Backwater Blues : The Mississippi Flood of 1927 in the African American Imagination

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mizelle Jr., Richard M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Migrations--History--20th century.

African Americans--Social conditions--20th century.

Disaster victims--Southern States--Social conditions--20th century.

Floods--Mississippi River--History--20th century.

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

African Americans--Southern States--Social conditions--20th century.

African Americans.

African Americans--Migration--History--20th century.

Floods--History--20th century.

Floods.

Disaster victims--Social conditions--20th Century.

Disaster victims.

Local Subjects:

African Americans--Migrations--History--20th century.

African Americans--Social conditions--20th century.

Disaster victims--Southern States--Social conditions--20th century.

Floods--Mississippi River--History--20th century.

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Mississippi River flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, reshaping the social and cultural landscape as well as the physical environment. Often remembered as an event that altered flood control policy and elevated the stature of powerful politicians, Richard M. Mizelle Jr. examines the place of the flood within African American cultural memory and the profound ways it influenced migration patterns in the United States.In Backwater Blues, Mizelle analyzes the disaster through the lenses of race and charity, blues music, and mobility and labor. The book's title c

Contents:

Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: John Lee Hooker's Blues; 1 Down the Line: Blues Brilliance, Displacement, and Living under the Shadow of Levees; 2 Burning Waters Rise: Richard Wright's Blues Voice and the Double Environmental Burden of Race; 3 Racialized Charity and the Militarization of Flood Relief in Postwar America; 4 Where Sixteen Railroads Meet the Sea: Migration and the Making of Houston's Frenchtown; 5 Every Day Seems Like Murder Here: The Mississippi Flood Control Project in New Deal-Era America; Conclusion: When the Levee Breaks; Notes; Selected Discography; Index; A

BC; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y; Z

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

9781452943961

1452943966