The Great Mississippi Flood | Dirty Water | 2

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Early in the morning on April 22nd, 1927, flood waters from a break in the Mound Landing levee entered the town of Greenville, Mississippi. Within hours, the town was submerged in 10 feet of water. Thousands of residents fought to reach higher ground, desperately clinging to tree tops and floating houses.

The flood inundated 27,000 square miles in seven states. Soon, President Calvin Coolidge appointed Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover to manage relief efforts for the Red Cross. But Hoover’s decision to decentralize relief would have unintended consequences – especially in towns like Greenville, where thousands of Black sharecroppers were virtual prisoners, detained in brutally policed refugee camps.

Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/historytellers

Please support us by supporting our sponsors!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon music.
0:05.8	Download the app today.
0:10.0	Imagine it's April 23rd, 1927 in Greenville, Mississippi, or what's left of it.
0:25.2	Most of the town is underwater.
0:27.1	Unundated by the worst flood you've ever seen, rushing waters have lifted entire houses
0:31.9	off their foundations.
0:33.8	And today you're out in your rowboat, desperately looking for survivors to ferry to dry land.
0:39.4	Up ahead, you spot a small wooden house floating on the current.
0:43.7	Hello!
0:44.7	Is anyone there?
0:46.8	You row closer, navigating past tree branches and a dead mule floating in the current.
0:52.3	As you near the house, you spot a young woman, training her neck out of a narrow window.
0:57.1	I'm here!
0:58.5	What's your name, Miss?
0:59.9	Virginia, my whole family, they're gone.
1:04.8	I watched them drown.
1:07.3	It was only a few hours ago.
1:09.9	As you approach, you can see the terror in her eyes.
1:13.0	You nod and give her a sympathetic smile.
1:15.6	You're going to be just fine, Virginia.
1:18.0	I'm here to help.
1:19.4	I'm just going to get my boat into position.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.