your legs. It's brutal calculus.

00:20:01.170 --> 00:20:03.190
But wait, it actually gets worse, doesn't it?

00:20:03.589 --> 00:20:05.869
Because the sources reveal that this incredibly

00:20:05.869 --> 00:20:08.970
destructive act wasn't even medically necessary

00:20:08.970 --> 00:20:11.799
for the city's survival. That is the ultimate

00:20:11.799 --> 00:20:15.160
tragic irony of the New Orleans diversion. The

00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:17.700
destruction of the Carnarvon levy, the sacrifice

00:20:17.700 --> 00:20:21.339
of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes was completely

00:20:21.339 --> 00:20:24.119
mathematically unnecessary. I'm trying to wrap

00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:26.380
my head around that. How could it be unnecessary

00:20:26.380 --> 00:20:29.640
after all that panic? Because the bankers panicked

00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:31.920
too early and they didn't trust the hydrology

00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:35.299
reports, several major natural levee breaks had

00:20:35.299 --> 00:20:37.640
already occurred well upstream of New Orleans

00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:40.599
in the days prior. Oh, I see. In fact, another

00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:43.160
massive natural break happened the very day after

00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:45.779
they used the dynamite. These upstream breaks

00:20:45.779 --> 00:20:48.220
had already released millions of gallons of flood

00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:50.319
waters out of the main channel into the flood

00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:52.319
plains. So the pressure was already dropping.

00:20:52.859 --> 00:20:55.559
Precisely. Those upstream failures naturally,

00:20:55.960 --> 00:20:58.799
if tragically, reduced the overall water pressure

00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.440
that eventually reached the lower river. By the

00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:03.440
time the crest reached New Orleans, the river

00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:05.579
levels were already dropping. The city was never

00:21:05.579 --> 00:21:07.599
going to flood. So they blew up their neighbors'

00:21:07.700 --> 00:21:11.109
lives for absolutely nothing. Just pure... Elite

00:21:11.109 --> 00:21:14.009
paranoia. Basically, yes. But surely, after they

00:21:14.009 --> 00:21:16.109
realized they had intentionally flooded these

00:21:16.109 --> 00:21:18.750
poorer parishes, the wealthy bankers, who had

00:21:18.750 --> 00:21:21.150
millions of dollars in capital, stepped up to

00:21:21.150 --> 00:21:22.869
write checks and compensate the foreigners they

00:21:22.869 --> 00:21:25.569
just ruined. Not a dime. You're kidding. Nothing.

00:21:25.849 --> 00:21:28.769
The New Orleans businessman had formed a reparations

00:21:28.769 --> 00:21:31.349
committee promising to pay for the damages before

00:21:31.349 --> 00:21:34.470
they blew the levy. But once the crisis passed,

00:21:34.829 --> 00:21:37.849
they used every legal and bureaucratic loophole

00:21:37.849 --> 00:21:40.609
available to avoid paying the claims. Unbelievable.

00:21:40.769 --> 00:21:42.789
The vast majority of the residents in the downriver

00:21:42.789 --> 00:21:45.549
parishes received absolutely no compensation

00:21:45.549 --> 00:21:47.910
for their destroyed homes, drowned livestock

00:21:47.910 --> 00:21:51.309
or ruined crop seasons. The audacity is staggering.

00:21:51.509 --> 00:21:53.529
And it had immediate political consequences.

00:21:53.900 --> 00:21:57.240
This uncompensated destruction caused massive

00:21:57.240 --> 00:21:59.940
deep -seated anger among the rural farmers in

00:21:59.940 --> 00:22:03.119
upstate and downstate Louisiana. They felt entirely

00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:05.559
betrayed by the urban aristocracy. Right. And

00:22:05.559 --> 00:22:08.799
that rural rage was a major political catalyst.

00:22:09.380 --> 00:22:12.819
It directly fueled the rise of the populist politician

00:22:12.819 --> 00:22:16.079
Huey Long. Long capitalized on the resentment

00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:18.779
against the New Orleans elite, promising to fight

00:22:18.779 --> 00:22:21.380
for the little man. And it propelled him to the

00:22:21.380 --> 00:22:25.450
governorship of Louisiana in I want to pause

00:22:25.450 --> 00:22:27.849
here and really highlight this dynamic for the

00:22:27.849 --> 00:22:30.430
listener because it serves as the perfect thematic

00:22:30.430 --> 00:22:32.569
transition into the darkest part of this story.

00:22:32.569 --> 00:22:35.049
Yeah, it really does. Think about the power dynamics

00:22:35.049 --> 00:22:37.990
we just witnessed. If this is how wealthy white

00:22:37.990 --> 00:22:40.849
bankers treated white yeoman farmers in neighboring

00:22:40.849 --> 00:22:43.450
parishes, dynamiting their homes, destroying

00:22:43.450 --> 00:22:45.950
their livelihoods and then legally refusing to

00:22:45.950 --> 00:22:49.259
pay them back, How in the world was this same

00:22:49.259 --> 00:22:51.819
Southern power structure going to treat the hundreds

00:22:51.819 --> 00:22:54.759
of thousands of disenfranchised, deeply impoverished

00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.339
black agricultural workers who are currently

00:22:57.339 --> 00:23:00.420
fleeing the Delta? That is the exact chilling

00:23:00.420 --> 00:23:02.900
question. The bankers controlled the water to

00:23:02.900 --> 00:23:05.220
protect their wealth. But up in the Delta, the

00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:07.599
wealthy planters didn't need dynamite to protect

00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:09.500
their wealth. They needed to control the people.

00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:11.900
Right. And that leads us directly into the reality

00:23:11.900 --> 00:23:15.200
of the refugee camps. The floodwaters force an

00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:17.859
unprecedented human migration. We have hundreds

00:23:17.859 --> 00:23:19.880
of thousands of people fleeing to high ground

00:23:19.880 --> 00:23:22.720
and the government responds by creating a massive

00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:25.579
network of tent cities Which sounds like a good

00:23:25.579 --> 00:23:27.940
thing initially right because the word refugee

00:23:27.940 --> 00:23:30.900
camp implies sanctuary It implies a place of

00:23:30.900 --> 00:23:33.519
humanitarian relief where you are safe from the

00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:37.420
disaster But the sources make it explicitly clear

00:23:37.420 --> 00:23:40.839
that these camps quickly became sites of extreme

00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:44.000
systemic racial exploitation Let's look at the

00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.670
logistics first By August 1927, the flood has

00:23:47.670 --> 00:23:50.309
finally subsided, but the landscape is ruined.

00:23:50.769 --> 00:23:53.769
We have over 325 ,000 people living in these

00:23:53.769 --> 00:23:56.029
government -run relief camps. Wow. And as we

00:23:56.029 --> 00:23:57.690
established with the demographics of the Delta,

00:23:58.109 --> 00:24:00.309
69 % of the people living in these tent cities

00:24:00.309 --> 00:24:03.049
were African -American. To manage a crisis of

00:24:03.049 --> 00:24:05.430
this magnitude, President Calvin Coolidge appoints

00:24:05.430 --> 00:24:07.410
his Secretary of Commerce to direct the flood

00:24:07.410 --> 00:24:09.869
relief operations in conjunction with the American

00:24:09.869 --> 00:24:12.650
Red Cross. And that Secretary of Commerce is

00:24:12.650 --> 00:24:14.450
a man who is about to become a household name.

00:24:14.650 --> 00:24:18.009
Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover. Hoover was widely

00:24:18.009 --> 00:24:21.470
known as the great engineer. He had built a formidable

00:24:21.470 --> 00:24:24.089
reputation managing massive logistical challenges,

00:24:24.349 --> 00:24:26.390
particularly European food relief during and

00:24:26.390 --> 00:24:28.869
after World War I. He was a man obsessed with

00:24:28.869 --> 00:24:32.009
bureaucratic efficiency. He utilized a combination

00:24:32.009 --> 00:24:34.609
of federal resources, state militias, and the

00:24:34.609 --> 00:24:36.769
Red Cross to try and make these highly populated

00:24:36.769 --> 00:24:39.049
tent cities function. And if you're reading the

00:24:39.049 --> 00:24:42.650
national newspapers in 1927, Hoover is portrayed

00:24:42.650 --> 00:24:45.910
as a savior. From a PR standpoint, he looks like

00:24:45.910 --> 00:24:48.390
an absolute hero. Absolutely. He gets a ton of

00:24:48.390 --> 00:24:50.930
positive press. He builds this national reputation

00:24:50.930 --> 00:24:53.230
as the masterful commander handling the crisis.

00:24:53.690 --> 00:24:56.470
And this fame is essentially what paves his way

00:24:56.470 --> 00:24:59.109
to easily winning the Republican nomination and

00:24:59.109 --> 00:25:02.019
ultimately the presidency in 1928. On paper,

00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:04.119
in the press releases sent to northern cities,

00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:06.700
Hoover's operation was a triumph of modern logistics.

00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:09.700
But the reality on the ground, inside the muddy,

00:25:09.940 --> 00:25:12.059
disease -ridden boundaries of those camps, was

00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:14.460
a completely different story. What was actually

00:25:14.460 --> 00:25:16.390
happening? Well, the National Red Cross standards

00:25:16.390 --> 00:25:18.829
were one thing, but the daily operation of the

00:25:18.829 --> 00:25:21.210
camps was largely handed over to local rural

00:25:21.210 --> 00:25:24.990
leaders and the National Guard. These local authorities

00:25:24.990 --> 00:25:27.430
were not only unprepared to manage the chaotic

00:25:27.430 --> 00:25:30.490
circumstances, but they were also deeply invested

00:25:30.490 --> 00:25:33.049
in maintaining the Jim Crow racial hierarchy

00:25:33.049 --> 00:25:35.750
of the South. So the camps immediately become

00:25:35.750 --> 00:25:38.569
segregated and the distribution of relief is

00:25:38.569 --> 00:25:42.349
weaponized. Yes. The sources detail extreme racial

00:25:42.349 --> 00:25:45.509
inequality and how basic survival resources were

00:25:45.509 --> 00:25:49.039
handled. supplies, food, fresh water and the

00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:51.579
means of evacuation like spots on trains or boats

00:25:51.579 --> 00:25:53.819
heading out of the flood zone were given strictly

00:25:53.819 --> 00:25:56.299
to white citizens first. Always first. Black

00:25:56.299 --> 00:25:58.740
citizens received only the leftovers if there

00:25:58.740 --> 00:26:00.559
were any leftovers to be had. It was a system

00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.259
of deliberate deprivation and it went beyond

00:26:03.259 --> 00:26:06.099
just waiting in a longer line. The local white

00:26:06.099 --> 00:26:08.200
planters, the men who owned the flooded cotton

00:26:08.200 --> 00:26:10.519
fields, they were terrified. Because they needed

00:26:10.519 --> 00:26:14.069
their workers. Exactly. Remember, black laborers

00:26:14.069 --> 00:26:17.230
supplied 95 % of their agricultural workforce.

00:26:18.069 --> 00:26:20.369
The planters looked out at the flooded Delta

00:26:20.369 --> 00:26:23.710
and realized their entire labor force, the engine

00:26:23.710 --> 00:26:26.470
of their wealth, was currently sitting in these

00:26:26.470 --> 00:26:30.589
tents. They were seized by a profound panic that

00:26:30.589 --> 00:26:32.890
if these workers were allowed to leave the camps

00:26:32.890 --> 00:26:35.269
and travel north to find work, they would never

00:26:35.269 --> 00:26:38.490
come back. If the workers left, the southern

00:26:38.490 --> 00:26:41.029
agricultural economy would completely collapse.

00:26:41.430 --> 00:26:44.490
So the planters decide to use the disaster relief

00:26:44.490 --> 00:26:46.910
system to artificially trap them. The sources

00:26:46.910 --> 00:26:49.369
detail a specific policy that just blew my mind.

00:26:49.490 --> 00:26:52.150
The vouchers. Yes. African -American refugees

00:26:52.150 --> 00:26:54.950
could not receive basic Red Cross supplies, meaning

00:26:54.950 --> 00:26:57.450
food rations for their starting families, without

00:26:57.450 --> 00:26:59.470
dividing the name of their white employer or

00:26:59.470 --> 00:27:01.490
presenting a physical voucher signed by a white

00:27:01.490 --> 00:27:04.329
person. It's hard to believe. I mean... I'm struggling

00:27:04.329 --> 00:27:06.309
to understand how this even works logistically.

00:27:06.769 --> 00:27:08.769
You're a refugee from a natural disaster, you've

00:27:08.769 --> 00:27:10.890
lost your home, you're standing in the mud, and

00:27:10.890 --> 00:27:12.690
the government relief agency tells you that you

00:27:12.690 --> 00:27:14.529
need a permission slip from your boss just to

00:27:14.529 --> 00:27:17.789
eat. Yes. It was a mechanism of absolute control.

00:27:18.029 --> 00:27:20.829
The Red Cross supplies were effectively handed

00:27:20.829 --> 00:27:23.230
over to the plantation owners to distribute to

00:27:23.230 --> 00:27:26.730
their workers. This ensured that the sharecropping

00:27:26.730 --> 00:27:29.269
debt system remained intact even when there were

00:27:29.269 --> 00:27:32.170
no crops to share. The planter controlled the

00:27:32.170 --> 00:27:34.269
food, so the planter controlled the worker. So

00:27:34.269 --> 00:27:36.309
we have to call this what it was. I'm reading

00:27:36.309 --> 00:27:38.849
this and I'm thinking, these aren't relief camps.

00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:41.039
Were these tent cities literally functioning

00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.140
as forced labor camps for African Americans?

00:27:43.319 --> 00:27:45.940
In many highly documented cases across the Delta,

00:27:46.359 --> 00:27:48.900
yes, they functioned exactly as forced labor

00:27:48.900 --> 00:27:51.900
camps. In order to fully exploit black labor

00:27:51.900 --> 00:27:54.680
and ensure the workers didn't migrate away, refugees

00:27:54.680 --> 00:27:56.920
were frequently kept in the camps against their

00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:59.299
will. Just literally imprisoned. National guardsmen

00:27:59.299 --> 00:28:01.579
were stationed at the perimeters with bayonets.

00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:03.819
African Americans were not permitted to leave

00:28:03.819 --> 00:28:06.380
the camps freely. Furthermore, they were forced

00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:08.700
to work cleaning up the devastation in the local

00:28:08.589 --> 00:28:12.069
towns, unloading supply boats or doing incredibly

00:28:12.069 --> 00:28:14.430
dangerous work fortifying the remaining levies.

00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:17.329
Under guard. Often under armed guard and often

00:28:17.329 --> 00:28:19.730
for no pay other than their daily food ration.

00:28:20.170 --> 00:28:21.990
Which brings us back to the image I asked you

00:28:21.990 --> 00:28:23.670
to picture at the very beginning of this deep

00:28:23.670 --> 00:28:27.069
dive. The Greenville levy incident. Right. This

00:28:27.069 --> 00:28:29.890
is perhaps the most visceral example of this

00:28:29.890 --> 00:28:34.470
forced imprisonment. Over 13 ,000 evacuees from

00:28:34.470 --> 00:28:37.660
the surrounding area. Farms were gathered and

00:28:37.660 --> 00:28:40.480
evacuated to the crest of an unbroken section

00:28:40.480 --> 00:28:43.099
of the Greenville levee in Mississippi. Just

00:28:43.099 --> 00:28:45.819
picture the geography of that. 13 ,000 human

00:28:45.819 --> 00:28:48.839
beings, primarily black sharecroppers and their

00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:51.519
families, standing on a narrow strip of elevated

00:28:51.519 --> 00:28:54.099
dirt, maybe a few miles long, entirely surrounded

00:28:54.099 --> 00:28:57.279
by a raging, churning inland sea. There is no

00:28:57.279 --> 00:28:59.579
shelter. No shelter. There are no sanitation

00:28:59.579 --> 00:29:02.089
facilities. And the sources state... They were

00:29:02.089 --> 00:29:04.529
stranded there for days, without sufficient food

00:29:04.529 --> 00:29:06.869
or clean water. But they weren't just waiting

00:29:06.869 --> 00:29:09.470
for rescue. The White authorities in Greenville

00:29:09.470 --> 00:29:11.970
deliberately prevented them from boarding steamers

00:29:11.970 --> 00:29:14.049
that were heading north out of the disaster zone.

00:29:14.130 --> 00:29:16.650
They wouldn't let them leave. The planters insisted

00:29:16.650 --> 00:29:18.490
that the workers remain on the levees so they

00:29:18.490 --> 00:29:20.410
would be available to work the fields the moment

00:29:20.410 --> 00:29:22.990
the water receded. They kept them there under

00:29:22.990 --> 00:29:25.599
armed guard. It was a humanitarian nightmare

00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:28.339
compounded by a desperate, violent attempt to

00:29:28.339 --> 00:29:31.240
maintain a semi -feudal economic system. The

00:29:31.240 --> 00:29:33.440
planters were weaponizing the disaster relief

00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:36.099
to artificially maintain the pre -flood status

00:29:36.099 --> 00:29:39.960
quo. But if you push a population to this level

00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:43.240
of desperation, starving them, trapping them

00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:45.400
on a sliver of land, forcing them to work under

00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:48.859
the barrel of a gun, that oppression cannot remain

00:29:48.859 --> 00:29:51.480
purely bureaucratic. It is going to explode.

00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.500
And it did. The situation in these camps inevitably

00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:57.700
reached a violent boiling point. The sheer brutality

00:29:57.700 --> 00:30:00.059
of the planters actions ensured that going back

00:30:00.059 --> 00:30:02.240
to the way things were before the flood was going

00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:04.400
to be physically and psychologically impossible

00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:06.759
for the black workforce. Right. We begin to see

00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:09.099
fatal hostilities erupting between the races.

00:30:09.259 --> 00:30:11.539
The sources document several horrific instances

00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:14.160
of this violence. In one case, local white police

00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:16.140
were sent into the black section of a relief

00:30:16.140 --> 00:30:19.019
camp to literally round up men for forced labor

00:30:19.019 --> 00:30:21.799
details. Yeah. A black man whose family had just

00:30:21.799 --> 00:30:24.059
lost everything refused to go with the officer

00:30:24.059 --> 00:30:26.700
to unload a relief boat at gunpoint. And the

00:30:26.700 --> 00:30:29.119
white police officer shot and killed him on the

00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:32.099
spot. Executed in a refugee camp for refusing

00:30:32.099 --> 00:30:35.059
forced labor during a natural disaster. And it's

00:30:35.059 --> 00:30:37.180
crucial to understand that this wasn't an isolated

00:30:37.180 --> 00:30:40.079
incident or a rogue officer. This violence was

00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:42.460
the enforcement mechanism of the system. There's

00:30:42.460 --> 00:30:45.259
another case over near Helena, Arkansas, that

00:30:45.259 --> 00:30:48.750
really highlights the utter insanity of the planter's

00:30:48.750 --> 00:30:51.710
priorities. The sources detail the lynching of

00:30:51.710 --> 00:30:54.430
a black man named Owen Fleming. That case is

00:30:54.430 --> 00:30:57.130
just horrific. Fleming was killed by a white

00:30:57.130 --> 00:31:00.119
mob. after he shot and killed a plantation overseer

00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:02.460
in an altercation. But I want to focus on why

00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:04.240
that altercation happened in the first place.

00:31:04.619 --> 00:31:07.700
The overseer was trying to force Fleming at gunpoint

00:31:07.700 --> 00:31:11.279
to wade out into the dangerous churning floodwaters

00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:13.980
to rescue the plantation owner's mules. Think

00:31:13.980 --> 00:31:17.700
about the profound indignity, the absolute dehumanization

00:31:17.700 --> 00:31:20.259
of that demand. A white overseer is essentially

00:31:20.259 --> 00:31:22.799
telling a black man that his human life is worth

00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:25.859
less than the plantation's livestock. He is violently

00:31:25.859 --> 00:31:28.509
forcing him to risk drowning to save a mule.

00:31:28.869 --> 00:31:31.490
When Fleming defended himself against this forced

00:31:31.490 --> 00:31:34.809
suicide mission, he was lynched. These incidents

00:31:34.809 --> 00:31:37.750
lay bare the terrifying reality of the era. The

00:31:37.750 --> 00:31:40.109
system was desperately trying to maintain its

00:31:40.109 --> 00:31:42.569
racial hierarchy in the midst of total chaos,

00:31:42.569 --> 00:31:45.230
and it was willing to use murder to do it. Now,

00:31:45.230 --> 00:31:47.190
you can't have thousands of people imprisoned

00:31:47.190 --> 00:31:50.549
in camps, rampant starvation, and public lynchings

00:31:50.549 --> 00:31:52.890
without the news eventually leaking out. Where

00:31:52.890 --> 00:31:54.630
do these terrible conditions and this racial

00:31:54.630 --> 00:31:57.099
violence eventually reaches the desk of Herbert

00:31:57.099 --> 00:31:59.359
Hoover. And Hoover is a smart political operator.

00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:02.559
Very smart. He knows that if the northern press

00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:04.500
gets hold of the fact that his masterful Red

00:32:04.500 --> 00:32:07.140
Cross relief camps are actually forced labor

00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:09.299
camps where black Americans are being murdered,

00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:12.079
it is going to destroy his pristine reputation.

00:32:12.920 --> 00:32:16.000
It is a massive political liability for his upcoming

00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:19.299
1928 presidential run. Hoover recognizes the

00:32:19.299 --> 00:32:21.460
danger immediately. At this time, the Republican

00:32:21.460 --> 00:32:24.079
Party, the party of Lincoln, still holds the

00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:26.059
vast majority of the African -American vote in

00:32:26.059 --> 00:32:29.240
the north. But there is an advisory group, the

00:32:29.240 --> 00:32:32.359
Colored Advisory Commission, headed by a very

00:32:32.359 --> 00:32:34.940
prominent, highly respected African -American

00:32:34.940 --> 00:32:38.420
leader named Robert Ressa Moten. Moten was the

00:32:38.420 --> 00:32:40.990
principal of the Tuskegee Institute. succeeding

00:32:40.990 --> 00:32:44.450
Booker T. Washington. Hoover authorizes Moten

00:32:44.450 --> 00:32:47.130
and his commission to conduct deep investigations

00:32:47.130 --> 00:32:49.809
into the refugee camps. So Moten goes down there,

00:32:50.009 --> 00:32:52.089
his team does the interviews, and they write

00:32:52.089 --> 00:32:55.970
up extensive damning reports detailing the exact

00:32:55.970 --> 00:32:58.089
terrible situations we just talked about. The

00:32:58.089 --> 00:33:00.490
forced labor, the violence, the withholding of

00:33:00.490 --> 00:33:03.190
food. And Hoover, keeping his eyes firmly on

00:33:03.190 --> 00:33:06.069
the 1928 election, knows he needs to keep these

00:33:06.069 --> 00:33:08.279
reports buried. So what does he do? He enters

00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:10.700
into a cynical political negotiation with Moten.

00:33:10.980 --> 00:33:13.740
At Hoover's direct request, the devastating reports

00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:15.720
generated by the Colored Advisory Commission

00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:17.940
are kept strictly out of the media. In exchange

00:33:17.940 --> 00:33:20.299
for what? In exchange for suppressing the truth

00:33:20.299 --> 00:33:23.059
about the camps, Hoover makes a solemn pledge.

00:33:23.539 --> 00:33:26.140
He promises Moten and the African -American community

00:33:26.140 --> 00:33:28.819
that if they keep quiet, avoid a scandal and

00:33:28.819 --> 00:33:31.599
help him get elected, he will institute sweeping,

00:33:31.900 --> 00:33:35.220
unprecedented reforms for Black Americans, including

00:33:35.220 --> 00:33:38.009
land redistribution and better access to capital

00:33:38.009 --> 00:33:40.589
once he wins the presidency. It's a massive political

00:33:40.589 --> 00:33:43.589
gamble by Moten. But he agrees. He does. The

00:33:43.589 --> 00:33:45.529
commission suppresses the reports. The scandal

00:33:45.529 --> 00:33:48.369
is avoided. The northern public remains largely

00:33:48.369 --> 00:33:51.450
ignorant of the atrocities in the camps. Hoover

00:33:51.450 --> 00:33:54.589
rides his glowing unchallenged reputation as

00:33:54.589 --> 00:33:57.559
the great humanitarian hero of the flood. all

00:33:57.559 --> 00:34:00.359
the way to the White House. He wins the 1928

00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:02.599
election in a landslide. Oh, yes he does. And

00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:04.859
then what happens? Does the great engineer build

00:34:04.859 --> 00:34:07.579
a new system for Black Americans? He completely

00:34:07.579 --> 00:34:10.659
and utterly breaks his promises. Once in office,

00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:13.519
Hoover ignores Moten. He fails to deliver any

00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:15.360
of the pledged reforms to the African -American

00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:18.099
community. Wow. He actively courts southern white

00:34:18.099 --> 00:34:20.260
conservative votes and essentially abandons the

00:34:20.260 --> 00:34:22.380
Black leaders who helped shield him from scandal.

00:34:22.699 --> 00:34:25.599
It is just a blatant, calculated political betrayal.

00:34:25.820 --> 00:34:29.579
And this betrayal has massive cascading historical

00:34:29.579 --> 00:34:32.599
consequences. If we look at the trajectory of

00:34:32.599 --> 00:34:35.239
American politics, Hoover's failure to deliver

00:34:35.239 --> 00:34:38.280
wasn't just a single broken promise. It was the

00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:40.760
final breaking point following a long string

00:34:40.760 --> 00:34:43.260
of disappointments by the Republican Party. Right,

00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:45.340
because black voters had been loyal to the party

00:34:45.340 --> 00:34:48.199
of Lincoln for decades. But the party had increasingly

00:34:48.199 --> 00:34:50.719
taken that vote for granted while ignoring the

00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:53.460
realities of Jim Crow. Exactly. But it takes

00:34:53.460 --> 00:34:55.960
a catalyst to actually break a decades -long

00:34:55.960 --> 00:34:58.840
voting habit. And this broken promise over the

00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:01.420
flood relief is the final straw. It really is.

00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:04.619
Because of this profound betrayal, Robert Rissa

00:35:04.619 --> 00:35:07.519
Moten and a coalition of other highly influential

00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:10.719
African -American leaders made a historic decision.

00:35:11.219 --> 00:35:14.099
They began to actively encourage Black Americans

00:35:14.099 --> 00:35:17.000
to fundamentally politically realign. Meaning

00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:20.000
what? They started urging a massive shift away

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:22.610
from the Republicans, urging voters to cast their

00:35:22.610 --> 00:35:25.150
ballots for the National Democrats, specifically

00:35:25.150 --> 00:35:27.449
aligning with Franklin D. Roosevelt a few years

00:35:27.449 --> 00:35:29.869
later. That is a political earthquake. It truly

00:35:29.869 --> 00:35:32.489
was. Hoover's cynical actions during the flood

00:35:32.489 --> 00:35:34.750
relief directly cost him the black vote in the

00:35:34.750 --> 00:35:37.230
North during his reelection campaign in 1932,

00:35:37.809 --> 00:35:40.010
a vote that shifted to FDR and helped cement

00:35:40.010 --> 00:35:43.329
the New Deal coalition. So when we analyze the

00:35:43.329 --> 00:35:46.590
1927 flood, we see that it didn't just reshape

00:35:46.590 --> 00:35:49.510
the physical landscape of the river. it actively,

00:35:49.510 --> 00:35:51.809
permanently reshaped the national political map

00:35:51.809 --> 00:35:54.489
of the United States. Without a doubt. And while

00:35:54.489 --> 00:35:56.289
the political map in Washington is changing,

00:35:56.869 --> 00:35:59.070
the physical demographic map of the country is

00:35:59.070 --> 00:36:01.230
about to experience an even more violent shift.

00:36:01.349 --> 00:36:04.889
Yes. We have to look at what all of this, the

00:36:04.889 --> 00:36:07.289
absolute destruction of their homes, the traumatic

00:36:07.289 --> 00:36:09.869
imprisonment in the forced labor camps, the racial

00:36:09.869 --> 00:36:12.650
violence over mules, the political betrayal in

00:36:12.650 --> 00:36:14.969
Washington, what all of this triggered in the

00:36:14.969 --> 00:36:16.429
minds of the people who actually lived through

00:36:16.429 --> 00:36:19.840
it. We reach the summer of 1927. The floodwaters

00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:22.760
finally slowly begin to recede in June and July.

00:36:23.300 --> 00:36:25.260
Some of these forest displacements had lasted

00:36:25.260 --> 00:36:27.500
up to six months. Six months in a camp. Half

00:36:27.500 --> 00:36:30.219
a year living in these oppressive muddy tent

00:36:30.219 --> 00:36:33.539
cities under armed guard. And when the land finally

00:36:33.539 --> 00:36:36.139
dried out, the white planters simply opened the

00:36:36.139 --> 00:36:38.559
gates and expected the black workforce to walk

00:36:38.559 --> 00:36:41.039
back out to the muddy fields, pick up their tools

00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:43.619
and resume sharecropping as if nothing had happened.

00:36:43.780 --> 00:36:45.719
I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a worker

00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:48.980
in that moment. You look at the planter who just

00:36:48.980 --> 00:36:51.380
spent the last six months showing you exactly

00:36:51.380 --> 00:36:54.420
how little he values your life. Are you really

00:36:54.420 --> 00:36:56.780
going to go back to work for him? The workers

00:36:56.780 --> 00:36:59.679
were deeply fundamentally mistrustful of the

00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:02.199
white Delta landlords, and understandably so.

00:37:02.539 --> 00:37:04.659
They looked at the totality of the situation.

00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:06.980
They realized that returning to the fields meant

00:37:06.980 --> 00:37:09.320
returning to a system that had just definitively

00:37:09.320 --> 00:37:11.440
proven in front of the whole world that it would

00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:14.059
gladly let them drown, intentionally starve them

00:37:14.059 --> 00:37:16.760
in a camp, or shoot them in the street over a

00:37:16.760 --> 00:37:19.340
farm animal. The paternalistic illusion of the

00:37:19.340 --> 00:37:22.099
sharecropping system, the lie that the planter

00:37:22.099 --> 00:37:25.000
took care of his people, was completely washed

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:28.130
away. And so they made a historic collective

00:37:28.130 --> 00:37:31.929
choice. They chose to leave. They preferred to

00:37:31.929 --> 00:37:35.250
move into the unknown rather than return to rural

00:37:35.250 --> 00:37:38.269
agricultural labor under those horrific conditions.

00:37:38.650 --> 00:37:41.190
Now, the sources do clarify, and it's an important

00:37:41.190 --> 00:37:43.949
historical distinction, that the Great Migration

00:37:44.349 --> 00:37:47.630
The massive demographic movement of African Americans

00:37:47.630 --> 00:37:49.889
out of the rural South to the industrial cities

00:37:49.889 --> 00:37:52.670
of the North and Midwest had already been underway

00:37:52.670 --> 00:37:55.130
since roughly World War I. Right. It had. They

00:37:55.130 --> 00:37:57.469
were already leaving to escape Jim Crow and find

00:37:57.469 --> 00:38:00.789
factory jobs. The flood did not invent the Great

00:38:00.789 --> 00:38:03.269
Migration. No, it didn't invent it, but it provided

00:38:03.269 --> 00:38:05.929
a massive, unprecedented acceleration. Right.

00:38:06.230 --> 00:38:09.699
If the Great Migration was a fire, The 1927 flood

00:38:09.699 --> 00:38:12.199
was like dumping a massive barrel of rocket fuel

00:38:12.199 --> 00:38:14.820
onto it. That is exactly the mechanism. Tens

00:38:14.820 --> 00:38:16.980
of thousands of local African -Americans moved

00:38:16.980 --> 00:38:18.960
to the big industrial cities of the North almost

00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:20.780
immediately following their release from the

00:38:20.780 --> 00:38:23.780
camps, with Chicago, Illinois being a primary

00:38:23.780 --> 00:38:26.340
major destination. Oh, Chicago. And many hundreds

00:38:26.340 --> 00:38:28.420
of thousands more followed in the subsequent

00:38:28.420 --> 00:38:31.159
decades, directly influenced by the severing

00:38:31.159 --> 00:38:34.460
of ties that occurred in the mud of 1927. The

00:38:34.460 --> 00:38:36.940
historical irony here is just incredibly thick.

00:38:37.849 --> 00:38:40.789
The white planters were so paranoid, they used

00:38:40.789 --> 00:38:44.210
forced labor, armed guards, violence, and strict

00:38:44.210 --> 00:38:46.690
camp lockdowns, specifically because they were

00:38:46.690 --> 00:38:49.510
terrified of losing their 95 % agricultural labor

00:38:49.510 --> 00:38:52.610
force. Yes. But those extreme, brutal measures

00:38:52.610 --> 00:38:56.130
were the exact final push that drove that workforce

00:38:56.130 --> 00:38:59.340
away forever. By trying to artificially violently

00:38:59.340 --> 00:39:02.320
craft them, the planters shattered whatever fragile,

00:39:02.420 --> 00:39:05.179
coercive bond existed between the worker and

00:39:05.179 --> 00:39:07.599
the southern land. The flood severed both the

00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:09.739
physical and the psychological ties to the Delta.

00:39:10.090 --> 00:39:12.789
When the levees broke, the social contract broke

00:39:12.789 --> 00:39:15.429
with them. It really did. It became abundantly

00:39:15.429 --> 00:39:17.690
clear that in a crisis, the Southern system would

00:39:17.690 --> 00:39:20.210
always prioritize white property over black lives.

00:39:20.849 --> 00:39:23.409
The Great Migration, in the context of this flood,

00:39:23.829 --> 00:39:26.230
was not just a search for better factory wages.

00:39:26.309 --> 00:39:28.889
It was a profound, desperate act of self -preservation.

00:39:29.150 --> 00:39:31.230
Exactly. It was thousands of people exercising

00:39:31.230 --> 00:39:33.510
their agency to flee an environment both natural

00:39:33.510 --> 00:39:36.110
and social that had proven to be entirely lethal.

00:39:36.400 --> 00:39:39.800
And when a trauma of this magnitude hits a population,

00:39:40.340 --> 00:39:42.500
it doesn't just disappear into the history books.

00:39:43.179 --> 00:39:46.300
It leaves an absolute indelible mark on the culture

00:39:46.300 --> 00:39:49.260
of the nation. The physical destruction and the

00:39:49.260 --> 00:39:52.739
social upheaval of the 1927 flood profoundly

00:39:52.739 --> 00:39:55.809
shaped American art, specifically the music of

00:39:55.809 --> 00:39:58.269
the era. It did. Let's look at the cultural legacy,

00:39:58.329 --> 00:40:00.489
because this flood was heavily immortalized in

00:40:00.489 --> 00:40:03.150
the blues. Yes, the sheer scale of the suffering,

00:40:03.230 --> 00:40:05.469
the displacement and the powerlessness found

00:40:05.469 --> 00:40:08.909
its rawest expression in blues music. The Delta

00:40:08.909 --> 00:40:11.530
was the birthplace of the blues and the flood

00:40:11.530 --> 00:40:14.670
provided a tragic, epic subject matter. Absolutely.

00:40:14.849 --> 00:40:17.110
Although there is an incredibly interesting historical

00:40:17.110 --> 00:40:19.110
footnote in the sources regarding the music.

00:40:19.449 --> 00:40:21.090
When people think of flood songs, one of the

00:40:21.090 --> 00:40:23.769
most famous tracks associated with this era is

00:40:23.769 --> 00:40:26.440
Bessie Smith's classic Backwater Blues. Yeah,

00:40:26.539 --> 00:40:29.239
that's iconic. But if you actually analyze the

00:40:29.239 --> 00:40:32.159
historical timeline of her recordings, the catastrophic

00:40:32.159 --> 00:40:35.719
1927 Mississippi flood was actually at its worst

00:40:35.719 --> 00:40:37.780
about two months after she wrote and recorded

00:40:37.780 --> 00:40:40.539
that song. Wait, really? I always assumed Backwater

00:40:40.539 --> 00:40:43.739
Blues was the definitive anthem of the 27 flood.

00:40:43.880 --> 00:40:46.400
Yeah. So what specific flood was she actually

00:40:46.400 --> 00:40:49.559
singing about? Historians who have studied her

00:40:49.559 --> 00:40:52.079
touring itinerary and contemporary news reports

00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:54.659
indicate that she likely wrote Backwater Blues

00:40:54.659 --> 00:40:57.800
in direct response to that massive precursor

00:40:57.800 --> 00:41:01.320
Christmas Day 1926 flood that struck Nashville,

00:41:01.320 --> 00:41:04.260
Tennessee, where the Cumberland River rose to

00:41:04.260 --> 00:41:07.480
56 feet. Oh. She was touring in the region around

00:41:07.480 --> 00:41:10.000
that time and witnessed the destruction firsthand.

00:41:10.500 --> 00:41:13.260
Ah, the Nashville flood. The meteorological trigger

00:41:13.260 --> 00:41:15.139
we talked about at the very beginning that saturated

00:41:15.139 --> 00:41:17.809
the basin. That's a fascinating connection. Right.

00:41:18.170 --> 00:41:20.789
So she was documenting the warning signs. But

00:41:20.789 --> 00:41:22.889
there were plenty of iconic songs written directly

00:41:22.889 --> 00:41:25.070
in response to the Maine 27 Mississippi flood,

00:41:25.230 --> 00:41:28.030
right? Absolutely. The 27 flood permeated the

00:41:28.030 --> 00:41:30.030
artistic consciousness of the entire nation.

00:41:30.409 --> 00:41:32.409
You have the legendary Memphis Mini and Kansas

00:41:32.409 --> 00:41:34.809
Joe McCoy recording the seminal track, When the

00:41:34.809 --> 00:41:38.079
Levee Breaks, in 1929. Such a great song. The

00:41:38.079 --> 00:41:40.480
lyrics directly reference the fear of the rising

00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:42.800
water and the forced labor on the levees. And

00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:45.079
of course, that song was famously reinterpreted

00:41:45.079 --> 00:41:48.239
with a massively heavy drum beat by Led Zeppelin,

00:41:48.420 --> 00:41:51.440
decades later in 1971, introducing the trauma

00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:54.260
of the Delta to a whole new generation of rock

00:41:54.260 --> 00:41:56.539
fans. You also have Charlie Patton, one of the

00:41:56.539 --> 00:41:59.039
foundational figures of the Delta blues, recording

00:41:59.039 --> 00:42:01.699
high water everywhere. The sources also mentioned

00:42:01.699 --> 00:42:05.019
Laura Smith's The Mississippi Blues, Sippy Wallace's

00:42:05.019 --> 00:42:07.679
The Flood Blues, and even country and folk artists

00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:10.199
like Vernon Dalhart recording The Mississippi

00:42:10.199 --> 00:42:14.480
Flood right in May of 1927, literally while the

00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:17.320
waters were still 80 miles wide. The music became

00:42:17.320 --> 00:42:19.920
a real time documentary of the disaster. It did.

00:42:20.139 --> 00:42:22.000
And it wasn't just music. American literature

00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:24.239
grappled heavily with the trauma. Writers like

00:42:24.239 --> 00:42:26.659
William Faulkner and his acclaimed novella Old

00:42:26.659 --> 00:42:29.360
Man use the chaos of the flood as a backdrop.

00:42:29.820 --> 00:42:32.179
Richard Wright, whose own life was shaped by

00:42:32.179 --> 00:42:34.579
the Great Migration, wrote about the intersection

00:42:34.579 --> 00:42:37.849
of racial oppression and natural disaster. William

00:42:37.849 --> 00:42:41.150
Alexander Percy, a planter himself who is deeply

00:42:41.150 --> 00:42:44.030
involved in the relief efforts and controversially

00:42:44.030 --> 00:42:46.809
involved in the forced labor aspects, wrote about

00:42:46.809 --> 00:42:49.349
the flood in his memoir, Lanterns on the Levee.

00:42:49.570 --> 00:42:51.570
The artistic community was trying to process

00:42:51.570 --> 00:42:53.750
an event that fundamentally altered the reality

00:42:53.750 --> 00:42:56.739
of the South. So the culture absorbs the shock.

00:42:57.179 --> 00:43:00.420
It documents the pain. But what about the infrastructure?

00:43:00.619 --> 00:43:02.780
That's a huge piece of this. We've talked about

00:43:02.780 --> 00:43:05.940
how the levies only policy was a total catastrophic

00:43:05.940 --> 00:43:10.079
failure of engineering hubris. After 145 levy

00:43:10.079 --> 00:43:12.340
breaks and a trillion dollars of modern economic

00:43:12.340 --> 00:43:14.579
damage, the government must have realized they

00:43:14.579 --> 00:43:17.599
were wrong. Did they finally listen to the ghost

00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:19.800
of James Eads? Well, they certainly mobilized

00:43:19.800 --> 00:43:22.280
and spent an unprecedented amount of money. In

00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:24.739
the direct aftermath, Congress passes the landmark

00:43:24.739 --> 00:43:27.380
Mississippi Flood Control Act of 1928. Okay,

00:43:27.500 --> 00:43:29.800
what did that do? It was the largest public works

00:43:29.800 --> 00:43:32.139
legislation in American history up to that point.

00:43:32.400 --> 00:43:34.940
The federal government, specifically the U .S.

00:43:35.019 --> 00:43:37.500
Army Corps of Engineers, is officially charged

00:43:37.500 --> 00:43:39.800
with taming the Mississippi River once and for

00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:42.099
all. So they double down. They launch a massive

00:43:42.099 --> 00:43:44.619
construction campaign, eventually building the

00:43:44.619 --> 00:43:47.579
world's longest continuous system of levees.

00:43:47.820 --> 00:43:50.880
And crucially, they do finally construct spillways

00:43:50.880 --> 00:43:53.860
and floodways valves, essentially intended to

00:43:53.860 --> 00:43:56.079
divert excessive flow out of the main channel

00:43:56.079 --> 00:43:58.440
during emergencies. OK, so they finally build

00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:00.139
some relief valves. It sounds like they learned

00:44:00.139 --> 00:44:03.170
at least part of their lesson. So, did it work?

00:44:03.630 --> 00:44:06.130
Did they finally... put the river in a permanent

00:44:06.130 --> 00:44:08.190
straitjacket? To a degree, they prevented some

00:44:08.190 --> 00:44:11.469
localized seasonal flooding, but the foundational

00:44:11.469 --> 00:44:14.429
insistence on heavily channeling the waters still

00:44:14.429 --> 00:44:17.190
had profound, unintended, and highly destructive

00:44:17.190 --> 00:44:20.369
consequences. While the new higher levees looked

00:44:20.369 --> 00:44:23.389
impressive, modern scientists and hydrologists

00:44:23.389 --> 00:44:25.650
later confirmed that the core fundamentally changed

00:44:25.650 --> 00:44:27.909
the hydrology of the Mississippi River in ways

00:44:27.909 --> 00:44:30.510
that actually increased the severity of flooding

00:44:30.510 --> 00:44:32.949
in succeeding decades. I need you to explain

00:44:32.949 --> 00:44:35.289
the mechanics of that. because it sounds counterintuitive.

00:44:35.949 --> 00:44:39.570
How does building better, stronger walls actually

00:44:39.570 --> 00:44:42.250
increase the flooding? Because the core problem

00:44:42.250 --> 00:44:45.349
remained. They were treating a river like a pipe

00:44:45.349 --> 00:44:48.030
rather than a living ecosystem. Right, the garden

00:44:48.030 --> 00:44:51.630
hose analogy again. Exactly. By channeling the

00:44:51.630 --> 00:44:54.750
water so strictly between these massive new walls,

00:44:55.210 --> 00:44:58.070
They further permanently severed the river from

00:44:58.070 --> 00:45:01.510
its natural floodplains. They completely destroyed

00:45:01.510 --> 00:45:04.190
the ability of the surrounding wetlands to absorb

00:45:04.190 --> 00:45:07.610
seasonal rains. Make sense. Furthermore, by restricting

00:45:07.610 --> 00:45:10.110
the channel, they dramatically increased the

00:45:10.110 --> 00:45:12.289
speed and the kinetic energy of the river's current.

00:45:12.710 --> 00:45:15.369
And as we discussed earlier, they prevented the

00:45:15.369 --> 00:45:17.889
river from depositing new, healthy soils along

00:45:17.889 --> 00:45:20.269
its banks, meaning the land outside the levees

00:45:20.269 --> 00:45:22.610
began to sink while the riverbed continued to

00:45:22.610 --> 00:45:25.360
rise. So the bowl just gets deeper. Yes, the

00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:26.860
levees didn't solve the problem. They're just

00:45:26.860 --> 00:45:29.320
built a tighter, more dangerous pressure cooker.

00:45:29.519 --> 00:45:31.920
So they just delayed the explosion. Exactly.

00:45:32.340 --> 00:45:35.119
In fact, a major massive flood recurred just

00:45:35.119 --> 00:45:38.400
10 years later in 1937, testing the absolute

00:45:38.400 --> 00:45:41.480
limits of the new 1928 system and causing widespread

00:45:41.480 --> 00:45:44.900
devastation yet again. The hubris remained intact.

00:45:45.139 --> 00:45:47.260
It's like we just fundamentally refuse to learn

00:45:47.260 --> 00:45:49.539
that we cannot completely engineer our way out

00:45:49.539 --> 00:45:52.239
of nature's path, which brings us to perhaps

00:45:52.239 --> 00:45:55.650
the most bizarre. a real physical relic of this

00:45:55.650 --> 00:45:58.489
entire story. Yes, the model. The sources detail

00:45:58.489 --> 00:46:00.610
that in an attempt to finally understand the

00:46:00.610 --> 00:46:02.929
river, to really map its hydrology and stop the

00:46:02.929 --> 00:46:05.269
flooding once and for all, the government decides

00:46:05.269 --> 00:46:06.969
to build a model. And we aren't talking about

00:46:06.969 --> 00:46:09.130
a small diorama in a laboratory. No, this is

00:46:09.130 --> 00:46:11.889
a staggeringly large, almost incomprehensible

00:46:11.889 --> 00:46:14.269
piece of physical engineering. Moving forward

00:46:14.269 --> 00:46:17.309
to 1942, a man named Lieutenant Eugene Raybold,

00:46:17.510 --> 00:46:19.530
working for the Corps of Engineers, proposed

00:46:19.530 --> 00:46:22.090
laying out a massive physical hydraulic model

00:46:22.090 --> 00:46:25.130
to actually simulate the entire Mississippi Basin's

00:46:25.130 --> 00:46:28.250
response to various rainfall scenarios. They

00:46:28.250 --> 00:46:30.409
procured a massive tract of land at the southeast

00:46:30.409 --> 00:46:32.690
edge of Clinton, Mississippi, and constructed

00:46:32.690 --> 00:46:35.869
a 200 -acre working hydraulic model. 200 acres.

00:46:36.309 --> 00:46:38.409
I want the listener to really picture this. That

00:46:38.409 --> 00:46:41.590
is the size of a large commercial farm or a massive

00:46:41.590 --> 00:46:44.630
golf course, just functioning as a scale model.

00:46:44.750 --> 00:46:47.769
of a river system. It was incredibly detailed

00:46:47.769 --> 00:46:51.489
and geographically precise. They literally sculpted

00:46:51.489 --> 00:46:54.449
the earth to match the river's flow from Baton

00:46:54.449 --> 00:46:56.889
Rouge all the way up to Omaha, Nebraska. That's

00:46:56.889 --> 00:46:59.650
amazing. They modeled the exact confluence points

00:46:59.650 --> 00:47:02.150
of its major tributaries across 16 different

00:47:02.150 --> 00:47:05.269
states. They pumped real water through it to

00:47:05.269 --> 00:47:07.170
test how long it would take a flood crest in

00:47:07.170 --> 00:47:09.610
Missouri to reach Louisiana. And what is truly

00:47:09.610 --> 00:47:12.010
surreal, what absolutely blew my mind reading

00:47:12.010 --> 00:47:15.469
these sources, is who provided the physical labor

00:47:15.469 --> 00:47:18.389
to build this massive installation? Because remember

00:47:18.389 --> 00:47:21.170
the year, this is 1942. Right, World War II.

00:47:21.369 --> 00:47:23.030
The United States is deep into World War II.

00:47:23.190 --> 00:47:25.309
The domestic labor force is depleted. Yeah. So

00:47:25.309 --> 00:47:27.630
to build this 200 -acre model of the Mississippi

00:47:27.630 --> 00:47:30.750
River, the government uses the labor of German

00:47:30.750 --> 00:47:32.909
prisoners of war who are being held at the nearby

00:47:32.909 --> 00:47:36.449
Camp Clinton. It is a remarkable historical fact.

00:47:37.019 --> 00:47:39.360
German soldiers, captured on the battlefields

00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:41.960
of North Africa or Europe, were brought to the

00:47:41.960 --> 00:47:44.980
humid woods of Mississippi and handed shovels

00:47:44.980 --> 00:47:48.460
to dig scale models of the Arkansas River. I

00:47:48.460 --> 00:47:50.639
just have to stop and marvel at the profound

00:47:50.639 --> 00:47:53.440
historical juxtaposition here. Just think about

00:47:53.440 --> 00:47:55.820
the layers of history colliding on that plot

00:47:55.820 --> 00:48:00.159
of land. Yeah. You have German POWs in the middle

00:48:00.159 --> 00:48:03.719
of Jim Crow, Mississippi in 1942, building a

00:48:03.719 --> 00:48:06.659
200 -acre physical dirt model of a river. to

00:48:06.659 --> 00:48:09.500
try and solve an engineering failure from 1927,

00:48:09.960 --> 00:48:12.039
which had inadvertently served as the violent

00:48:12.039 --> 00:48:14.159
catalyst for the great migration of hundreds

00:48:14.159 --> 00:48:15.800
of thousands of African Americans out of that

00:48:15.800 --> 00:48:18.539
very same state. It's crazy. You literally cannot

00:48:18.539 --> 00:48:20.960
write historical fiction that weird and layered.

00:48:21.039 --> 00:48:22.840
You really can't. And the Corps of Engineers

00:48:22.840 --> 00:48:26.199
actually utilized this massive POW -built model

00:48:26.199 --> 00:48:29.179
for decades. It was highly effective for a time.

00:48:29.500 --> 00:48:31.960
They used it to accurately study river flows,

00:48:32.239 --> 00:48:34.559
test levee heights, and plan mitigation strategies

00:48:34.559 --> 00:48:37.059
for various flood scenarios. But it's not used

00:48:37.059 --> 00:48:39.360
anymore, right? No. Eventually, the march of

00:48:39.360 --> 00:48:42.579
technology caught up. By the 1970s, the advent

00:48:42.579 --> 00:48:45.440
of complex computer modeling made physical hydraulic

00:48:45.440 --> 00:48:48.599
models obsolete. A computer could simulate in

00:48:48.599 --> 00:48:51.039
seconds what took weeks to run in the dirt model.

00:48:51.079 --> 00:48:53.599
Makes sense. So it fell entirely out of use.

00:48:54.139 --> 00:48:55.800
The federal government eventually transferred

00:48:55.800 --> 00:48:58.219
the land to the city government of Jackson, Mississippi,

00:48:58.719 --> 00:49:01.320
and a public park named Buddy Butts Park was

00:49:01.320 --> 00:49:03.360
created around the site. And what does it look

00:49:03.360 --> 00:49:07.639
like today? Today, this massive 200 -acre scientific

00:49:07.639 --> 00:49:10.679
marvel, this testament to America's desperate

00:49:10.679 --> 00:49:14.039
attempt to control nature, sits completely abandoned

00:49:14.039 --> 00:49:16.679
in the woods. The concrete riverbeds are cracked,

00:49:17.159 --> 00:49:19.340
the scale model leddies are covered in weeds,

00:49:19.420 --> 00:49:22.039
and it is largely forgotten and overgrown. A

00:49:22.039 --> 00:49:24.719
forgotten model of a river quietly rusting away

00:49:24.719 --> 00:49:27.659
in a municipal park. It feels incredibly tragically

00:49:27.659 --> 00:49:30.400
symbolic of the whole endeavor. So as we wrap

00:49:30.400 --> 00:49:32.460
up, let's synthesize this massive journey we've

00:49:32.460 --> 00:49:34.800
been on today. It's a lot to process. We started

00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:37.239
with a look at hydrology and how a combination

00:49:37.239 --> 00:49:39.980
of relentless record breaking rains and profound

00:49:39.980 --> 00:49:43.280
engineering hubris, the stubborn insistence on

00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:45.880
a levees only policy against the advice of experts

00:49:45.880 --> 00:49:48.360
led to the catastrophic failure of the spring

00:49:48.360 --> 00:49:52.880
of 1927. We saw 27 ,000 square miles of the Mississippi

00:49:52.880 --> 00:49:56.420
Delta stripped bare by an 80 mile wide wall of

00:49:56.420 --> 00:49:58.809
water. But the true catastrophe, as we explored,

00:49:58.989 --> 00:50:02.150
was not merely hydrological. The disaster revealed

00:50:02.150 --> 00:50:04.400
the rot underneath. Yes, it did. The systemic

00:50:04.400 --> 00:50:07.340
racism and the brutal, violent exploitation that

00:50:07.340 --> 00:50:09.719
occurred inside the government relief camps fundamentally

00:50:09.719 --> 00:50:11.900
shattered the southern agricultural labor system.

00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:14.880
The wealthy white planters, terrified of losing

00:50:14.880 --> 00:50:17.940
their captive workforce, tried to weaponize disaster

00:50:17.940 --> 00:50:19.980
relief. They artificially imprisoned their black

00:50:19.980 --> 00:50:23.019
workforce using armed guards, forced labor, and

00:50:23.019 --> 00:50:24.860
the withholding of Red Cross food to maintain

00:50:24.860 --> 00:50:28.219
control. Exactly. And that brutality? the lynchings

00:50:28.219 --> 00:50:30.659
over mules, the murders for refusing to unload

00:50:30.659 --> 00:50:33.500
boats, the broken political promises from Washington

00:50:33.500 --> 00:50:36.260
turned an environmental disaster into the exact

00:50:36.260 --> 00:50:38.460
spark that dramatically accelerated the Great

00:50:38.460 --> 00:50:40.760
Migration. The workforce looked at the system,

00:50:41.340 --> 00:50:43.380
realized the system would rather see them drown

00:50:43.380 --> 00:50:45.920
or starve than grant them basic human agency,

00:50:46.239 --> 00:50:48.820
and so they left. They boarded the trains to

00:50:48.820 --> 00:50:51.559
Chicago and Detroit, and they changed the demographic

00:50:51.559 --> 00:50:54.579
makeup of America forever. Which is exactly why

00:50:54.579 --> 00:50:56.940
this specific history matters to you, listening

00:50:56.940 --> 00:50:59.340
to this deep dive today. Absolutely. The history

00:50:59.340 --> 00:51:02.000
of American cities, the diverse neighborhoods

00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:04.440
we live in, the cultural foundations of the blues,

00:51:04.539 --> 00:51:07.480
jazz, and rock music we listen to, and the very

00:51:07.480 --> 00:51:09.699
political maps of red and blue that we argue

00:51:09.699 --> 00:51:13.139
over every election cycle, they were all literally,

00:51:13.659 --> 00:51:16.960
tangibly shaped by the floodwaters of 1927. and

00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:19.079
the profound human failures that followed in

00:51:19.079 --> 00:51:22.000
the mud. It's all incredibly connected. A rainstorm

00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:24.980
in 1926 leads to a demographic shift that changes

00:51:24.980 --> 00:51:27.679
the voting blocks of the 1930s. It's wild to

00:51:27.679 --> 00:51:29.599
think about. And as we close, I want to leave

00:51:29.599 --> 00:51:32.460
you with one final provocative thought to mull

00:51:32.460 --> 00:51:34.800
over, something that bridges this history with

00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:37.230
our reality today. OK, let's hear it. When we

00:51:37.230 --> 00:51:39.530
look at modern climate crises, the increasing

00:51:39.530 --> 00:51:42.090
frequency of super storms, the rising sea levels,

00:51:42.150 --> 00:51:44.849
and the growing undeniable reality of modern

00:51:44.849 --> 00:51:47.409
environmental refugees being displaced by fires

00:51:47.409 --> 00:51:51.329
and floods, the story of 1927 asks us a deeply

00:51:51.329 --> 00:51:53.570
uncomfortable question. What's that? When disaster

00:51:53.570 --> 00:51:55.889
strikes and displacement happens today, do our

00:51:55.889 --> 00:51:58.090
modern relief systems actually level the playing

00:51:58.090 --> 00:52:01.010
field to help the most vulnerable? Or do they,

00:52:01.170 --> 00:52:04.570
much like the tent cities of 1927, simply reinforce,

00:52:04.949 --> 00:52:07.219
exploit, and weaponize the economic and social

00:52:07.219 --> 00:52:09.519
inequalities that were already there. That is,

00:52:09.519 --> 00:52:11.420
wow, that's a heavy question because at the end

00:52:11.420 --> 00:52:13.559
of the day, whether we are talking about a dirt

00:52:13.559 --> 00:52:16.400
levy in 1927 or modern disaster zoning today,

00:52:16.920 --> 00:52:19.039
a wall isn't just a physical engineering barrier.

00:52:19.219 --> 00:52:21.760
No, it's not. It is a profound moral statement

00:52:21.760 --> 00:52:25.000
about who society chooses to protect and who

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:27.179
we are perfectly willing to leave on the outside

00:52:27.179 --> 00:52:30.780
when the water inevitably rises. When we try

00:52:30.780 --> 00:52:32.860
to build a fortress against nature, we always

00:52:32.860 --> 00:52:35.960
have to ask ourselves, who is locked safely inside

00:52:35.960 --> 00:52:38.599
the walls, and who is being intentionally trapped

00:52:38.599 --> 00:52:41.079
in the floodwaters? Thank you so much for sending

00:52:41.079 --> 00:52:42.840
in these incredible sources, and thank you for

00:52:42.840 --> 00:52:44.019
taking this deep dive with us.