Death by the Riverside: Richard Wright’s Black Pastoral and the Mississippi Flood of 1927
Catherine D Gooch
Abstract
Prior to the twentieth century, the Mississippi River was primarily associated with slavery; its role in simultaneously expanding slavery and capitalism provided the foundation for both the American economy and Black American life. Post-slavery and Reconstruction, however, the Mississippi presented a different threat to the lives of Black Americans, one that was especially troubling in times of natural disaster, as conditions amplified the pervasive economic inequality and social stratification that was reinforced by Jim Crow. Perhaps the best example of the disproportionate impact of natural disasters on Black Southerners is the Mississippi Flood of 1927. The Mississippi Flood was one of the most destructive floods in history. It flooded more than 27,000 square miles of land, left nearly 700,000 people homeless, and resulted in about 500 fatalities ( Camillo; Barry). Levees were shattered in over 145 places, and 170 counties in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois were submerged (Spencer 170). The flood inflicted roughly $1 billion in damages (a third of the US federal budget in 1927), which equates to between $130 and $160 billion today. Though the far-reaching effects of the flood impacted the United States as a whole, it disproportionately impacted southern Black Americans. Of the 700,000 people left homeless, about 550,000 were people of color (Parrish 41). African Americans comprised 75% of the population of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, and thus most Black Southerners lived in areas that were more susceptible to flooding. This disparity is something that still holds true in many places today; in major natural disasters, people of color—and Black neighborhoods specifically—suffer more damages with fewer resources.