“We regard as settled”: AP story appearing in JC-L, May 19, 1927; see also two wires from Mississippi Senator Pat Harrison to Hoover, May 18, 1927, HHPL.
“send us collect”: NYT to John Klorer, May 20, 1927, NOCA.
“Since Senator Percy has”: Crosby to Hoover, May 20, 1927, HHPL.
“[I] seem to have”: Hoover to Coolidge, July 5, 1927, HHPL.
“We rescued Main Street”: NOS, September 7, 1927.
he wrote identical: See, for example, Hoover to Benjamin Marsh, June 15, 1927; letters to newspapers went out over a period of time; a large number were sent out on July 12, 1927, copies in HHPL.
“I have thought”: Hoover to the editor of the Journal-Press, Blaine, Washington, July 12, 1927, HHPL.
“Bert’s just resting”: Quoted in Richard Norton Smith, An Uncommon Man, p. 17.
“We challenge the statement”: MC-A, June 22, 1927.
“There is, in fact”: W. H. Negus to R. E. Kennington, May 24, 1927, HHPL.
he convinced the St. Louis: Hoover to Crosby, May 31, 1927, HHPL.
he also had the Red Cross: Hoover to R. E. Kennington, May 24, 1927, HHPL.
they convinced Percy’s: Stone to Hoover, September 23, 1927, HHPL.
He said the Mississippi: MC-A, June 23, 1927.
months after his assertion: Memo from John Cremer to H. Stuart Crawford, secretary to Coolidge, September 17, 1927, RCP.
“It has been a source”: Crosby to Hoover, July 2, 1927, HHPL.
“I have the feeling”: Hoover to Butler, July 5, 1927, HHPL.
the Mississippi corporation: Ibid. See also “Report of Mississippi Rehabilitation Corporation,” 1929, RCP.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“to pull out”: Carol Fennelly, “History of the National Red Cross,” unpublished ms., p. 6, American Red Cross Archives, Wash., D.C.
Red Cross headquarters: Ibid., p. 33.
“unwise to become”: DeWitt Smith to Fieser, June 17, 1927; Fieser to DeWitt Smith, June 20, 1927, RCP.
“he had given his”: Robert Russa Moton, Finding a Way Out, p. 12.
“with all the deference”: Ibid., p. 128.
“Negroes have always met”: Robert Russa Moton, What the Negro Thinks, pp. 1, 9, 67.
“the wholesome advice”: Quoted in Moton, Finding a Way Out, p. 265.
“Whatever might be said”: William Hughes and Frederick Patterson, eds., Robert Russa Moton, p. 182.
“be pleased to see”: George Akerson to Moton, September 21, 1926, RRMP.
“to save an embarrassing”: C. C. Spaulding to Moton, November 26, 1928, RRMP.
Moton promised its leader: Moton to Booze, February 20, 1930, RRMP.
“the proper approach”: Booze to Moton, July 2, 1929, RRMP.
“Our train took six”: Undated draft report of first Colored Advisory Commission, RRMP.
One investigator separately sent: Sidney Redmond to John Sargent, July 5, 1927, Justice Department records, peonage file, NA RG 60.
“You may feel free”: Moton to Hoover, June 14, 1927, RCP.
“the truth must”: Barnett to Hoover, June 14, 1927, HHPL.
“constructive”: Barnett to Albion Holsey, June 17, 1927, RRMP.
“The [Chicago] Defender demands”: Barnett to Moton, June 18, 1927; Barnett to Albion Holsey, June 17, 1927; both in RRMP.
“something substantial”: Ibid.
“I am of the opinion”: Clark to Moton, June 14, 1927, RRMP.
“It is my frank”: Moton to Lester Walton, July 13, 1927, RRMP.
“We were face to face”: Draft report by Moton, June 13, 1927, RRMP.
Moton had prepared only three: Jesse Thomas to Holsey, July 9, 1927; Holsey to Thomas, July 23, 1927; both in RRMP.
he also asked about rehabilitation: For background on this meeting, see “Memorandum of Conference Between Officials of the Red Cross and Members of Colored Commission,” July 8, 1927, RCP. See also Hoover to Crosby, July 8 and 12, 1927, HHPL; Moton to Clark, July 2, 1927, and Holsey to Thomas, July 23, 1927, both in RRMP.
“Underground Forces”: Consolidated Press story, July 23, 1927, as it appears in MC-A.
“background of bankrupt economics”: Memorandum, typed, with changes in Hoover’s handwriting, July 9, 1927, HHPL.
Hoover estimated: Ibid.; also note in the memorandum that Hoover used a figure of $1-$2 million, with each million dollars enough for 1,500 families. In a letter to Crosby on July 12 (copy in HHPL) he called for initial capital of $4.5 million.
“If it were possible”: Memorandum, July 9, 1927, HHPL.
Now many of the same men: Consolidated Press story, July 23, 1927, as it appears in MC-A; see also NYT, August 4, 5, and 16, 1927.
“I am not at liberty”: Fieser to Hoover, August 27, 1927, HHPL.
“newspaper publicity”: Ibid.
Moton never learned: There is no reference to Fieser’s position in any Moton correspondence either with Hoover, with any member of the Colored Advisory Commission, or with his assistants.
“A great many people”: Arthur Kellogg to Hoover, July 13, 1927, HHPL.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Only 20 to 25 percent: LP to L. A. Downs, September 10, 1927; WAP to LP, February 9, 1928, both in PFP.
tons of yeast: July 16, 1927, report, U.S. Public Health Service, NA, RG 90, Mississippi Flood, box 3, p. 9; Wesselius to Baker and Smith, July 23, 1927; Drs. Hugh Cumming and William DeKleine to local health officials, August 12, 1927; DeKleine to DeWitt Smith, September 23, 1927; all letters in RCP, boxes 735 and 740.
“[A]ny attempt to remove”: July 16, 1927, report, U.S. Public Health Service, NA, RG 90, Mississippi Flood, box 3, p. 34.
the black camp closed: Camps for blacks in Vicksburg closed July 1; the white camp stayed open until August 22. See Crisis, February 1928, p. 42.
county Red Cross chairmen: Moton to Robert Bondy, June 18, 1927, RCP; draft report of Colored Advisory Commission, December 1927, RRMP; for a specific example, see flood sufferer to Hoover, July 25, 1927, HHPL.
official Red Cross policy: See June 26, 1927, memo signed by Hoover and Fieser, which states, “Cabins to only be erected upon properties of resident ownership,” RCP.
“We have grave suspicions”: Crisis, November 1927.
“Next month we shall”: Ibid.
“The Crisis had a white”: Barnett to Moton, November 19, 1927, RRMP.
“Suggest that Red Cross”: Moton to Hoover, November 16, 1927, RCP, box 734.
“the colored complex”: See Moton to Hoover, October 1, 1927, RRMP; Hoover, DeWitt Smith to Robert Thrush, October 13, 1927, RCP; Hoover to Smith, November 3, 1927, RCP; November 7, 1927, memo by Smith, RCP, box 734.
“frequently nullified”: Untitled summary addressed to Hoover, signed by Moton, December 12, 1927, RRMP; another copy in RCP.
“I think we beat”: Barnett to Thomas, January 6, 1928, CBP.
“vigorously investigated”: Hoover to Moton, December 17, 1927, HHPL.
“I felt Secretary Hoover”: Barnett to Moton, January 6, 1928 (incorrectly dated), CBP.
“The presence of”: Moton to Hoover, January 4, 1928, RRMP.
“laid Dr. Moton out”: Fieser to DeWitt Smith, December 19, 1927, RCP.
“another element”: Hoover to Fieser, December 22, 1927, RCP.
“I have received”: Moton to Hoover, January 9 and 12, 1928; Hoover to Moton, January 13, 1928; both in HHPL.
“I feel very strongly”: Barnett to Fieser, March 20, 1928, CBP.
“Neither Dr. Moton nor I”: Clark to Fieser, January 11, 1928, RCP.
“outline the plan”: William Schieffelin to Hoover, January 9, 1928, HHPL.
“I feel it would”: Hoover to Schieffelin, January 12, 1928, HHPL.
“a great experiment”: Hoover to Rosenwald, February 13, 1928, HHPL.
“Mr. Rosenwald’s reaction”: Edwin Embree to Hoover, March 1, 1928, HHPL.
“A word from you”: Moton to Hoover, January 18, 1928, RRMP.
&nb
sp; “could finance the scheme”: Moton to Hoover, February 27, 1928, RRMP.
Hoover sent him a copy: Hoover to Moton, March 11, 1928, HHPL.
“You are the kind”: Moton to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., June 16, 1928, RRMP.
“plan to deadlock”: NYT, March 31, 1928.
“popularity grows by contact”: LP to Pat Harrison, August 30, 1928, PFP.
“I don’t believe”: LP to Will Stimmel, September 15, 1927, PFP.
“No man in public life”: LP to “Willie,” probably his nephew William Armstrong Percy, June 30, 1928, PFP.
people acting for Hoover: See, for example, correspondence between Fletcher Chenault, Arkansas Gazette reporter, and Akerson, from October 6, 1927, to May 6, 1928, in HHPL, which detail Chenault’s spying for the Hoover campaign and manipulating his stories to help Hoover. After the election Chenault asked Akerson for a job. Regarding illegal payoffs, especially in the South, see Donald Lisio, Hoover, Blacks and Lily-Whites, passim.
“Would it be possible”: Akerson to Harvey Couch, March 22, 1928; see also Neale to Couch, February 22, 1928, both in Akerson Papers, HHPL.
a campaign aide: Barnett to Akerson, January 17, 1928, CBP.
“Both Secretary Hoover”: Akerson to Barnett, May 15, 1928, HHPL.
“just what you”: J. M. Lee to Moton, February 11, 1928, RRMP.
“regarding Mr. Hoover”: Bernie mentions to Moton, August 29, 1928, RRMP.
Akerson instructed Moton: Holsey to Akerson, June 6, 1928, HHPL.
“Mr. J. C. Mitchell”: Akerson to Moton, May 1, 1928, HHPL.
“and find out exactly”: Akerson to Moton, March 27, 1928, HHPL.
“a statement to”: Akerson to Moton, September 24, 1928, HHPL.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“[i]t remained for”: Clipping quoted in undated report of Mississippi River Flood Control Association, PFP.
Present were Hoover, Percy, Martineau, Butler: All information about this meeting and quotes from it below come from a stenographic transcript of the meeting in CP.
“No relief to flood”: This statement is dated September 30, 1927, HHPL.
40 percent had gone unspent: Arthur Frank, The Development of the Federal Program of Flood Control on the Mississippi River, p. 195.
The governor of Mississippi: LP to Governor Murphree, December 21, 1927, PFP.
Repeatedly, they saw: October 25, 1927, executive committee minutes, CP.
“following what I interpret”: Thomson memo, October 22, 1927, included in CP.
“The first three days”: Mississippi River Flood Control Association confidential bulletin of October 24, 1927, included in CP.
the chief engineer of every single: Governor-elect Huey Long to Edwin Broussard, February 22, 1928, Edwin Broussard Papers, Dupre Library, Special Collections, University of Southwestern Louisiana; Frank, p. 229.
In his own House testimony: HFCCH, January 1928, p. 3723.
“Coming from the Imperial”: Ibid., p. 25.
“the greatest expenditure”: NYT, February 22 and March 29, 1928.
“President Coolidge has”: NYT, February 22, 1928.
“The White House has”: Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1928.
Levee boards owed: Frank, p. 237.
“The disastrous flood”: Resolution of American Bankers Association, April 18, 1928, copy in CP.
the real cost would run: NYT, February 22 and March 29, 1928.
“The bill changes the policy”: NOS, May 15, 1928.
“the viciousness of Army engineers”: L. T. Berthe to John Klorer, February 22, 1929, NOCA.
“I did not expect this”: Minutes of the board of Canal Bank, May 16, 1928, CP.
an evening banquet in his honor: see NOT-P, NOI, and NOT, May 20 through May 24, 1927.
25,216 votes to none: See Glen Jeansonne, Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta, pp. 71-72; T. Harry Williams, Huey Long, pp. 539-540, 589-590.
Once the Board of Liquidation: Interview with Otis Alexander, secretary of the Board of Liquidation, January 25, 1996.
“I’d never have come”: Interview with Betty Carter, November 25, 1993.
“merged”: NOT-P, June 24, 1928.
the flood killed him: interview with Pearl Amos, February 12, 1993.
its board reelected Butler: NOT-P, January 22 and February 20, 1931.
“I know absolutely nothing”: NOI, May 11, 1939.
A Mississippi grand jury declined: NOT-P, NOI, and NOT, May 11 and 12, 1939.
Russell Long, Huey’s son: Interview with Russell Long, April 4, 1996.
“[The] social system excludes”: Task Force on the Economy, “The Economy,” Framework for the Future, vol. 2 (New Orleans: Goals to Grow, 1971), p. 207, quoted in Raabe, “Status and Its Impact,” Ph.D. diss., p. 189.
“The long-established New Orleans”: Raabe, p. 162.
not a single bank president: Interview with Francis Doyle, former president of First National Bank of Commerce, December 23, 1992.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“as a form of contribution”: Moton to Hoover, August, 7, 1928, HHPL.
“Hoover said that”: Quoted in Lisio, p. 98.
“that the right type”: Moton to Hoover, June 22, 1928, RRMP.
a deal known to Hoover: For details on Howard, see Lisio, esp. pp. 50-71.
“uncertainty in many sections”: Barnett and Holsey, “Report of Survey of Sentiment Among Negro Voters,” July 18, 1928, CBP.
“You, more than any”: Barnett to George Brennan, July 20, 1928, CBP.
“I am out-and-out”: Prattis to Barnett, July 18, 1928, CBP.
Hoover lost an estimated 15 percent: Harold Gosnell, Negro Politicians, pp. 28-30.
“Democrats made deeper inroads”: Henry Moon, Balance of Power: The Negro Vote, p. 49.
“a competent woman”: See memo of July 3, 1929, filed under Moton and “Farm Matters,” HHPL; memo of January 15, 1930, Moton and Colored Question file, HHPL; see also January 1, 1930, to April 30, 1930, Moton file, HHPL.
“your personal concern”: Moton to Hoover, March 9, 1931, RRMP.
“repugnant to all”: Quoted in Lisio, p. 248.
if Roosevelt “has done anything”: Quoted in Lisio, p. 269.
the Red Cross was still feeding: GD-T, March 1, 1928.
Every Saturday night: Interview with Sylvia Jackson.
“A great deal of labor”: Alex Scott to Johnston, July 4, 1927, D&PLCP.
“The most serious thing”: LP to L. A. Downs, September 10, 1927, PFP. Percy routinely provided such information to senior executives of banks, brokerage houses, and the like; his assessments represented cold business judgments, not rhetoric.
“Labor was completely”: Report to shareholders, April 1, 1928, D&PLCP.
“the Great Migration”: E. Marvin Goodwin, Black Migration in America from 1915-1960, p. 10; see also C. Horace Hamilton, “The Negro Leaves the South,” pp. 273-295; Carter Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration.
In the 1930s the exodus: Simon Kuznets et al., Population Redistribution and Economic Growth, United States, 1870-1950: Demographic Analysis and Interrelations (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 88-99; vol. 3, p. 106.
“I never expected”: Quoted in Wyatt-Brown, p. 256.
“I am happy”: Hoover to LP, November 12, 1929, PFP.
“even if only on”: John Sharp Williams to LP, December 21, 1929, PFP.
“No matter what”: Interview with Moses Mason, March 1, 1993.
“One of the pleasantest”: Percy, LL, pp. 344-345.
at a cost of $25,000: Wyatt-Brown, p. 258.
his personal checkbook balance: See checkbook ledger in PFP.
“Hypocrisy is the pet”: LP to Pat Harrison, August 24, 1928, PFP.
“he had to leave often”: Percy, LL, p. ix.
“the most ideologically”: Oral history of Walker Percy, MDAH.
“To furnish [Japan]”: WAP to Oscar Bledsoe, June 7, 1940; WAP to Billy Wynn, June 22, 1940, D&PLC
P.
Will offered to help: Cohn, Where I Was Born and Raised, pp. 270-293 passim.
“Their virtues”: Oral history of Shelby Foote, MDAH.
“If the negroes”: WAP to Johnston, February 22, 1937, D&PLCP.
he fired her: Wyatt-Brown, pp. 265-267; see also Percy, LL, pp. 285-297 passim.
“I got to take”: Interview with David Cober, February 23, 1993; Cober, a black man, drove for Billy Wynn. Mrs. Millie Commodore, the daughter of John McMiller, spoke of constant rumors of Will having affairs with black drivers. Four other people in separate interviews reported rumors of an affair Will had with Ford Atkins, but they insisted upon anonymity.
“My country is”: Percy, LL, p. 3.
“The old Southern way”: Ibid., pp. 312, 343.
“I wish a few others”: Ibid., p. 346.
“I know that”: Ibid., p. 347.
APPENDIX
Hoover refused to nominate: Arthur Morgan, Dams and Other Disasters, p. 211.
The cutoffs worked: William Elam, Speeding Floods to the Sea, p. 83; interview with Newman Bolls, for more than twenty years engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board, February 22, 1993.
measured the flow there: HFCCH, p. 2869; Association of Railway Engineers, The Flood of 1927, pamphlet, NOCA.
304 miles of those levees: Interview with Stan McAlpin, Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg office, July 25, 1996.
“the inevitable consequence”: HFCCH, p. 2881.
Selected Bibliography
MAJOR COLLECTIONS OF PRIMARY SOURCES
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Claude Barnett Collection
WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL AND LIBRARY, WESTMINSTER
COLLEGE, FULTON, MISSOURI
Eads Letters
DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, CLEVELAND, MISSISSIPPI
Walter Sillers Jr. Papers
DUPRE LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS,
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA, LAFAYETTE
Edwin Broussard Papers
John Parker Papers
JOHN HAY LIBRARY, BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
Elmer Corthell Papers
Rising Tide Page 58