Courtesy of Center for Louisiana Studies at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette The Evangeline Oak during the 1927 flood. Whole communities, such as Bayou Chne, built upon a ridge in the Atchafalaya River basin, had to be abandoned because they were in the path of the floodwaters that might be diverted. Hear poetry from NC's poet laureate. Engineers chose a westward loop in the river at Caernarvon and began blowing the levee apart on April 29. PDF Mississippi River Flood of 1927 Album - Lsu Your purchase helps support NPR programming. He, with the help of a committee of African-American leaders, got about five hundred Black men working two shifts around the clock for nine days to repair the protection levee. The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines. They promised reparations to the people they flooded out, and they stiffed them. While these levees prevented flooding for a period, they proved unable to withstand the floodwaters of 1927. The Red Cross and local relief organizations set up tent cities and makeshift housing in Marksville, Mansura, Baton Rouge, Opelousas, Crowley, New Iberia, and elsewhere. It prevented a second wave of rising water in June and with the aid of large pumps the town was drained. 25.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. WERTHEIMER: Now the city fathers of New Orleans made a decision to take down a section of the levee 13 miles south of the city. 1.04% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Those who had no place to go were brought to a warehouse in New Orleans. In 2007, the song was covered by Ray Stevens on his tribute album to New Orleans and Louisiana culture, New Orleans Moon. He joins us now from his office in Washington. Evangeline Parish is also served by the Diocese of Lafayette with one school: Additionally, Evangeline Parish is served by one unaffiliated private school: Evangeline Parish is served by one institutions of higher education: The 1086th Transportation Company of the 165th CSS (Combat Service Support) Battalion resides in Ville Platte, Louisiana. : PI/ 1992.0002.039, The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station in Helm, Mississippi, on April 29, 1927. WERTHEIMER: Now when the flood hit Greenville, Mississippi, you write in the book that people, blacks and whites together, took refuge on the highest ground they could find, which was the levee. The east and south were protected, or so most people believed, by a railroad embankment. I mean, not necessarily down South but this was a huge flood across many states. Submit an issue. Flowers and plants beaten to the earth, little half-drowned chickens in baskets in the kitchen, house leaking in many places. Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927 Lyrics | Lyrics.com Quiz yourself on Black history. The Red Cross, he said, had chartered a steam boat from Standard Oil Company, where he worked, to evacuate people along with convicts from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Adding to their anger, a natural breach of the levees subsequently eased pressure on the New Orleans levee; the blasting had been unnecessary. All were closed by the end of August that year, Mouton wrote. Aunt Ruby lost her fruit and nut trees, purple plums, peaches and apples along with an English walnut tree which was an oddity of this particular section of the country. Nearly a million people were. In addition, a stingy fiscal policy that offered little aid to the flood victims, implemented under Republican President Calvin Coolidge, drove many African Americans from the party of Lincoln into the Democratic party, where they continue to be a considerable part of the constituency today. Also touched upon is the callous response of the federal government, depicted here via a fictional visit from President Calvin Coolidge and "a little fat man," where Coolidge's reaction to the devastation is a detached statement that, "isn't it a shame what the river has done to this poor cracker's land. It filled the air with stench, and in the sun it laid baking and cracking like broken pottery, dung-colored and unvarying to the horizon.'. A boat eventually took them to a Red Cross camp where they were assigned to a tent with army cots and blankets that was their home for at least two weeks. WERTHEIMER: And some of them were evacuated, but not everybody. The Lucy Somerville Howorth Collection, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, Mississippi. Now, I dont have to take that Latin Exam. And I threw my book into the air hitting the porch ceiling . Another flood control structure and spillway was built in the 1950s at Morganza to divert water from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River Basin, relieving pressure on levees from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. President Bush announced this morning that an additional 7,000 federal troops will be sent to Louisiana to help with relief efforts. "Striking swiftly in the early hours of the morning, the gorged Atchafalaya tore aside levee barriers and turned its full force on (Melville) today, driving residents from their homes into the streets, attired in their night clothing," The Daily Advertiser reported May 17, 1927. It tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which left 700,000 people homeless in Louisiana and Mississippi. On the fields, in the forests, in streets and yards and homes and businesses and barns, the water left a reeking muck. Year: 2003 2:57 69 Views Become A Better Singer In Only 30 Days, With Easy Video Lessons! Nobody seemed to step back, at least then, and really looked at the whole thing. The levees there were under pressure from both sides, and concerned citizens began to buy boats and stockpile food. For weeks the river rose, it passed the highest stage ever known before, 52.3/10 feet reached in 1922 , and went up steadily, a foot a day, which, as well as the height, was unprecedented. To read a full account of the flood by Lucy Somerville, click here. Andrews, pastor. User login. You know, history was largely written back in the '20s, I think, by people who looked askance at the South because of the blatant racism, and they really didn't care that much about what happened in the area that was most severely hit, which was Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. 337. Louisiana 1927 Lyrics What has happened down here is the wind have changed Clouds roll in from the north and it start to rain It rained real hard and it rained for a real long time Six feet of. Her grandfather, the Rev. The parish was named Evangeline in honor of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem, Evangeline. A special celebratory parade was held July 4, 1927. WERTHEIMER: John Barry is the author of "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America." The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. The laborers were not paid and resented being threatened that if they did not participate in the levee repair, or other work such as unloading the food sent on barges by the Red Cross, that they would not be allowed to have the food that the Red Cross was handing out. A Decade After Katrina, Randy Newman's 'Louisiana 1927' Comes To Mind - NPR Percy, William Alexander. Rosalie Yarborough recalled how they kept a boat tied up at the front steps of the house, "and every afternoon, my mother would get in the boat with her milking pail and paddle out to the edge of a hill where our cow was staked. French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: a primer on francophone Louisiana / Carl A. Brasseaux. "The Methodist Church did not operate a troop again until the organization of the present Troop 12 in July 1934, under the leadership of the Rev. The regions burgeoning tributaries caused the Mississippi River to overflow in eleven states from Illinois to Louisiana. The Mississippi was at flood stage for months. "About daylight, 5:30 or so, we heard them shooting," he recalled in the 2002 report. Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from 64 Parishes. Parishes set up rehabilitation committees to find food and shelter for the displaced families. Many black tenant farmers, driven from their land by the flood, moved north to cities like Chicago and Detroit, Bradshaw wrote. Then, on Good Friday, April 15, 1927, more than 14 inches of rain fell on New Orleans in a single day, disabling the pumps that normally drained the city. The median age was 34 years. The floodwaters, however, would still cover the greater portion of the Delta for many more months. Ville Platte, Louisiana, the seat of Evangeline Parish, was itself so named by one of Napoleon Bonaparte's former soldiers, Adjutant Major Marcellin Garand (1781-1852), of Savoy, France. A total of 41,673 homes were flooded; 21,836 buildings were destroyed; 62,089 buildings were damaged; and 2,836 work animals, 6,873 cattle, 31,740 hogs, and 266,786 poultry were drowned. ", In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, NPR interviewed Newman about the song. What the river has done to this poor . In some places, great mounds of sand covered fields and streets. Kid that I was, I yelled when I heard the fire whistle, Hotdog! Sung from the perspective of a nameless resident of the area recounting the flooding of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes during the flood, "Louisiana 1927" features lyrics that depict the devastation of the residents of those parishes in the aftermath of the flood. : PI/1992.0002.007, The Flood of 1927 and Its Impact in Greenville, Mississippi, The Flood of 1927 And Its Impact In Greenville, Mississippi Lesson Plan. John Barry, author of Rising Tide:. Mr. BARRY: That's correct. The early generations were born in colonial French colonies, which included the enormous Louisiana territory ('Upper and Lower' Louisiana) known as "la Nouvelle France", and later were born under Spanish rule. The population density was 53 people per square mile (21/km2). 46, Flood refugees in Yazoo City, Mississippi, on May 13, 1927. As the water rose on the levee, it was the levee guards duty to fill sandbags and place them on top of the levee in order to stay ahead of the water height. LOUISIANA 1927 - Lyrics - International Lyrics Playground For two days before the dynamiting began the National Guard and major retailers from New Orleans sent convoys of trucks to evacuate the 10,000 residents whose homes and livelihoods would be washed away when the levee was breached. WERTHEIMER: That's Aaron Neville singing Randy Newman's song, "Louisiana 1927.". Could you tell us about that? Permission to publish and acquire images or requests for more information about materials that you find in the LDL should be directed to the institution that contributed the item to the LDL. Here's the latest on Hurricane Katrina. A black and white reproduction of a photograph of a boat with a barber chair in Melville, Louisiana, during the great flood of 1927. And the American people did not accept this. In Mississippi it directly affected an estimated population of 185,495. "A third current struck from the south. During that fall, record rainfalls continued throughout the Mississippi River valley. He's also a resident of New Orleans and Washington, DC. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Many of the towns citizens were experienced from previous floods and had prepared their homes and businesses by pulling up carpets and placing furniture and goods on raised platforms above the water that would enter their homes. After Hurricane Katrina, one Randy Newman song was played often. You know, the Greenville public schools actually--while other Mississippi counties seriously debated whether they wanted to teach African-Americans to read--in Greenville African-Americans were being taught Latin. "We stretched those bags from Grayling Lane down South Grand to Oxen Dam," he recalled. After investigations, the committee presented a harsh report to Hoover, but he failed to take any action. Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History, accession no. WERTHEIMER: When you think about the scope and scale of the 1927 flood, I wonder why it is that it hasn't passed into the sort of legend that most schoolchildren remember, like--as they do the Chicago fire or the San Francisco earthquake. Discuss North Carolina politics. That their way of life is disappearing. The people as a whole were confident the town would not get any water even should the levee break. It filled the air with stench, and in the sun it laid baking and cracking like broken pottery, dung-colored and unvarying to the horizon.'. Evangeline Parish is mentioned in the Randy Newman song "Louisiana 1927", in which he described the Great Mississippi Flood which covered it with six feet of water.